Today, 13% of Bitcoin is protected by multisig technology.
A growing minority of Bitcoin users employ a multi-signature wallet, which uses more than one private key to access the wallet. By using this approach, wallets are much less vulnerable to security breaches, as no single party possesses all the information necessary to decrypt the wallet.
Princeton professor Arvind Narayanan tweeted about the significance of the multisig uptick:
13% of bitcoins today are protected by multisig. A good start, but a long way to go. Chart by @hkalodner pic.twitter.com/9W8xo8Alnr
— Arvind Narayanan (@random_walker) July 16, 2016
More cryptocurrency wallets offering multisig support
More Bitcoin wallet providers have recently enabled multisig functionality, as it seems to be headed for mainstream standard status. Coinbase, GreenAddress (recently bought by Blockstream), Electrum, and many more employ multisig capabilities.
Outside of Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies are jumping in on multisig integration. EtherLi, a web wallet, boasts of being the first Ethereum multisig wallet.
Wallet security becoming more of an imperative
The demand for greater security may be a result of governments stepping up their efforts to crack down on Bitcoin’s anonymity.
The US Department of Homeland Security has established a task force for dealing with cryptocurrency, with a main focus on tracking its use for the sale of illegal narcotics.
The European Union has also enacted regulations in a bid to end anonymous Bitcoin transactions, including requiring all sellers of cryptocurrency to abide by customer due diligence controls and know the identity of said customers.
Privacy and security
The continuing struggle between those who value cryptocurrency’s privacy and those who wish to remove its anonymity has driven users to other currencies with more security offerings than Bitcoin.
Dash, a cryptocurrency that uses a masternode system to offer “darksend” coin-mixing capability, has increased in value by 50% over the last month while doubling its 24-hour trading volume.
Monero, a security-minded cryptocurrency with a private blockchain and ring signature-based encrypted transaction, has also doubled in 24-hour volume while increasing in value over 30%.