How deeply does Real-World Cryptography cover multi-signature?

Explains the basic threat model, signature-size overhead, aggregation, DKG, and threshold variants without implementation detail.

Multi-signature

As explained in Real-World Cryptography

Multi-signature is a technique in which a transaction or message requires signatures from multiple distinct public keys.

A multi-signature system requires a transaction or message to carry signatures from multiple distinct public keys. Replacing Alice’s sole approval with n required signers means an attacker must compromise every signer to forge a valid transaction. section 8.8

Common design choices include:

Use signature aggregation to compress several signatures into one and reduce transaction-size overhead; BLS signatures support this approach. section 8.8
Use distributed key generation (DKG) to aggregate public keys while keeping the associated private key from ever existing in clear form. section 8.8
Use threshold variants that accept signatures from only m of n participants. section 8.8

Shared approval for a financial transaction

A protocol initially accepts a transaction signed only by Alice. Requiring signatures from Alice and several other public keys distributes trust and removes Alice as the sole point of failure. section 8.8

How Real-World Cryptography covers it

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Also explained in

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Elliptic Curve Cryptography for DevelopersA multi-signature is a cryptographic signature scheme in which multiple signers jointly authorize a message or produce a signature representing their participation.

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Related concepts

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.
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.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Real-World Cryptography. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.