Before you read, this post is a call to action. Everything discussed below, describes components only.

Actually realising a Networked "Treasury" of Multi-Signature Wallets requires great design, focused integration and lots of 3rd party (bonded) testing. ;)

Before you get into this post, have a read at "Multi-Signature Crypto wallets 101" by SoftUni.org Author: Svetlin Nakov

Whether you are a business large or small, a network of institutions, a country, state, province, municipality, township or county, acquiring "hard stores" of value to hedge against fiat's erosion of your buying power should be at the top of your financial management "to do" list.

We all want to protect and grow what currency value we have earned or received to effectively and efficiently pay for life's essentials (food, energy, roof over our head, clothing, cars, etc..) and, also pay for programs, receive wages & pensions and, pay taxes AND, earn a decent return from main st. or financial market investments.

The simple fact is, it's getting harder every day to do just that.

As business revenues flatten and decline, govt. transfer amounts stagnate and, real wages are not rising, all the WHILE your buying power of fiat currencies gets less and less every minute, we "'scratch our collective heads" and ask ourselves, "what the heck is really going on?"

As govt. regimes of the day continue to print money in the form of low interest debt, banks and large corporations use that cheap debt money to prop up their respective stock prices and EPS "Earnings Per Share" via CxO led stock buy backs, to make sure those CxO suite option packages (when they bolt) are really worth something.

It's a "Gut and run" strategy where the "carcasses" of these companies eventually leave the employees with less or no pension benefits for the work they have put in, with little or no prospects of future meaningful employment (retail and service jobs don't pay the bills), AND the typical consumer response is to "up" the lines of credit and "max out" the credit card.

Where does it all end? It ends with you "stepping outside the box", a box full of "repeaters of repeaters" (I am speaking to the software development world) and getting uncomfortable.

That's right looking at new ways of doing things is tough. The ideas below are no different in this regard and are the anti-thesis of how today's centralised treasuries work in business and government.

Out with the old, in with the new...

Build your own Treasury Network with Multiple Signature Wallets and Multiple Crypto "Blockchains".

Moving your store of values around to the places where they make the most impact either as an investment or payment should be easy, not hard, with few fees (if any) and little overhead (admin costs) AND it should all work fast.

Fiat flounders, Crypto speeds ahead, protecting your hard stores of value, but "speeds" to where?

Doing the above in the current fiat system, quickly is possible, with services like Moneygram now running on Ripple (XRP) converting your fiat into crypto, then back again to fiat, however the effective interest rate of the transfer fee is brutal, often 10, 20 and even 30% of the value of the transfer, especially for small amounts. So for most, it's a no go, and they stick to the slow, pedantic fiat payment systems of the day, using SWIFT and IBAN in the western economy, where bank "middlemen" can sit on your money (and use "your money" to facilitate day trades) legally for up to 5 business days in most countries.

Ouch. So much for Velocity of Money and avoiding the devaluation of your fiat "store of value".

Reducing your exposure to fiat erosion of your "stores of value" can be achieved by engaging in crypto_currencies with quality "liquidity", that is, the ability to convert to other "hard" stores of value "quickly".

To do the above in practical terms, especially where there is often a "hierarchy of approvals" or signatures required to effect a buy or sell transaction, in the world of "hard stores of value", which are quality cryptocurrencies (hack proof, fast settlement, large network of nodes worldwide, easy to use/manage, large number of holders, etc..), it's important to any entity, however small or large, to build a Network of Treasuries in the form of multiple crypto wallets supporting key multiple crypto-currencies, equipped with multiple signature capabilities.

OK, now that your head is spinning from that last phrase, ask yourself why?

Simple.

Protect and grow your "hard stores of value" maintained in multiple cryptocurrencies to reduce your overall negative exposure to the fiat stock and bond markets eroding your fiat stores of value "buying power" daily, regardless of whether or not they move up and down in "fiat" value.

GET IN, AND THEN out of FIAT transactions, quickly, to preserve and grow your "hard stores of value"

Today, buying or selling anything still very much requires paying or receiving fiat to enable the transaction.

The trick is to only "wake that fiat up" at the time of the transaction, and for the rest of the time have your earned or received value live in hard stores of value, some more volatile than others, which represents your own aversion to risk distribution "bell" curve.

This does not mean "Hodl" in stable coins, pegged directly to fiat currencies.

You may, AND should use Stable coins for a short period to facilitate a transaction, however Stable coins, by their very nature, are pegged to fiat (and about to be regulated as a "Security" by the SEC, given their latest declaration "de jour") are not a place to park your earned or received "store of value" (unless you like eroding your value.)

The above strategy means one should look for those cryptocurrencies with fast and easy to use liquidity to other stores of "hard value", bot h crypto and physical, the latter being mainly metals, gold, silver et al, where the network of nodes managing the crypto ledger and transactions is large and widely distributed between countries so you don't get shut out by your local govt. regime at their whim.

DASH & VAULTORO, a key "Network of Treasuries" building block... Crypto2Gold Direct Bi-Directional Liquidity

A good recent example of being able to move easily between hard stores of value without fiat payment networks or Stable coin conversion services is the work #DASH(USA) has completed with #VAULTORO (Wales, UK) #Dash 2 #Gold with #Vaultoro to directly bypass current bank & financial gateway services "middlemen" enabling #Dash2Gold direct liquidity. In plain words, the partnership enables anyone to move back and forth between #DASH crypto-currency (used heavily for micro-payments daily in many countries) directly to gold and back again, right from your mobile phone. Powerful Stuff.

TK Note- It should be noted the joint capability was originally announced in June of 2018, so it has taken Vaultoro 15+ months to make good on the feature during the re-design of their app.

That said, multiple signatures controlling the payment of funds from a wallet (and in certain govt. and Institutional use cases receiving funds into a wallet), are not the exclusive domain (nor core competence) of the DASH Community development effort. Nor is VAULTORO going to be focused on such features.

Therefore "Treasury Managers" are advised to do some serious research on multi-signature wallets , each of which have a wide variety of features and supported crypto-currencies, none of which are a single solution for a Treasury of "Networked" (inter-connected) Multi-signature Wallets. Here is a useful research link.

This #Dash2Vaultoro example of fast and easy "Hard Value Store" HVS to HVS transaction requires the "Networked Treasuries" Manager tasked with managing multiple wallets for their entity to first: review and analyse then; select the best multiple signature capable wallets out there. a Savvy Treasury Manager will be looking for the multiple-signature wallets best handling multiple cryptocurrencies (including some stable coins the "on Ramp" financial services gateways used by many to start investing in the world of crypto) , which best suits their investment risk curve profile.

More on gold backed cryptocurrencies here

Proof of Keys vs. Keep your Keys Always Private

Trace Mayer has it right about proof of keys to keep Centralized Crypto-Exchanges honest, that said keeping your keys private, ALL THE TIME, is the best option.

Such a strategy means the use of DEXs "Distributed EXchanges" should be the norm when operating a "Distributed Treasury of Networked "Multi-sig" Wallets."

Centralized Exchange Convenience: At what cost/risk?

Convenience has most of the current investors in crypto pushing "hard stores of value" from their private hardware wallet, to the Crypto Centralised Exchange (take your pick...)wallet account ID. When you do this as Mayer points out, you are giving up control of your store of value at signup to facilitate trading and even conversions to and from different(popular)fiat currency types, and have essentially given the Centralised Crypto Exchange Service control of your hard store of value, to do whatever they like while that hard store of value sits in your centralised account, they own it, carry no insurance to cover you if their system fails and loses your account value, or worse gets hacked and stolen. So in many respects these centralized Exchanges are worse than banks, and will use your value to day trade. It could get messy when they make mistakes and don't have enough crypto to cover withdrawal demands. Sound Familiar? (Think NorthernRock, Crash of 1929, Cyprus, etc..)

DASH to GOLD: A Treasury Option , always...

In the Dash2Vaultoro example (see above), you always have control of your private key in the wallet managing your #DASH and, once the transaction is acknowledged as complete by #Vaultoro back to your #DASH wallet, Vaultoro gives you title to physical gold by recording your transaction in their own private ledger and register the transaction via their vault partnership agreements to their physical gold vault manager, located in Switzerland.

That said, taking personal delivery of the gold you have acquired by liquidating your #DASH crypto hard store of value to the gold hard store of value via Vaultoro is another matter. There are delivery and admin costs(fees) involved and time delays getting the gold to your own physical vault or safe, and maybe even border restrictions on the movement of the precious metal get in the way causing delay and extra fees, so a "Networked Treasuries" Manager will need to examine each transaction pair to get this right at lowest cost to the entity.

Multi-Sig Transaction Approval in a Network of "Networked Treasuries" Wallets: Simplifying & Speeding the Complexity.

Ok ,but what about multiple-signature controlled approval of the transaction in an entity, large or small?

I will use the Big entity example. Administrators come and go. To protect the entity from such personnel movement, and to reduce the chance of collusion to steal funds, dual and often triple signatures (or more) are required before the transaction can happen. In today's world of fiat, this is often a slow approval process, slowed even further by entity politics (the multiple signature holders all have a vote, and can delay signing and approval until everyone is "on the same page".)

Most often there is a software development team creating and maintaining a data, bi-directional interface integration into existing Treasury Systems managing all approval in the "Back office" of the entity, which is directly managed by the COO, or CFO, or maybe even a combination of both, with the CEO signing the transaction approval for large value transactions, as the CEO has the final say (in most Western organisations). So complexity is the norm in Multi-signature approval of transactions.

Building a Networked Treasury of 'Multi-Sig" Wallets: A Foundation to simplify and speed complex transaction approvals

A "Network of Treasury Wallets", where each wallet is equipped with a comprehensive Multiple Signature capability, and the wallets themselves support a wide array of crypto_currency transactions, is the foundation a Treasury Manager needs to put in place to simplify and speed the above complexity of transaction approval in a big or small entity. Also, required is a system and method to effectively manage this "Network of Multi-signature, Multi-crypto capable wallets". Such a system and method is NOT readily available as a "COTS" Consumer Off The Shelf" product or service. So some integration work required and lots of multi-3rd party (bonded) testing against an Acceptance Plan to validate the integrity of the system.

Ideally, such a Network of Treasury Wallets would be managed with a UI/UX User Interface/User Experience made available to the elected administration managing the reporting (via a specially developed and maintain reporting system ) of such wallets with "blockchain" scanners to nicely report on the transactions made, received from who, made by who and for what, readily available to eVoter/Taxpayer wallet apps and govt. admin management apps alike, for "TRUE TRANSPARENCY".

A Network of Treasury Wallets: Public Transparency & Control of Government Spending, controlled by the eVoter Directly

In the public sense, A Network Treasury of Wallets can also be linked to evoting on the blockchain like AGORA (Switzerland) where the voter can be validated with IAMPASS (also of Switzerland...) which together with say a QR Coded Driver's License Card or ID Card, validates the voter, who votes for the persons who should manage the multi-signature wallet spend directly. The spend of the Multi-sig wallet can in turn, be controlled by Smart Contracts, controlling the timing and amount of spend based on milestones achieved. IAMPASS cryptographic-ally secures your vein scan to the distributed public ledger of IOTA called the #TANGLE with links to secure hosting as backup, where only you can access your vein scan, and decide who gets to look at your vein scan for the purposes of validating your ID (and right to do something , like enter a bar, vote etc..) without revealing your actual ID to the person or company or entity doing the check. For example, if you are being checked for ID at a bar, in theory you can scan the QR code without revealing ID, and you are granted access (yo are old enough) without revealing details of your ID card. Nice.

Of course none of the above is in real operation today, it will take some focus, cash, development design, coding and testing work to "put it all together" from the bits and pieces already out there in the world open source on github, gtilabs, bitbucket, etc...

The good news is none of the above is rocket science.

A Network of Multi-Signature Treasury Wallets: The Re-invention of DIRECT DEMOCRACY and Govt Transparency?

If one combines the above tech properly tested and validated, the result is a re-invention of Direct Democracy, where we actually return politicians and civil employees back into civil servants, working for the people as decided by the people.

Not surprising the Swiss are leading this charge at the component level building the necessary tech to create a new version of Direct Democracy, all of which are, imo key pieces required to build a Network and Hierarchy of Multi-Signature Treasury Wallets.

As to who will take the lead in developing complete End2End, Treasury of Multi-Signature Wallet Networks, that title is still very much up for grabs. (so get going)

And the Future is?

Whether you are a small or large business entity or a public institution, a Network of Multi-signature Wallets, behaving as a distributed "Treasury",

is likely part of your future.

Food for Thought and Creativity, so get going you software developers!

TK over and Out. ;)