CoinCorner, a British bitcoin exchange based in the Isle of Man, has launched a multisignature BTC custody service called Vault with U.S. partner AnchorWatch. The companies split control of customer keys, and the holdings are insured by Lloyd’s of London.
The service carries a 1.5% annual fee and is aimed at bitcoin owners who want cold-storage security without handling hardware devices themselves, CoinCorner said on Tuesday.
Key control is split between CoinCorner and AnchorWatch
In a statement, CoinCorner CEO Danny Scott said, 「Vault offers a simple non-technical setup for customers, and partnering with AnchorWatch means we can offer fully insured, multi-signature custody with the simplicity our customers expect from CoinCorner.」
CoinCorner said customers can open a Vault account and deposit any amount they choose. The bitcoin does not move into the insured wallet immediately, however. Instead, transfers are typically made on the first working day of the following month. The company also said holdings can be verified on-chain through a wallet address it provides.
The firms said top-ups are allowed at any time, and customers set their own identity-verification rules before funds can move. CoinCorner added that Vault is the first service of its kind globally.
Launch comes after the Coldcard wallet hack cited in the report
The new offering arrives after the Coldcard wallet hack mentioned in the article. In that incident, bitcoin holders using a single-signature wallet lost funds after hackers exploited a firmware bug in the devices that led to weak seed generation. About $115 million was lost in the theft.
The report said multisig has long been seen by security-focused bitcoin holders as a way to reduce single-key risk. At the same time, it has often been viewed as too cumbersome for anyone without a strong technical commitment. Setting one up has traditionally meant gathering several hardware devices, generating and backing up multiple private keys, and keeping track of where each key is stored.
Vault is designed to simplify multisig setup
CoinCorner and AnchorWatch are trying to reduce that complexity. According to the report, Vault handles key distribution on behalf of the customer, giving users the security properties of multisig without the setup process that has kept many people away.
The article first appeared in Bitcoin Magazine and was written by Mathew Di Salvo.