Have you ever set up a shamir's 2-of-3 single signature seed...or know someone who has? Is this method actually popular with-shitcoin wallets?
Discussion
Yes but it is far from popular. EVM chains don’t have native multisig capabilities. Shamir’s methodology can provide this capability and is effective for true offline (cold) signing between several key shares. Distribution of key shares then becomes the challenge, but it can be more secure than smart contracts if handled correctly
I just found out what I was asking about is formally called the "SLIP39" standard. Apparently very few premium bitcoin wallets support them, but the ones that do are pretty good, with the exception of the Keystone, which is terrible.
I first used it back in the secure scuttlebutt days ... it works really well with a good workflow. I think it is under utilized TBH because i think when explained it is the type of multisig people understand or expect.
My issue with it is that you have to be aware of what devices and desktop wallets currently implement Shamir/SLIP39. The unfortunate thing about standards is that for them to be worth a damn, they not only have to be good, but they also have to be widely adopted, which SLIP39 is not.
totally true. I have not looked for it. but is there some reason devs are not using it? I feel like multisig as a topic has leveled up but Shamir seems overlooked
The standard came out of Trezor, I believe, and they were not able to build a consortium of HWW companies to support it.
Incidentally, it's highly confusing to be an Uncle Jim, trying to help a family member make sense of their wallet, and they present what look like 3 20-word mnemonic keyphrases, but the software wallet is P2WPKH. Fam was lucky I even knew what Shamir was.
I think the extreme similarities to BIP39 is what makes shamir a non-starter for me. It is just too confusing in an emergency recovery scenario to have something that LOOKS EERILY SIMILAR to something it is not.
i think there a quite q few out there now that supports slip39