A multisig requires several people to approve an action before it happens: for example 3 of 5 signers must sign before funds move or a contract is upgraded. It is the simplest and most effective protection against the most common way crypto projects lose control: one key that is lost, stolen or held by someone who leaves.
What a Multisig Protects
- Treasuries: project funds, raised capital and protocol fees.
- Admin rights: the owner or admin roles of your contracts, see access control.
- Upgrades: the right to change the code of upgradeable contracts.
- Token operations: minting, releasing vested tokens and managing liquidity.
Safe or a Custom Multisig?
For most projects, the answer is Safe (formerly Gnosis Safe): a widely used, extensively audited multisig available on Ethereum and most EVM chains. Writing your own multisig contract is rarely a good idea, because a custom one has to earn the same level of trust from scratch.
Our work is usually in everything around it: designing the signer setup, connecting the multisig to your contracts and timelock, building modules or guards when you need extra rules, and tooling that lets your team propose, review and execute transactions without mistakes. Custom multisig logic does make sense in specific cases, such as approval flows inside a protocol, and then we build and test it thoroughly.
Designing the Signer Setup
- Threshold: high enough that no small group can act alone, low enough that you can still act when someone is unavailable. 2 of 3 or 3 of 5 are common starting points.
- Independent signers: different people, different devices, ideally hardware wallets. Five keys on one laptop is not a multisig.
- Clear procedures: who reviews a transaction, how signers verify what they sign, and how a signer is replaced.
- Combined with a timelock: for changes that affect users, a timelock after the multisig gives them time to react.
Frequently Asked Questions about Multisig Contracts
What is a multisig wallet?
A smart contract wallet that only executes a transaction once a minimum number of its owners have signed it, for example 3 of 5. No single key can move funds on its own.
Is a multisig the same as a multi-signature account on Solana?
The idea is the same, the implementation differs. On Solana, multisig is provided by dedicated programs such as Squads rather than Safe. We can help with both ecosystems.
What happens if a signer loses their key?
As long as enough signers remain to reach the threshold, the others can replace the lost signer. That is why the threshold should never equal the total number of signers.
Who owns the code?
Ownership of the source code is set out in the contract, and the code can be fully yours, including documentation and tests.
Part of our smart contract development services. Planning an audit? See smart contract audit support.
Secure Your Treasury and Admin Keys
Tell us what needs protecting and who should be involved. We will design a multisig setup that is secure without slowing your team down.