Ownbit · MultiSig Guide
How to Use Ownbit MultiSig
This guide explains how to manage MultiSig assets with Ownbit. The examples below use 2-of-3 MultiSig (three asset managers: user1, user2 and user3 — any 2 signatures can spend the funds).
Tap any screenshot to enlarge.MultiSig is a way for several people to manage assets together. In a 2-of-3 setup, 2 signatures are enough to spend the funds. Under Standard MultiSig, if the required number of signatures can't be gathered for a long time, the funds may become unspendable; if you're concerned a participant could lose access or go missing, choose Accident Protection MultiSig, which lets the remaining participants recover or spend the funds after a preset waiting period (see Section 2). Participants are usually team members, colleagues, family or friends — take care when managing assets together with strangers.
Create a MultiSig wallet
Each participant downloads and installs Ownbit and creates their own MultiSig wallet. The example below shows user1 creating the MultiSig wallet obms_user1.
Choose “Create MultiSig Wallet”
Open Ownbit and, on the Add wallet page, tap Create MultiSig Wallet — for shared team funds and multi-party approvals. If you already have a mnemonic phrase, tap Restore Wallet to import it.
Choose how to protect it
On Protect your wallet, choose Hot Wallet or Cold Wallet. A Hot Wallet is simple and quick: the mnemonic is stored and signing happens on this device. A Cold Wallet is more secure: the mnemonic stays offline and is used only for signing, with a second online phone acting as a Watch Wallet. Cold Wallet is greyed out while this phone is online.
For a MultiSig Cold Wallet, take this phone offline first
Turn off this phone's Wi-Fi and mobile data (or enable Airplane Mode); the Cold Wallet option then becomes selectable.
How to choose? A Hot Wallet is generally quite safe. If you're storing large amounts and have two phones available, the Cold Wallet / Watch Wallet setup is recommended for extra security. See Section 7 for full details on the MultiSig Cold Wallet.
Back up the mnemonic and open the wallet home
Once created, you'll reach the MultiSig wallet home. Every MultiSig wallet has an ID (e.g. obms_user1) that other participants use to add you as a participant.
Carefully write down the mnemonic and keep it offline. If the phone is lost and you have no mnemonic, the assets cannot be recovered; as long as you have the mnemonic, you can restore the wallet at any time.
TRC20 MultiSig (USDT-TRC20 example)
This section uses USDT-TRC20 MultiSig as the example. Other TRC20 tokens and TRX MultiSig follow the same flow.
Create and name the MultiSig
On the MultiSig wallet page tap +, then enter a name for the MultiSig.
Choose the permission scenario
This example uses Team MultiSig: all participants have the same permissions, suitable for families, small teams and simple treasury management. To give participants different roles, choose Enterprise MultiSig (see Section 3).
Select the network: Tron
For TRC20 always select Tron.
Note: the latest version no longer has a separate USDT-TRC20 option; all TRC20 tokens are created under the Tron network.
Choose the signing mode
The signing mode is written as m-n: n is the total number of participants, m is the minimum signatures needed to spend. 2-3 means 3 participants where 2 signatures can spend.
Choose the recovery strategy
Standard MultiSig: funds can be spent only when the required number of signatures is reached; if that can't be met for any reason, the funds can't be spent.
Accident Protection MultiSig: if some participants lose access, are lost, or can't sign, the remaining participants can recover or spend the funds after a preset waiting period. This mode requires participants to periodically submit a transaction on-chain to prove they're active; if someone stays inactive for a long time (typically about 416 days) it's treated as an accident and the required number of signatures is automatically reduced.
How to choose? 2-3 and 3-5 setups generally suit Standard MultiSig, while 3-3, 5-5 and similar suit Accident Protection MultiSig (these are suggestions only — decide carefully for yourself). This 2-3 example uses Standard MultiSig.
Add participants
On the Select Participants page tap + in the top right, enter the other participants' MultiSig wallet IDs and add them.
MultiSig created
After you confirm, the MultiSig is created.
Other participants join
A matching MultiSig entry appears in the other participants' Ownbit; they open it and tap Join.
Deploy the MultiSig contract
Once everyone has joined, the creator's page enters the Deploy MultiSig Contract state.
Deposit TRX to deploy
Tap Deploy and, when prompted, deposit an appropriate amount of TRX into the address shown.
Deployment complete
Continue deploying after the deposit; the MultiSig creation is then finalized.
Deposit USDT to test
You can deposit USDT into the new address.
How to spend (send) MultiSig assets?
One party initiates the send
One party taps Send on the MultiSig page, fills in the details and enters the password.
Other participants sign
The other participants receive a signing prompt and sign.
Auto-broadcast and take effect
Once the number of signers reaches the minimum, the transaction is sent to the network automatically and takes effect.
How to add other TRC20 tokens?
Automatic / manual adding
A TRC20 MultiSig address can receive TRX and any TRC20 token; a new MultiSig entry is usually generated automatically when a new token arrives. Due to anti-spam policies some tokens aren't added automatically and must be added by hand: on the creator's MultiSig page tap Add MultiSig Token and enter the token's contract address (token ID). Note: only the MultiSig creator has this menu item.
Enterprise MultiSig
Enterprise MultiSig lets you assign different roles and weights to different participants, suitable for companies and more advanced fund management. Unlike Team MultiSig (where everyone has the same permissions), Enterprise MultiSig distinguishes roles such as Signer, Owner and Security Admin. The example below uses the BSC network.
Choose Enterprise MultiSig in Permission Scenario
On the Permission Scenario page select Enterprise MultiSig.
Select the network (BSC in this example)
Choose the target network; this example uses Binance Smart Chain.
Set the Sign Mode and Owner Sign Mode
Sign mode: the signatures / weight required to spend funds. For example 3-4 means 4 participants where at least 3 weight-votes are needed to spend.
Owner Sign Mode: the signatures required for Owner actions (add/remove members, modify the signing mode, etc.). For example 2-2 means 2 Owner signatures are required.
At present only the EVM family (ETH, BSC, etc.) and the TRX family support modifying Owner / Signer and the signing mode after creation.
Set each participant's weight and permissions
Weight: the signer's weight under the signing mode.
Permissions (multiple allowed):
· Owner: add/remove members, modify the signing mode, etc.
· Signer: sign transactions.
· Security Admin: set whitelist, limits, etc.
After this, the join, deploy and send/receive flows are the same as the standard MultiSig for that network (EVM family: see Section 4; TRX family: see Section 2).
ETH/ERC20 & BSC/BEP20 MultiSig
ETH/ERC20 MultiSig is implemented as a smart contract and needs ETH as the network fee (gas) during creation and use. BSC/BEP20 is very similar, just with ETH replaced by BSC coin (in Ownbit the BSC coin is the BEP20 version of BNB). This section uses USDT-BEP20 as the example.
Prepare a personal wallet and gas
First have a personal wallet holding an appropriate amount of BSC coin (ETH for ETH/ERC20 MultiSig).
Create and name the MultiSig
On the MultiSig wallet page tap + and enter a name.
Select the network: BSC
For BEP20 always select Binance Smart Chain.
Note: the latest version no longer has a separate USDT-BEP20 option; all BEP20 tokens are created under the BSC network.
The Permission Scenario, Sign Mode and Recovery Strategy steps are the same as Section 2 (TRC20). To assign participants different roles and weights, see Section 3, Enterprise MultiSig.
Deploy the MultiSig contract
Once all participants have joined, you can deploy the MultiSig contract.
Pay gas to deploy
Deploying the contract costs some BSC coin (ETH for ETH/ERC20 MultiSig) as the network fee; select a personal wallet to send it.
Deposit USDT-BEP20
Once deployed, the MultiSig is created and you can deposit USDT-BEP20 into the address.
How to spend (send) MultiSig assets?
One party initiates and signs
One party taps Send on the MultiSig page and enters the password.
A personal wallet broadcasts
After the relevant participants sign, a personal wallet holding enough BSC coin (ETH for ETH/ERC20 MultiSig) is needed to send the transaction to the network.
How to add BSC or other BEP20 token MultiSig?
Automatic / manual adding
A BEP20 MultiSig address can receive BSC and any BEP20 token; a new MultiSig entry is created automatically when a new token arrives, and can also be added by hand (same steps as TRC20). ETH/ERC20 and other ETH-style MultiSig work the same way.
There's one exception for older ETH MultiSig: check the MultiSig version (MS version). If the version is 0 it can't receive ERC20; newly created MultiSig are all version 4 or above.
MultiSig contract is open source: the ETH/ERC20 and BSC/BEP20 MultiSig contract code is open source — click here to learn how to verify the contract's security through the code.
SOL/SPL MultiSig
SOL/SPL MultiSig works very much like TRC20 MultiSig, with one extra “send the transaction to the network” step when spending; otherwise refer to Section 2.
BTC MultiSig (LTC, DOGE, etc.)
This section covers BTC MultiSig. Other UTXO-type coins (LTC, DOGE, etc.) implement MultiSig the same way, so the flow is identical.
Create and name the MultiSig
On the MultiSig wallet page tap +, then enter a name.
Select network and signing mode
Select Bitcoin as the network and choose the signing mode (2-3 in this example).
Wait for participants to join
After you confirm, wait for the others to join; once everyone has joined the BTC MultiSig is created.
Deposit BTC to test
You can deposit a small amount of BTC to test.
How to spend (send) MultiSig assets?
One party initiates the send
One party taps Send on the MultiSig page.
Enter password and wait for signatures
Enter the password, then wait for the other participants to sign.
Auto-broadcast and confirm
Once signing is complete the transaction is broadcast to the network automatically and awaits confirmation.
MultiSig Cold Wallet
A MultiSig Cold Wallet uses two phones, both with Ownbit installed. One stays permanently offline as the Cold Wallet; the other stays online as the Watch Wallet. For general Cold Wallet usage, see “How to Use the Ownbit Cold Wallet.”
How to create a Watch Wallet?
Show the config QR code on the Cold Wallet side
On the MultiSig wallet page of the Cold Wallet, tap Set up Watch Wallet.
Scan to create the Watch Wallet
Scan that QR code with Ownbit on the Watch Wallet side to create the Watch Wallet (shown in grey).
How to send a transaction?
Watch Wallet initiates, Cold Wallet signs offline
Initiate from the Watch Wallet, enter the address and amount and confirm; a QR code to be signed appears. Scan it with the Cold Wallet to sign and produce a signed QR code; then scan the signed QR code with the Watch Wallet to send the transaction to the network.
In short: each send requires two scans — once for the Cold Wallet to scan the Watch Wallet's QR code and sign, and once for the Watch Wallet to scan the signature result and send it to the network.
Self-service asset recovery
The security of MultiSig assets does not depend on the Ownbit server; you can recover MultiSig assets yourself without help from the Ownbit server. For the method, see “How to Self-Recover MultiSig Assets.”