When buying from any darknet marketplace, you must have come across the term ‘MultiSig’ over and over again.
I must say you can’t trust anyone on these marketplaces. Buyers and sellers don’t know their true motives, and scams happen every single day. But guess what? MultiSig can mitigate these risks.
By requiring multiple signatures for a transaction, it ensures that no single party has complete control over the funds. This can prevent a seller from running off with the money without delivering the items, or a buyer from receiving those items without releasing the payment.
In a while, I’ll show you how MultiSig works and whether you should use it as a darknet user. So, let’s begin!
How Does MultiSig Work?
Imagine that you have a treasure box, alright?
Now, instead of this box having only one lock and one key, there are multiple locks. And each lock has its own unique key. This is the basic idea behind MultiSig.
In a traditional cryptocurrency transaction, the private key authorizes the transaction. It’s like saying, “This single key allows access to that treasure box”. But with MultiSig, you have multiple private keys. In other words, you need more than one of these keys to authorize a transaction.
So, if you say you have a 2-of-3 MultiSig setup, then you can only get three separate private keys in total, but all you need is two – that’s enough for authorization. Now, this just means it adds another layer of security.
If I say your hacker friend got hold of one of your private keys, you know what they used to authorize a transaction. Still, they would NOT be authorized to make a transaction because one private key isn’t enough for them. It’s like the single key says you don’t have enough money. So in order to open up, the thief needs at least one more.
What Are the Drawbacks of MultiSig?
- MultiSig can be a bit more complicated than traditional crypto transactions. Instead of dealing with a single key, you have to take care of multiple keys. And if you’re not careful, it can get confusing real quick.
- There is a risk of losing access to your funds. If you lose one of your keys in a traditional setup, you’re in trouble that might be fixed sooner or later. But with MultiSig, if you lose your key, you’ll be fine depending on your setup. Just in case you lose more than that, you can say ‘TaTa’ to your funds.
- Finally, not all wallets and platforms support MultiSig. But as far as I know, a few great darknet marketplaces such as Tor2Door, Vice City, DarkFox, etc. have MultiSig.
How Can We Setup a MultiSig on Any Darknet Platform?
Firstly, you need to make a new MultiSig address. Usually this means making many new private keys. After this, you need to set up your MultiSig. Here you decide how many keys you want and how many are needed to authorize a transaction. In this case, you might opt for a 2-of-3 set up where you have three keys but only need two to authorize a transaction.
Once done setting up your MultiSig, you can start using them for transactions. Just remember what I said earlier, you’ll need a required number of keys for each transaction.
Just in case you don’t know what MultiSig looks like on a darknet marketplace, let me show you two good examples:
Should You Use MultiSig as a Darknet User?
On the flip side, this could turn out to be a bad idea for those who can’t take responsibility for their keys.
But if you want security and anonymity, MultiSig is a must. It adds extra protection against hacking and limits the ability of these so-called hackers to trace any transactions. In addition, it prevents scams by making sure no party has full control over a transaction.
Hey there, I’m a dark web geek who’s been around for the last 8 years. More precisely, I’m livedarknet’s senior content writer who’s been writing about darknet marketplaces, tutorials, and cybersecurity stuff for educational purposes.