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From: Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@bitpay.com>
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 14:12:49 -0400
Message-ID: <CAJHLa0PNW9FP7btMphLK+GxKo5u0Seiw5tbV_dT6ghg9YjH4yQ@mail.gmail.com>
To: Drak <drak@zikula.org>
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Cc: Bitcoin Dev <bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net>
Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] Multisign payment protocol?
Precedence: list

Payment protocol currently supports payments to multi-sig addresses.

In general, almost all wallet software sucks RE multisig.  Just try
any of these actions in Bitcoin-Qt or another wallet:
* obtain a public key you control, given a bitcoin address
* easily share public keys
* easily share partially signed transactions
* build a P2SH multisig address from public keys, reliably.  Right
now, participants have no idea about pubkey order, leading various N
possible P2SH addresses, given a list of public keys.  Reproducing the
P2SH address is harder than it should be.
* track "partially controlled" balance (balance of coins of which you
may sign at least 1 of N)
* support for remote oracles and services that provide 1-of-N signatures
etc.


On Mon, Mar 10, 2014 at 1:39 PM, Drak <drak@zikula.org> wrote:
> I was wondering if there would be merit in a kind of BIP for a payment
> protocol using multisig?
>
> Currently, setting up a multisig is quite a feat. Users have to exchange
> public keys, work out how to get the public keys from their addresses. If
> one of the parties are not savvy enough, an malicious party could easily be
> setup that was 2 of 3 instead of 2 of 2 where the malicious party generates
> the multisig address+script and thus be able to run off with funds anyway.
>
> It's also terribly complex to generate and keep track of. There's been a
> nice attempt at creating an browser interface at coinb.in/multisig but it
> still lacks the kind of ease with created by the payment protocol. If there
> was a BIP then it would go a long way to aiding future usability of multisig
> wallet implementations.
>
> What are your thoughts?
>
> Drak
>
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-- 
Jeff Garzik
Bitcoin core developer and open source evangelist
BitPay, Inc.      https://bitpay.com/