Skip to main content
A Policy is defined by:
  • an Activity kind: the type of activity that this policy should gate.
  • a Rule: defines the rule being evaluated to know whether the policy should “activate” (aka “trigger”) or not for a given activity happening in the system.
  • an Action: after rule was evaluated, if the policy is triggered, the action defines what action is taken as a consequence.
  • optional Filters: these can be used to reduce the scope upon which the policy applies.
Once evaluated for a given activity, a policy is either Skipped if the rule did not apply or is triggered executing the associated action. If the action is RequestApproval, an Approval process is initiated.
Policies do not cover delegated wallets owned by the end users. Because delegated signing is non custodial in nature. All end user activities bypass policy engine governance.

​
Activities

“Activity” is a generic term describing some activity in the Dfns system. Supported activity kinds are: Wallets:Sign, Permissions:Assign, Permissions:Modify , Policies:Modify.

​
Wallets:Sign activity

A “Wallets:Sign” activity represents any activity which involves signing with a wallet. Currently, in our API, these can be:

​
Wallets:IncomingTransaction activity

A “Wallets:IncomingTransaction” activity represents when our indexers detected an incoming transaction into a wallet. This activity kind has to be used with the rule kind “ChainalysisTransactionScreening” (see more on Chainalysis integration page), and the action kind “NoAction”, meaning that no actual action will be taken as a result of the Chainalysis screening, other than notifying you through a webhook event if the policy is triggered. The reason for that, is that the incoming transaction is already on-chain, so the funds are already in the wallet, we cannot block that transfer on chain.

​
Permissions:Modify activity

A “Permissions:Modify” activity represents any activity which involves updating or archiving a permission. These activities are Permission change requests, created as a result of calling either:

​
Permissions:Assign activity

A “Permissions:Assign” activity represents any activity which involves assigning a permission (or revoking it, aka “deleting a permission assignment”). These activities are Assignment change requests, created as a result of calling either:

​
Policies:Modify activity

A “Policies:Modify” activity represents any activity which involves updating or archiving a policy. These activities are Policy change requests, created as a result of calling either: Every policy requires a rule to be specified. Upon policy evaluation, the configuration specified in the rule will be used to determine whether the policy should trigger or not for a given activity. By exposing controls on permissions and policies, Dfns enables the specification of an admin quorum to approve sensitive actions which could change system governance. Note Dfns does not expose a separate “admin quorum” concept like some of our competitors - we simply enable this use case as another configuration of the policy engine itself. This was chosen to promote flexibility as not every customer will have the same requirements around creating and managing admin quorums.

​
Policy Rules

The policy rule is what gets evaluated to determine whether a given activity will “activate” (aka “trigger”) the policy, therefore applying the policy “Action”, or whether it will skip it. Supported Policy Rule kinds are:AlwaysTrigger, TransactionAmountLimit, TransactionAmountVelocity, TransactionCountVelocity, TransactionRecipientWhitelist .

​
AlwaysTrigger policy rule

This rule can be used on a policy of any activityKind. It will always be triggered, meaning that if this rule is defined on a policy, the policy will always trigger the policy action, regardless of the activity details. 
{
  "rule": {
    "kind": "AlwaysTrigger",
  }
}

​
TransactionAmountLimit policy rule

This rule can be used on a policy of activityKind = Wallets:Sign. It will trigger if the wallet activity detected is transferring some value which amount is greater than a given limit.
If the fiat amount of the wallet activity cannot be evaluated for any reason (eg. market prices are not available, or eg. the amount cannot be inferred from a wallet signature request, etc.), by default the rule will trigger the policy (this is called “failing closed” and is generally considered a security best practice).
{
  "rule": {
    "kind": "TransactionAmountLimit",
    "configuration": {
      "limit": 1000,
      "currency": "USD",
    },
  }
}
Configuration
PropertyTypeDescription
limit*Positive IntegerAmount limit in currency
currency*StringFiat currency, currently only USD

​
TransactionAmountVelocity policy rule

This rule can be used on a policy of activityKind = Wallets:Sign. It will trigger if the cumulative amount transferred from a given wallet within a given timeframe is greater than a specified limit. The aggregate amount evaluated is based only on the wallet that triggered the policy.
If the fiat amount of any wallet activity in the given timeframe cannot be evaluated for any reason (eg. market prices are not available, or eg. the amount cannot be inferred from a wallet signature request, etc.), by default the rule will trigger the policy (ie. will fail closed).
{
  "rule": {
    "kind": "TransactionAmountVelocity",
    "configuration": {
      "limit": 1000,
      "currency": "USD",
      "timeframe": 60,
    },
  },
}
Configuration
PropertyTypeDescription
limit*Positive IntegerAmount limit in currency
currency*StringFiat currency, currently only USD
timeframe*Positive IntegerTime period in minutes. Minimum 1, Maximum 43,200.

​
TransactionCountVelocity policy rule

This rule can be used on a policy of activityKind = Wallets:Sign. It will trigger if the number of wallet activities for a given wallet within a given timeframe, is greater than a specified limit. The aggregate number of transactions evaluated is based only on the wallet that triggered the policy. 
{
  "rule": {
    "kind": "TransactionCountVelocity",
    "configuration": {
      "limit": 5,
      "timeframe": 60,
    },
  },
}
Configuration
PropertyTypeDescription
limit*Positive IntegerAmount limit in currency
timeframe*Positive IntegerTime period in minutes. Minimum 1, Maximum 43,200.

​
TransactionRecipientWhitelist policy rule

This rule can be used on a policy of activityKind = Wallets:Sign. It will trigger if the wallet activity transfers some value to a recipient and the destination address is NOT whitelisted.
Address comparison is case sensitive when evaluating the rule. For EVM addresses, make sure you use the canonical all lowercase address format, not the mixed-case checksum address format, in your policy rule configuration. Otherwise, the evaluation will fail and trigger the policy.
If the wallet activity is not a value transfer, or the transaction recipient cannot be inferred from the wallet activity (eg if you use Generate Signature), by default the rule will trigger the policy (ie. fail closed).
If the specified whitelisted address list is empty, it basically means “no addresses are whitelisted”, so the rule will trigger for any wallet activities. 
{
  "rule": {
    "kind": "TransactionRecipientWhitelist",
    "configuration": {
      "addresses": ["0x...1", "0x...2"],
    },
  }
}
Configuration
PropertyTypeDescription
addresses*List of StringsWhitelisted recipient addresses

​
ChainalysisTransactionPrescreening policy rule

This rule can only be used once the Chainalysis integration is activated from the Dfns dashboard settings. (see more on Chainalysis integration page)
This rule can be used on a policy of activityKind = Wallets:Sign. It’s a rule based on Chainalysis KYT integration (Know-Your-Transaction). Upon transfer attempt, we will first register the transfer with Chainalysis (as a “withdrawal attempt”), and fetch the screening results (alerts, exposures, addresses detected). Based on the results, and the configuration of this rule, the policy will be triggered. It’s called “Pre”-screening, because the scanned transaction is not on chain yet, it’s still a transaction attempt (before the transaction actually make it on chain). 
{
  "rule": {
    "kind": "ChainalysisTransactionPrescreening",
    "configuration": {
      "alerts": {
        "alertLevel": "LOW",
        "categoryIds": []
      },
      "exposures": {
        "direct": {
          "categoryIds": []
        }
      },
      "addresses": {
        "categoryIds": []
      },
      "fallbackBehaviours": {
        "skipUnscreenableTransaction": false,
        "skipUnsupportedNetwork": false,
        "skipUnsupportedAsset": false,
        "skipChainalysisFailure": false
      }
    }
  }
}
Configuration
PropertyTypeDescription
alerts .alertLevel*stringMinimum alert level above which the rule should trigger, if any alert is returned in Chainalysis results. Can be LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH, or SEVERE
alerts .categoryIds*list of integersList of Chainalysis category IDs (see here). If you leave this list empty, alerts of any category will trigger the rule. Otherwise, if you only want the rule to trigger on specific categories, you can specify some in the list.
exposures .direct .categoryIds*list of integersList of Chainalysis category IDs (see here). If you leave this list empty, a direct exposure of any category detected by chainalysis will trigger the rule. Otherwise, if you only want the rule to trigger on specific categories, you can specify some in the list.
addresses .categoryIds*list of integersList of Chainalysis category IDs (see here). If you leave this list empty, an address of any category identified by chainalysis will trigger the rule. Otherwise, if you only want the rule to trigger on specific categories, you can specify some in the list.
fallbackBehaviours.skipUnscreenableTransaction*booleanBehaviour if the wallet activity is not screenable (eg. if it’s a signature request of a hash). If true, a transaction which is “unscreenable” will just be skipped, and policy will not trigger
fallbackBehaviours.skipUnsupportedNetwork*booleanBehaviour if the wallet activity is on a network not supported by chainalysis, or not yet supported in the dfns-chainalysis integration. If true, an unsupported network will just be skipped, and policy will not trigger
fallbackBehaviours.skipUnsupportedAsset*booleanBehaviour if the wallet activity is with a asset not supported by chainalysis, or not yet supported in the dfns-chainalysis integration. If true, an unsupported asset will just be skipped, and policy will not trigger
fallbackBehaviours.skipChainalysisFailure*booleanBehaviour if any issue with Chainalysis calls (timeout, results took too long, rate limiting errors, any error). If true, will skip if any error happens

​
ChainalysisTransactionScreening policy rule

This rule can only be used once the Chainalysis integration is activated from the Dfns dashboard settings (see more on Chainalysis integration page)
This rule can be used on a policy of activityKind = Wallets:IncomingTransaction, and with the action kind NoAction. It’s a rule based on Chainalysis KYT integration (Know-Your-Transaction). Upon an incoming transaction detectedby our indexers, we will register the transfer with Chainalysis, and fetch the results of the analysis (alerts & exposures detected). Based on the results, and the configuration of this rule, the policy will be triggered. The shape of the rule is almost like the ChainalysisTransactionPrescreening rule, expect the the address property is not supported. 
{
  "rule": {
    "kind": "ChainalysisTransactionPrescreening",
    "configuration": {
      "alerts": {
        "alertLevel": "LOW",
        "categoryIds": []
      },
      "exposures": {
        "direct": {
          "categoryIds": []
        }
      },
      "fallbackBehaviours": {
        "skipUnscreenableTransaction": false,
        "skipUnsupportedNetwork": false,
        "skipUnsupportedAsset": false,
        "skipChainalysisFailure": false
      }
    }
  }
}
Configuration See the above configuration for rule ChainalysisTransactionPrescreening

​
TravelRuleTransactionPrescreening policy rule

This rule can only be used once the Notabene integration is activated from the Dfns dashboard settings (see more on Notabene integration page)
This rule can be used on a policy of activityKind = Wallets:Sign,and with the action kind Block. It’s a rule based on Notabene TravelRule integration. It ONLY applies to Dfns Transfer Asset Api Calls. It is NOT supported for Transfers initiated via the dashboard. Upon transfer attempt with an optional TravelRule payload, we will call Notabene’s APIs on your behalf to both confirm the validity of the travel rule message and submit it for processing. Dfns then waits for a response from the counterparty (for custodial transfers) or Notabene (for non-custodial transfers). It’s called “Pre”-screening, because the transaction is not on chain yet, it’s still a transaction attempt (before the transaction actually make it on chain). 
{
  "kind": "TravelRuleTransactionPrescreening",
  "configuration": {
    "vendor": "Notabene",
    "autoTriggerTimeoutSeconds": 300,
    "autoClearAfterDeliveredTimeoutSeconds": 200
  }
}
Configuration
PropertyTypeDescription
vendorstringTravelRule vendor to use for the prescreening policy. At the moment we only support Notabene.
autoTrigger
TimeoutSeconds
Positive IntegerIf we do NOT receive any updates from Notabene regarding the status of the travel rule message we need to eventually time out and reject the transfer. This is the timeout, in seconds, we wait for a response from Notabene before rejecting the transfer.
autoClearAfterDelivered
TimeoutSeconds
Positive Integer(Optional)This OPTIONAL setting allows you to proceed with a transfer that Notabene has delivered to a counterparty even if the recipient hasn’t responded after delivery.

​
Policy Action

An action specifies what should happen if a policy rule is triggered. Supported action kinds are: BlockandRequestApproval.

​
Block policy action

This action means that the activity will be blocked if the policy is triggered. 
{
  "action": {
    "kind": "Block"
  }
}

​
RequestApproval policy action

This action means that activity will first require an Approval process to be completed before it can be executed (or be aborted if someone rejects it during the approval process). One or several groups of approvers need to be specified. These groups define who is allowed to approve / reject an activity. The activity will only be executed if all approver groups reach their “quorum” of approvals. Otherwise, if any one user within any approver group rejects, then the activity is aborted and the call is not executed. The example below shows a RequestApproval action, configured with one approval group requiring 2 approvals amongst three specific users. 
{
  "action": {
    "kind": "RequestApproval",
    "autoRejectTimeout": 60, // minutes
    "approvalGroups": [
      {
        "name": "Admins",
        "quorum": 2, // only 2 approvers required in that group 
        "approvers": {
          "userId": {
            "in": ["us-...1", "us-...2", "us-...3"],
          }
        },
        "initiatorCanApprove": false,
      }
    ],

  }
}
propertyTypeDescription
approvalGroups*List of ObjectList of approval groups. If multiple groups are defined, the approval is complete only when all groups have approved
approvalGroups[].name(Optional) StringOptional name of this group.
approvalGroups[].quorum*Positive IntegerThe quorum is the number of approvals required in this group to reach group consensus. The activity is executed only if all groups reached their approval quorum.
approvalGroups[].approvers*ObjectDefines all users that are allowed to approve in the group. If set to an empty object {}, it means that anyone within your organisation can be an approver. Otherwise, you can specify an exact list of allowed approvers, by adding their user IDs in this object: { userId: { in: [...] }}
approvalGroups[].initiatorCanApprove(Optional) BooleanWhether the initiator of the activity can participate in the approval (defaults to false)
autoRejectTimeout(Optional) Positive IntegerNumber of minutes after which, if the approval has not reach global consensus (all groups reached their consensus), the activity is automatically rejected.If not specified, the activity will never be rejected automatically (the approval process doesn’t “expire” / “times out”).
Don’t lock yourself upBy default, users cannot approve an activity they initiated themselves, even if they are in an approval group. To allow this, you must set initiatorCanApprove: true.Example 1: For any wallet transfer, a policy is setup to require approval from 1 specific admin user (eg. the CEO). initiatorCanApprove was not set to true. If the CEO himself initiates a transfer, no-one can approve his transfer and it’s stuck.Example 2: Company has only 3 users. A policy is setup to require approval from any 3 users (quorum: 3) for any modification of a policy. initiatorCanApprove was not set to true. In this case, they are locked, and the policy cannot be modified: whoever requests a modification cannot approve, and the policy is therefore always missing one approver. To unlock, they would need to invite a new user and give him the rights to approve as well.

​
NoAction policy action

This action kind means that nothing will happen after policy rule evaluation. It’s meant to be used with policy rules “ChainalysisTransactionPrescreening” or “ChainalysisTransactionScreening”. This action is for when you just want the KYT analysis rule to be run, and then if triggered, those result returned in a policy.triggered Webhook Event. 
{
  "action": {
    "kind": "NoAction"
  }
}

​
Policy Filters

Policy filters can reduce the scope on which the policy applies. If no filters are specifies, the policy applies to all activities happening in your organisation (all activities of the kind defined by the policy activityKind). For example, you can use filters to setup a policy for activities happening on specific wallets or on groups of wallets. Some examples include:
  • “All activities from wallets tagged ‘group:treasury’ must first be approved by the CEO
  • “All transfers from wallet ID 1 larger than $1k must first be approved by the CEO & the CFO”
  • “All transfers from wallets tagged ‘accounting:freeze’ must be blocked”
The filters that you can specify depend on the activityKind of your policy (activityKind)

​
Filters for "Wallets:Sign" activity

keyevaluatorValue
walletIdinList of wallet IDs. If the activity is from a wallet within one of these IDs, the policy applies to this wallet.
walletTagshasAnyList of tags. If the activity is from a wallet that has any of these tags, the policy will apply to this wallet.
walletTagshasAllList of tags. If the activity is from a wallet that has all of these tags, the policy will apply to this wallet.
Some examples:
  • The policy is scoped only to wallets with IDs wa-1 or wa-2:
{
  "filters": {
    "walletId": {
      "in": ["wa-1", "wa-2"]
    }
  }
}
  • The policy is scoped only to wallets tagged either “domain:accounting” or “sensitive”:
{
  "filters": {
    "walletTags": {
      "hasAny": ["domain:accounting", "sensitive"]
    }
  }
}
  • The policy is scoped only to wallets tagged with both “domain:accounting” and “sensitive”: 
{
  "filters": {
    "walletTags": {
      "hasAll": ["domain:accounting", "sensitive"]
    }
  }
}
  • The policy is scoped only to wallets containing all these tags (“domain:accounting”, “zone:asia”) AND at least one of these tags (“security:high”, “security:medium”): 
{
  "filters": {
    "walletTags": {
      "hasAll": ["domain:accounting", "zone:asia"],
      "hasAny": ["security:high", "security:medium"]
    }
  }
}
Note the relationship between inclusion operators is always AND, not OR.

​
Filters for "Policies:Modify" activity

filter keyevaluatorValue
policyIdinList of policy IDs. If the policy being modified is one of these IDs, the policy applies.
Some examples:
  • The policy is scoped only to policies with IDs plc-1 or plc-2
{
  "filters": {
    "policyId": {
      "in": ["plc-1", "plc-2"]
    }
  }
}

​
Filters for "Permissions:Modify" activity

filter keyevaluatorValue
permissionIdinList of permission IDs. If the permission being modified is one of these IDs, the policy applies.
Some examples:
  • The policy is scoped only to permissions with IDs pm-1 or pm-2
{
  "filters": {
    "permissionId": {
      "in": ["pm-1", "pm-2"]
    }
  }
}

​
Filters for "Permissions:Assign" activity

filter keyevaluatorValue
permissionIdinList of permission IDs. If the permission being assigned/revoked is one of these IDs, the policy applies.
Some examples:
  • The policy is scoped only to permissions with IDs pm-1 or pm-2
{
  "filters": {
    "permissionId": {
      "in": ["pm-1", "pm-2"]
    }
  }
}
⌘I