In a recent blog post on Reddit, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin emphasized the need for self-custody of assets rather than giving them to a “centralized entity” via Multisig wallets and Social Recovery wallets.
His remarks coincide with the continuous destruction of crypto-friendly institutions like Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, to name a few, as well as the failure of centralized crypto companies like FTX, Voyager Digital, and others.
I personally utilize a multisig wallet to keep the majority of my cash, as does the Ethereum Foundation, according to a blog post by Vitalik.
Digital wallets known as multisig wallets need unanimous consent from all authorized users in order to sign transactions. It implies that no owner may access money alone. On the other side, if the primary key is lost, money that has been locked in social recovery wallets may be retrieved using a collection of other people’s keys.
He said that future wallets like Soul Wallet and ERC-4337 account abstraction make social recovery wallets more incorporative than multisig. The Ethereum network’s most recent smart contract, ERC-4337, is anticipated to increase the acceptance of cryptocurrencies by the general public.
Both kinds of wallets depend on “guardians,” who are people or organizations that own the keys to authorize transactions or retrieve monies.
“My proposal will be to utilize multisigs for cold wallets that hold a person’s or organization’s money and social recovery for hot wallets that hold a tiny fraction of that person’s or organization’s cash,” he said.
He gave advice on how to pick guardians in a post, saying
- Multisig wallet should be controlled by at least 1 guardian,
- Guardians should not have correlations to reduce the risk that they collude
- Instruct guardians to ask a security question before confirming transactions
- Guardians should be quick if users are involved in degen” stuff
- Perform test operations for guardians to ensure that guardians haven’t forgotten or lost their accounts.
