What is a multisig

Fundamental explanation of a multisig wallet and its importance.

A multisig is a non-custodial solution where control over assets is not exercised by a single private key, but rather by multiple private keys. It can be thought of as a safe that requires multiple unique keys to open it and move the assets. That means that even if one of the keys is compromised, the assets remain secure (no single point of failure).

Squads Protocol, the autonomous finance layer on Solana, is a collection of onchain smart accounts. These smart accounts are what power Squads Multisig.

Multisigs are the most widely adopted use case of smart accounts. They have been around since the early days of Bitcoin and are widely used for the purposes of self-custody of crypto assets across blockchains.

Every Squad is a programmable multisig wallet at its core, which ensures that any transaction or action taken within Squads requires the approval of multiple team members. As a result, the risk of unauthorized or malicious activity is greatly reduced, as it becomes impossible for a single member to access and manipulate funds or trigger harmful transactions to the funds held within the multisig.

On top of that, multi-signature technology serves as a consensus mechanism allowing teams to make decisions over their treasury (tokens, NFTs) and developer assets (programs, tokens, validators) together in a decentralized manner.