BitQuick, a peer-to-peer Bitcoin trading platform that connects buyers and sellers, has announced its integration of Pay to Script Hash (P2SH) multi-signature addresses through the BitGo platform. This makes BitQuick the first major marketplace to implement multi-signature technology to protect customer funds.
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BitGo, which launched the first ever multi-signature Bitcoin wallet in 2013, provides its clients with three keys. Two of the keys, the user key-pair and the backup-key pair, are held by BitQuick, and one key is held by BitGo. The backup-key pair is stored in a secure offline location and can be used for fund recovery in the case of a BitGo service failure. In order to perform a transaction from a secure address, 2-factor authentication must be performed, and other levels of automatic fraud detection must be passed. This allows BitQuick to provide the advantages of cold storage level security while also maintaining the convenience of quick transactions.
BitGo also utilizes hierarchical deterministic (HD) wallets, providing greater privacy for customer funds. Anyone can publicly verify the balance of all BitQuick addresses without being able to connect transactions to users through the proof of reserves page. The page also provides a real-time sum of the total Bitcoin for sale on BitQuick and the sum of Bitcoin held in the P2SH addresses.
BitQuick’s integration with BitGo is a small part of continuing infrastructure development to the platform. The team is planning to soon provide a unique multi-signature address for each order, where the seller and BitQuick will each be given keys so that the seller may sign off on a transaction or BitQuick. They are also extending their seller’s promotion to 1/15/2015, providing new sellers with up to $10 in free bitcoin when trying the service.
Have you used BitQuick? What are your thoughts on BitQuick introducing P2SH multi-signature addresses? Let us know in the comments.
Images from BitQuick
