How to Submit Multisig Tx

See: NodeCore_CommandLine

Overview

The NC_CLI allows creating multisig addresses and submitting multisig transactions.

Multisig means "multiple signatures", such as it takes at least 2 out of 3 signatures to submit the transaction. Such an address would look like V23...0 (only multisig ends in 0).

This will require 4 NC_CLI commands:

1. generatemultisigaddress --> initially create the multisig address. This could be done once.
2. makeunsignedmultisigtx --> create a Tx
3. signhexmessage --> sufficient owners must provide their signatures
4. submitmultisigtx --> given sufficient signatures (such as 3 of 5), submit the transaction

Steps

Say for this example we want to make a 2-of-3 multisig address from the following three addresses: V7aigFb3yA56ZBroNMpdcV66hFqdCV, V9Z4MrtkTSoFmaUWFb39wrh597SduJ, and VEhP8gKnPsFa7i8HUqsVDLWvH2Spke.

Generate the multisig address

Run this command:

generatemultisigaddress V7aigFb3yA56ZBroNMpdcV66hFqdCV,V9Z4MrtkTSoFmaUWFb39wrh597SduJ,VEhP8gKnPsFa7i8HUqsVDLWvH2Spke 2

This will provide the new address "V239PhRtWxDovahFpg47kq7WgCCJw0". NOTE: Make sure to save the source addresses, and the order.

{
  "sourceAddresses": [
    "V7aigFb3yA56ZBroNMpdcV66hFqdCV",
    "V9Z4MrtkTSoFmaUWFb39wrh597SduJ",
    "VEhP8gKnPsFa7i8HUqsVDLWvH2Spke"
  ],
  "signatureThresholdM": 2,
  "resultantMultisigAddress": "V239PhRtWxDovahFpg47kq7WgCCJw0"
}

Note: multisig addresses are a deterministic result of the source addresses (in order) and 'm' (of n) value. Changing the order of the same three addresses will yield a separate multisig address. Also note the 1st and 2nd character immediately after the starting 'V'; this shows that it is a 2-of-3 multisig (a 5-of-7 would be V57..., etc.) (multisig addresses can go up to 58-of-58).

Make an unsigned transaction

To generate the unsigned transaction (note the fee and signature index will be calculated for us if left out; the signatureIndex should only be specified when simultaneously coordinating multiple multisig signings for the same address, and they must be submitted in the signatureIndex order):

#Help
makeunsignedmultisigtx <sourceAddress> <amount> <destinationAddress> [transactionFee] [signatureIndex]

#example to send 75 VBK from the multisig address to another address
makeunsignedmultisigtx V239PhRtWxDovahFpg47kq7WgCCJw0 75 V7ycoS1TArJEXE8ivfYugpaRH61eqg

Output:

{
  "signatureThresholdM": 2,
  "addressCompositionCountN": 3,
  "unsignedTransaction": {
    "size": 246,
    "txid": "3A0FA4FF27CEDE7853320B44A81FCC4BFB4DCE7EA9D637D0FB21C73C3967ADA0",
    "data": "",
    "type": "multisig",
    "fee": "0.00246000",
    "timestamp": 1542759712,
    "source_amount": "75.00246000",
    "merkle_path": "",
    "source_address": "V239PhRtWxDovahFpg47kq7WgCCJw0",
    "bitcoin_transaction": "N/A",
    "bitcoin_block_header_of_proof": "N/A",
    "endorsed_block_header": "N/A",
    "outputs": [
      {
        "address": "V7ycoS1TArJEXE8ivfYugpaRH61eqg",
        "amount": "75.00000000"
      }
    ]
  },
  "unsignedTransactionHex": "0A7108031216A978FB269E9D2A741593C9CF9CD6495E6AC007669A3F18F0D7B2F81B221E0A16679B943B5F9696EF21C4DDEF8DF7D775021640DCCA0B1080D6A3F81B28F0810F78A0CAD2DF058001F6018A01203A0FA4FF27CEDE7853320B44A81FCC4BFB4DCE7EA9D637D0FB21C73C3967ADA0",
  "txid": "3A0FA4FF27CEDE7853320B44A81FCC4BFB4DCE7EA9D637D0FB21C73C3967ADA0",
  "sigIndex": 0,
  "instructions": "Have at least 2 of the component addresses sign the TxID listed above (see: signhexmessage command) to validly sign this transaction, then submit the raw transaction hex listed above (see: submitmultisigtx command)!"
}

Keep the unsignedTransactionHex and txid for later.

• unsignedTransactionHex --> will be needed to submit the final transaction
• txid --> will be sent to sufficient number of address owners (In this example, if you send to 3, will need at least 2 of them to sign)

Sufficient multisig holders sign

Each multisig holder who is signing (minimum of 2) is going to sign the TxID like so, where standardAddressToSignWith is the standard address which is part of the multisig group (so V7aigFb3yA56ZBroNMpdcV66hFqdCV, V9Z4MrtkTSoFmaUWFb39wrh597SduJ, or VEhP8gKnPsFa7i8HUqsVDLWvH2Spke):

signhexmessage <standardAddressToSignWith> <TxID>

For example, say people with access to the first and third addresses' private keys decide to sign the transaction:

Holder #1 --> signs

signhexmessage V7aigFb3yA56ZBroNMpdcV66hFqdCV 3A0FA4FF27CEDE7853320B44A81FCC4BFB4DCE7EA9D637D0FB21C73C3967ADA0
{
  "address": "V7aigFb3yA56ZBroNMpdcV66hFqdCV",
  "signedMessage": "3A0FA4FF27CEDE7853320B44A81FCC4BFB4DCE7EA9D637D0FB21C73C3967ADA0",
  "signature": "30450220471B2A09898A2E55EF0426BB1E75A7670BB38EB871AF604FE04784512ADCA7770221008433254C42BC8DA156E989E62EB0A8BA455F20D818D0F118C60C2589B3A1D921",
  "publicKey": "3056301006072A8648CE3D020106052B8104000A034200048487843CBD7A032DFA532A01376D0681791785BB069E22C47B660ABECC2405AC267E29F6FE1391137678CCB979176AAEC154264984605C683BBE768575A4F946"
}

Holder #2 --> does not sign

Holder #3 --> signs

signhexmessage VEhP8gKnPsFa7i8HUqsVDLWvH2Spke 3A0FA4FF27CEDE7853320B44A81FCC4BFB4DCE7EA9D637D0FB21C73C3967ADA0
{
  "address": "VEhP8gKnPsFa7i8HUqsVDLWvH2Spke",
  "signedMessage": "3A0FA4FF27CEDE7853320B44A81FCC4BFB4DCE7EA9D637D0FB21C73C3967ADA0",
  "signature": "304502204373A68FF09411866BEE658DCAD382C8CABC022891D06AE389CD8304AA6C2C8B022100FE4A7A2E8B980211AC7F630BA98CE4E9D1DD77B479321F40A110F49D53B039C0",
  "publicKey": "3056301006072A8648CE3D020106052B8104000A0342000419C14BCA422EE1536A2774AB0F288ADCD20224838BEFD72CBED52FCD37833698E69282C461C09A2D70AAEABE220B26B12290900FB52A78BFE25F1A24C9894D48"
}

Now we have signatures from two addresses (V7aigFb3yA56ZBroNMpdcV66hFqdCV and VEhP8gKnPsFa7i8HUqsVDLWvH2Spke) as well as their public keys. Since the address is a 2-of-3 multisig, we have enough signatures to send a valid transaction to the network!

FAQ

How can I view the balance of a multisig address?

You can view the balance of a multisig address by directly calling it with getbalance.

getbalance V239PhRtWxDovahFpg47kq7WgCCJw0