Multi-signature
Multi-signature is a technique requiring authorization from multiple distinct signers or public keys before a message, transaction, or protected action is accepted.
Elliptic Curve Cryptography for Developers
A multi-signature is a cryptographic signature scheme in which multiple signers jointly authorize a message or produce a signature representing their participation.
- How it is used
- Combines many signatures on one message to reduce verification work through aggregated signatures and public keys.
- How deep it goes
- Derives the pairing verification equation and maps signing, aggregation, and verification into C-style routines, while deferring participant communication.
- Examples
- Uses a 20-node simulation that loads binary parameters and keys, signs random message data, aggregates points, and verifies the result.
- What you can do after
- Build it from scratch by generating keys, weighting public keys, signing a shared message, aggregating points, and checking a pairing equality.
Read how Elliptic Curve Cryptography for Developers explains multi-signature →
Real-World Cryptography
Multi-signature is a technique in which a transaction or message requires signatures from multiple distinct public keys.
- How it is used
- Reduces single-point-of-failure risk by distributing transaction or message approval across multiple signers.
- How deep it goes
- Explains the basic threat model, signature-size overhead, aggregation, DKG, and threshold variants without implementation detail.
- Examples
- Uses a financial transaction changing from Alice’s sole signature to approval by n distinct public keys.
- What you can do after
- Evaluate how multiple signatures, aggregation, and DKG distribute trust and affect transaction overhead.
Related concepts
- digital signatureuses · A digital signature is cryptographic data generated with a private key and verified with corresponding public information to authenticate data or its signer and detect alteration.
- signature aggregationproduces · Signature aggregation is a cryptographic technique that combines multiple digital signatures, potentially from different signers or on different messages, into one compact signature.
- accountable subgroup multi-signatureincludes · A digital signature scheme in which a selected subset of registered participants collectively signs a message and the resulting signature identifies that subset for verification.
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