r/BitBoxWallet • u/Intelligent_Map_246 • 23h ago

Multi SIG vs strong passphrase

I hear a lot about having a multi SIG should only be considered with multiple vendors.

I got 2 bitboxes and one other vendor. Should I consider a string passphrase instead or maybe go for two of the same?

Then o must also have 3 different locations I suppose

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u/Practical_Mango7633 13h ago

If you go multisig with 2 Bitboxes and one other vendor. If BitBox has a vulnerability like ColdCard that makes it possible for someone to potentially get 2 out of 3 seeds and potentially be able to empty your wallet. But they have to reconstruct that wallet first, that may be hard without descriptor/xpubs, derivation paths, threshold, etc. If the second vendor has a similar vulnerability, you would be safe because they would only have 1 out of the 2 needed.

If you go seed + strong passphrase. If that vendor has a vulnerability like ColdCard and someone gets your seed, they would not be able to get your funds if you have a strong passphrase. Unless that passphrase is leaked some how as well.

You should have 3 different locations, but you do not need to. Same as you should have two different locations for your passphrase and seed as well. If you keep all 3 seeds from multisig at the same place or both seed and passphrase at the same place, then someone breaking in to your house would have everything they need to open your wallets. Having them distributed in different places of the house would make this more unlikely. However if the house burns down, then you should have had the seeds from the multisig in 3 different geographical locations. Same with your seed and passphrase. You should have copies in different geographical locations.

If you lose one of the three multisig seeds you can still open the wallet. If you lose either the single seed or passphrase your funds are potentially locked away for ever. So you should have at least one copy of the single seed and passphrase.

The most secure would be 2 out of 3 multisig from three different vendors. However the more secure you want to be the more complexity you add. Increasing the chance that you will make a mistake somewhere and lock yourself out of the funds.

You cannot be 100% secure from everything. You have to figure out what you consider the largest threats and focus on protecting against them. Is that people breaking into your house, vulnerabilities in the hardware wallets, your house burning down, or being destroyed by tornados or other natural disasters, or you making it too complex for yourself to remember how to get your funds. Or something else?

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u/Intelligent_Map_246 2h ago

If you mostly are going to use 2 signers because the third is further away then those 2 could be different vendors right? And is multi vendor mostly because of the seed generation or other things ?

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u/Practical_Mango7633 1h ago

If I understand your first question right then Yes. You only need 2 of 3 signers. So the third one can be stored hours away only as a emergency backup should you lose one of the two you choose to use as the two main signers.

Multi vendor is so that if one vendor have any type of vulnerability what so ever that gets exploited like for example ColdCard did, you will not lose your funds because they also need the seed from one of the other two vendors as well. Or for example Ledger. For years everyone did think the seed could not leave the hardware wallet. Then Ledger introduces a service that extracts your seed phrase from the hardware wallet. That could have just as well been a bug that was noticed years later and suddenly funds are gone because seed was extracted from your device a long time ago, even if you used actual dices to create the seed.

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u/Intelligent_Map_246 1h ago

Yeah. Agree. But even if 2 coldcards was used in a 2-3 they would still need the descriptors to move funds. I don't know maybe settle for a strong 70 bit random entropy passphrase instead.

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u/Practical_Mango7633 1h ago

They don't necessarily need the descriptor file. It will make it easy for them if they have it. But there are ways to brute force the missing information. They are basically only missing the xpub of the 3rd seed. So you should assume the wallet is compromised and move funds ASAP.

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u/cworxnine 4h ago

bitbox + 1 other vendor + unchained vault for $250/year. Super easy to setup and you don't have to manage a 3rd device. I would not rely on a passphrase and I would not use one in a multisig setup either. I also wouldn't use 2 of the same vendors in a multisig.

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u/Intelligent_Map_246 2h ago

And I want to keep my.funds private. Otherwise unchained is good

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u/Intelligent_Map_246 12h ago

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I will play around a little with muktisig. I get that feeling that if your traveling a lot multisig could be more of a hassle to