user12: According to Cardano Improvement proposal 15 CIP15, Catalyst voting happens on a side chain and one needs to "register" to participate on this side chain by submitting a registration transaction on the mainnet chain. The registration metadata contains following

"voting key" to be included in the side chain.
Associates mainnet ADA to this voting key
Declare an address to receive Catalyst rewards

Out of these three parameters, the staking mechanism provides two parameters for every wallet staked. The amount of staked ADA and reward receiving address.
If the voting key is also made part while wallet is staked, then there is no requirement for a separate "Registration for Voting" process.
What is wrong with this approach, why is a separate registration process being followed?

user88: Your approach is mostly correct.
We need at least one transaction including your Catalyst key in the metadata and associating it with your staking account. There is no other way to do this since your Catalyst key is derived from your wallet private key and requires a signing step. After that happens, it is possible to not require any additional registration transactions in future Catalyst rounds, since your wallet balance can always be inferred from your staking account. But while this is technically possible, it's something that the community should agree upon first, so that all involved entities adapt to this new registration process.

12: <p>According to Cardano Improvement proposal 15 <a href="https://cips.cardano.org/cips/cip15/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">CIP15</a>, Catalyst voting happens on a side chain and one needs to &quot;register&quot; to participate on this side chain by submitting a registration transaction on the mainnet chain. The registration metadata contains following</p>
<ul>
<li>&quot;voting key&quot; to be included in the side chain.</li>
<li>Associates mainnet ADA to this voting key</li>
<li>Declare an address to receive Catalyst rewards</li>
</ul>
<p>Out of these three parameters, the staking mechanism provides two parameters for every wallet staked. The amount of staked ADA and reward receiving address.</p>
<p>If the voting key is also made part while wallet is staked, then there is no requirement for a separate &quot;Registration for Voting&quot; process.</p>
<p>What is wrong with this approach, why is a separate registration process being followed?</p>
 88: <p>Your approach is mostly correct.</p>
<p>We need at least one transaction including your Catalyst key in the metadata and associating it with your staking account. There is no other way to do this since your Catalyst key is derived from your wallet private key and requires a signing step. After that happens, it is possible to not require any additional registration transactions in future Catalyst rounds, since your wallet balance can always be inferred from your staking account. But while this is technically possible, it's something that the community should agree upon first, so that all involved entities adapt to this new registration process.</p>
