15 Sep smidgen – an IOTA Multisignature Wallet

The security of our users is very important to us. For this reason, we are excited to be able to announce the release of smidgen, an IOTA Multisignature wallet.

Multisignature wallets add an extra layer of security. By using an IOTA Multisignature wallet, we can create addresses which require multiple seeds for each transaction, each seed owned by one or multiple persons.

smidgen is Open Source Software and is licensed under the MIT license.

Right now, smidgen is in its final beta stage. smidgen is beta software and supports many other handy commands, ranging from address generation to balance checking.

You can install smidgen with:

npm install -g smidgen

 

Important: Seeds to create Multisignature wallets should be used for only one wallet.

smidgen uses a file which is shared between seed owners. With this file, we can manage the wallet, with its addresses and transfers. This makes it easier to keep track of the current state. Private keys are not part of the file. Please make sure you read and understood the Offical IOTA Multisig FAQ.

Important: As of this moment, smidgen is dependent on a full node as a provider for transfers. You can specify a full node with --provider.

 

Creating a Multisignature Wallet

The command for creating a wallet is:

smidgen multisig create  <id>

 

id is the identifier for the current party. The order of the signing parties is important for each transfer. By assigning an identifier to each party, it subsequently becomes easier to verify the correct signing order. file is the file we will use to store our transactions and addresses.

Let’s say we have two parties – Bob and Alice – who want to manage a wallet.

Bob starts the process and creates the Multisignature Wallet:

smidgen multisig create bob multisig.txt

 

smidgen asks for the seed Bob wants to use, and creates the file with the digest. Tip: smidgen generate-seed creates a secure seed.

Enter your seed:
info Successfully wrote to multisig.txt
info Used key index 0 (main) and 1 (remainder)
info
info Add another party with:
info smidgen multisig add <id> multisig.txt
info You can finalize the wallet with:
info smidgen multisig finalize multisig.txt

 

Bob therefore shares the multisig.txt file with Alice to continue the process.

When Alice receives the file, she has to use the smidgen multisig add command to add herself as the next party. Adding parties is possible until we finalize the wallet.

smidgen multisig add alice multisig.txt

 

Enter your seed:
info Successfully wrote to multisig.txt
info Used key index 0 (main) and 1 (remainder)
info
info Add another party with:
info smidgen multisig add <id> multisig.txt
info You can finalize the wallet with:
info smidgen multisig finalize multisig.txt

 

As there are no remaining parties, Alice finalizes the wallet:

smidgen multisig finalize multisig.txt

 

smidgen returns the current main address:

info Successfully wrote to multisig.txt
info Main address: SNEERGHLCZDUYDATGDQSCGCSROWBJVFGDKRSSQLCISMU9IYPJHQHUMFZLARRSEPHISJCDFMZAZEWTBYJZTCKUNDMJA

 

That’s it. Alice can now share the finalized wallet file with Bob. Transfers from the generated address are only possible if both Alice and Bob sign the transfer.

 

Using a Multisignature Wallet

 

Let’s take some IOTA from another wallet and transfer them to the new Multisignature wallet:

smidgen transfer 3 --provider=http://fullnode.example.com LDSWPKCQ9HNPIVHDRUBUWB9ZZPEDFZLYXJNZKIXBFQTWZFVJZJTTOJQWYOR9XVR9NZOQXNQGWQPCCSSWZQPLPDAOIZ

 

smidgen returns:

Enter your seed:
info Successfully sent 3i to LDSWPKCQ9HNPIVHDRUBUWB9ZZPEDFZLYXJNZKIXBFQTWZFVJZJTTOJQWYOR9XVR9NZOQXNQGWQPCCSSWZQPLPDAOIZ
info Transaction sent, hash: HMBROOZJBZYCFZTRVCDINXBLCAUX9ZREKIDWGLFAFYSFFBVBHDZTBBOCRKPNLEBZIURQXGJNXSU999999
info Reattach with `smidgen reattach HMBROOZJBZYCFZTRVCDINXBLCAUX9ZREKIDWGLFAFYSFFBVBHDZTBBOCRKPNLEBZIURQXGJNXSU999999`

 

Awesome! In case our transaction is stuck, we can try to reattach it with:

smidgen reattach --provider=http://fullnode.example.com HMBROOZJBZYCFZTRVCDINXBLCAUX9ZREKIDWGLFAFYSFFBVBHDZTBBOCRKPNLEBZIURQXGJNXSU999999

 

We can now monitor the balance of our Multisignature wallet with smidgen:

smidgen get-balance --watch LDSWPKCQ9HNPIVHDRUBUWB9ZZPEDFZLYXJNZKIXBFQTWZFVJZJTTOJQWYOR9XVR9NZOQXNQGWQPCCSSWZQPLPDAOIZ

 

smidgen will print the current balance every 15 seconds:

Balance: 0 i (0 Mi) - 3s since last update

 

Time for a tea until the funds arrive in our Multisignature wallet…

The IOTA arrived!

Balance: 3 (0.000003 Mi) - 3s since last update

 

Let’s continue and complete our first transfer.

To kick off a transfer, both Bob and Alice have to sign with their respective seeds. As Bob signed as the first party, he also has to sign first this time.

A transfer is created from the wallet file that is shared between the parties. Each transfer is appended to the file. This way we keep track of the key indexes and other details, like the current address.

The signature of the command is:

smidgen multisig transfer <value> <address> <id> <file>

 

When we try to sign in a wrong order, smidgen will notify us:

smidgen multisig transfer 3 VSBHQVNJNWR... alice multisig.txt --provider=http://fullnode.example.com

ERR! Wrong party signing. Current party: bob
ERR! Signing order: bob, alice

 

So Bob has to sign first:

smidgen multisig transfer 3 VSBHQVNJNWR... bob multisig.txt

 

smidgen returns:

info Successfully signed transfer
info Share multisig.txt with 'alice' to continue

 

Great! Now it is Alice’s turn to sign the transfer after Bob sent her the updated wallet file. smidgen will detect that the last party has signed and send the transaction. For the transfer we have to do a POW, so we will need to specify a full node as provider:

smidgen multisig transfer 3 VSBHQVNJNWR... alice multisig.txt --provider=http://fullnode.example.com

 

smidgen verifies the bundle and sends the transfer:

Enter your seed:
info Verifying bundle... Bundle: OK
info Sending transaction...
info Transaction sent, hash: OHHJOCLRMKQ9EMINOZXITIKWFZIQBEWPOQWCIOMWOFNOILVDYLERFLJOFANUSECBXFEXOJ...
info Reattach with `smidgen reattach OHHJOCLRMKQ9EMINOZXITIKWFZIQBEWPOQWCIOMWOFNOILVDYLERFLJOFANUSECBXF`
info Saved status to multisig.txt
info New main address: DIYWAXPNINNJXWDPGGXAQTYTPREQYDONTZXGZMQTAGDCUOAEJXJXOIUFAVDUORHERZCXCCUMQGRAP...

 

Great! That’s it! smidgen created a new address for us.

If we want to accept new IOTA, we will have to use the new address that has been generated.

We hope you have enjoyed our small tour through IOTA Multisignature wallet management with smidgen.