Multisig Authentication
The following steps demonstrate how to create a multisig transaction and then submit it against a network using the Sui CLI. A transaction can be the transfer of an object, the publish or upgrade of a package, the payment of SUI, and so on.
To learn more about how to create multisig addresses and create multisig transactions using the TypeScript SDK, see the SDK documentation for details.
- Prerequisites
-
Set up your Sui account and CLI environment.
Create Sui account and setup CLI environment
$ sui client
If this is the first time running the sui client CLI tool, it asks you to provide a Sui full node server URL and a meaningful environment alias. It also generates an address with a random key pair in sui.keystore and a config client.yaml.
By default, the client.yaml and sui.keystore files are located in ~/.sui/sui_config. For more information, refer to the Sui client CLI tutorial.
If this is not your first time running sui client, then you already have a client.yaml file in your local environment. If you'd like to create a new address for this tutorial, use the command:
$ sui client new-address ed25519
- Obtain test tokens.
How to obtain tokens
If you are connected to the Devnet or Testnet networks, use the Faucet UI to request tokens.
If you are connected to a local full node, learn how to get local network tokens.
This topic assumes you are somewhat familiar with the Sui CLI, specifically the sui client and sui keytool commands. Consequently, a command might be introduced without any context. If you are unsure about the details of a referenced command, see the Sui CLI documentation for more information.
You need an existing address on the network you are working on to receive an object. The topic assumes that this address is the current active address (sui client active-address), but any address you have access to is fine.
The topic also assumes that your active environment is Testnet (sui client active-env). You can perform these steps on Devnet or a local network as well, but you must adjust the commands appropriately.
Executing multisig transactions
To demonstrate multisig, this topic guides you through setting up and executing a multisig transaction using the Sui CLI.
Create addresses with different schemes
To begin, create three addresses that will act as the signers for the transaction you perform later in the instruction. Use the sui client new-address command to generate a Sui address and public key for three supported key schemes.
$ sui client new-address ed25519
$ sui client new-address secp256k1
$ sui client new-address secp256r1
The console displays a response to each successful call that is similar to the following:
╭────────────── ────────────────────────────────────╮
│ Created new key pair and saved it to keystore. │
├────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────┤
│ alias │ <ALIAS> │
│ address │ <SUI-ADDRESS> │
│ keyScheme │ <KEY-SCHEME> │
│ recoveryPhrase │ <RECOVERY-PHRASE> │
╰────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────╯
When working with blockchain data, addresses and hashed values create large strings that can be cumbersome to work with in a CLI environment. To make referencing values easier in subsequent commands (and facilitate copy and paste), this topic uses shell variables. Use the values you receive from the console responses to set shell variables for these addresses, replacing the <SUI-ADDRESS-*> variables with the appropriate address.
$ ADDRESS1=<SUI-ADDRESS-ED25519>
$ ADDRESS2=<SUI-ADDRESS-SECP256K1>
$ ADDRESS3=<SUI-ADDRESS-SECP256R1>
Create one more shell variable assigned to your active address.
$ ACTIVE=<ACTIVE-ADDRESS>
You can set the shell variables to the alias values instead of addresses if you want.
Verify addresses
Use sui keytool to list the addresses you created in the previous section.
$ sui keytool list
The response resembles the following, but displays actual alias names, addresses, keys, and peer IDs:
╭──────────────────────────────────────────────── ────────────────────╮
│ ╭─────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────╮ │
| | alias | <ALIAS-NAME> | |
│ │ suiAddress │ <SUI-ADDRESS> │ │
│ │ publicBase64Key │ <PUBLIC-KEY> │ │
│ │ keyScheme │ ed25519 │ │
│ │ flag │ 0 │ │
│ │ peerId │ <PEER-ID> │ │
│ ╰─────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────╯ │
│ ╭─────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────╮ │
| | alias | <ALIAS-NAME> | |
│ │ suiAddress │ <SUI-ADDRESS> │ │
│ │ publicBase64Key │ <PUBLIC-KEY> │ │
│ │ keyScheme │ secp256k1 │ │
│ │ flag │ 0 │ │
│ │ peerId │ <PEER-ID> │ │
│ ╰─────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────╯ │
│ ╭─────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────╮ │
| | alias | <ALIAS-NAME> | |
│ │ suiAddress │ <SUI-ADDRESS> │ │
│ │ publicBase64Key │ <PUBLIC-KEY> │ │
│ │ keyScheme │ secp256r1 │ │
│ │ flag │ 0 │ │
│ │ peerId │ <PEER-ID> │ │
│ ╰─────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────╯ │
╰────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
The output includes public key data that you use later, so create shell variables to store the information. Don't forget to replace <PUBLIC-KEY-*> with the actual values you receive from the previous console response.
$ PKEY_1=<PUBLIC-KEY-ED25519>
$ PKEY_2=<PUBLIC-KEY-SECP256K1>
$ PKEY_3=<PUBLIC-KEY-SECP256R1>
Create a multisig address
To sign a transaction using multisig, you need to create a multisig address using sui keytool multi-sig-address. The multisig address is created using the public keys from each individual participating address. Each address is also assigned a weight value that determines how many are needed to create a valid signature. When summed, the weight of the included signatures must be greater than or equal to the threshold value you also set with the command. For this example, use the following command, which states that the first two addresses require at least one more signature to create a valid multisig. The last address has a weight of 3, which is equal to the threshold value, so its owner can create a valid signature without the others.
$ sui keytool multi-sig-address --pks $PKEY_1 $PKEY_2 $PKEY_3 --weights 1 2 3 --threshold 3
The response resembles the following:
╭─────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ multisigAddress │ <MULTISIG-ADDRESS> │
│ multisig │ ╭─────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮ │
│ │ │ ╭─────────────────┬───────────────────────────────╮ │ │
│ │ │ │ address │ <SUI-ADDRESS> │ │ │
│ │ │ │ publicBase64Key │ <PUBLIC-KEY> │ │ │
│ │ │ │ weight │ 1 │ │ │
│ │ │ ╰─────────────────┴───────────────────────────────╯ │ │
│ │ │ ╭─────────────────┬───────────────────────────────╮ │ │
│ │ │ │ address │ <SUI-ADDRESS> │ │ │
│ │ │ │ publicBase64Key │ <PUBLIC-KEY> │ │ │
│ │ │ │ weight │ 2 │ │ │
│ │ │ ╰─────────────────┴───────────────────────────────╯ │ │
│ │ │ ╭─────────────────┬───────────────────────────────╮ │ │
│ │ │ │ address │ <SUI-ADDRESS> │ │ │
│ │ │ │ publicBase64Key │ <PUBLIC-KEY> │ │ │
│ │ │ │ weight │ 3 │ │ │
│ │ │ ╰─────────────────┴───────────────────────────────╯ │ │
│ │ ╰─────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯ │
╰─────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
Add SUI to the multisig address
Before getting SUI, set a MULTISIG shell variable to the multisig address provided at the top of the previous response (substituting the actual address for <MULTISIG-ADDRESS>).
$ MULTISIG=<MULTISIG-ADDRESS>
If you use the sui client objects $MULTISIG command, you can see that the newly created multisig address has no objects. This means you need to get SUI before you can perform any transactions. To get SUI for your multisig account, use the sui client faucet command and provide the multisig address using the --address flag. Run this command twice so that the multisig address owns at least two SUI. This example uses two SUI so that one can be transferred and the other can pay for gas.
$ sui client faucet --address $MULTISIG
Use the sui client gas command to verify the address now has at least two SUI.
$ sui client gas $MULTISIG
Transfer SUI to your active address
It's now time to transfer an object from the multisig address. For simplicity, this example uses one of the coins your multisig address owns as the transfer object. Copy the object ID for one of the address' coins and use it to set a shell variable value.
$ COIN=<COIN-OBJECT-ID>
Use the sui client transfer command to set up the transfer. The --serialize-unsigned-transaction flag outputs the Base64-encoded transaction bytes.
Beginning with the Sui v1.24.1 release, the --gas-budget option is no longer required for CLI commands.
$ sui client transfer --to $ACTIVE --object-id $COIN --gas-budget <GAS-AMOUNT> --serialize-unsigned-transaction
The console displays the result (<TX-BYTES-RESULT>), which you can assign to another shell variable.
$ TXBYTES=<TX-BYTES-RESULT>
Sign the transaction with two public keys
Use the sui keytool sign command to sign the transaction using two of the addresses you created previously.
You can create the signature with other tools, as well, as long as you serialize it to flag || sig || pk.
$ sui keytool sign --address $ADDRESS1 --data $TXBYTES
$ sui keytool sign --address $ADDRESS2 --data $TXBYTES
Each successful call to the command receives a response similar to the following.
╭──────────────┬─────────────────────────────╮
│ suiAddress │ <ADDRESS> │
│ rawTxData │ <TRANSACTION-HASH> │
│ intent │ ╭─────────┬─────╮ │
│ │ │ scope │ 0 │ |
│ │ │ version │ 0 │ |
│ │ │ app_id │ 0 │ |
| | ╰─────────┴─────╯ │
│ rawIntentMsg │ <INTENT-MSG-HASH> │
│ digest │ <DIGEST-HASH> │
│ suiSignature │ <SIGNATURE-HASH> │
╰──────────────┴─────────────────────────────╯
Create two more shell variables to store the signatures, replacing <SIGNATURE-HASH-*> with the values from the previous command responses.
$ SIG_1=<SIGNATURE-HASH-ED25519>
$ SIG_2=<SIGNATURE-HASH-SECP256K1>
Combine individual signatures into a multisig
As mentioned, the multisig must be composed of enough individual signatures such that the sum of the participating signer weights is greater than the threshold value. Use the sui keytool multi-sig-combine-partial-sig command to combine the ed25519 signature (weight: 1) and the secp256k1 (weight: 2). To complete the command, you must provide all public keys, their weights, and the threshold that defined the multisig address.
$ sui keytool multi-sig-combine-partial-sig --pks $PKEY_1 $PKEY_2 $PKEY_3 --weights 1 2 3 --threshold 3 --sigs $SIG_1 $SIG_2
If successful, the console responds with a message similar to the following.
╭────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────╮
│ multisigAddress │ <MULTISIG-ADDRESS> │
│ multisigParsed │ <MULTISIG-PARSED-HASH> │
│ multisigSerialized │ <MULTISIG-SERIALIZED-HASH> │
╰────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────╯
Execute the transaction
Use sui client execute-signed-tx to execute the multisig transaction. Set a shell variable equal to the multisigSerialized value you receive from the previous response, then use it to build the execute-signed-tx command.
$ MULTISIG_SERIALIZED=<MULTISIG-SERIALIZED-HASH>
$ sui client execute-signed-tx --tx-bytes $TXBYTES --signatures $MULTISIG_SERIALIZED
If successful, the console responds with transaction details.
Transaction response
This response contains the actual values from a test signing. Your response should be formatted the same but the values you receive are going to be different.
Transaction Digest: 7mBWUxT6HUVDa8bii3PZJc7nhWqefTLNTsGbHYnx7ZA4
╭─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ Transaction Data │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Sender: 0xfc9a64c928a09725cfe01478ad50c2418320b4c079d944ed430eff0f30666a35 │
│ Gas Owner: 0xfc9a64c928a09725cfe01478ad50c2418320b4c079d944ed430eff0f30666a35 │
│ Gas Budget: 2997880 MIST │
│ Gas Price: 1000 MIST │
│ Gas Payment: │
│ ┌── │
│ │ ID: 0xc62a5e163e599729509d6cebde097cac04e5d1b3bbc9a169144e8dfa602a0768 │
│ │ Version: 289574879 │
│ │ Digest: 2PMc8L67YbZmna4hoaryX9cZZFSgFNPEYPEeCqcDPCcX │
│ └── │
│ │
│ Transaction Kind: Programmable │
│ ╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮ │
│ │ Input Objects │ │
│ ├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │
│ │ 0 Pure Arg: Type: address, Value: "0x65437300e280695a40df8cf524c7bca6ad62574cac3a52d3b085ad628c797241" │ │
│ │ 1 Imm/Owned Object ID: 0xe7acb59c190d7fcfcb622916e929c92007f6da15128fd84c8a2afd94a39edf11 │ │
│ ╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯ │
│ ╭──────────────────────╮ │
│ │ Commands │ │
│ ├──────────────────────┤ │
│ │ 0 TransferObjects: │ │
│ │ ┌ │ │
│ │ │ Arguments: │ │
│ │ │ Input 1 │ │
│ │ │ Address: Input 0 │ │
│ │ └ │ │
│ ╰──────────────────────╯ │
│ │
│ Signatures: │
│ AwICIrr3sYG1hx2DaVkS3levGuTv68GA1RL+6ZFbtnFV5PBPkEHuysjme9nG0hZ3hQ0eDds2CedbKkLqDyCUXMNQDwEUtr9SYWRGiJJih21cAXgpSxf5Y53HFcmzJPWfxac54l21YVx6hc7vhI1xunMzhVeQlCa53vVJiAtWKLKz+H7FBgADAPZrm85y/Gn83R6kUhXme9J8W2ilJyda6cAObtuyJ3CqAQICAwSWHr3Q2vGVFH4SQckaQs76X89S6hX3NUarydSY3jgCAQNqj1MFWmTysOPFDXdNfD2kJlQhWTiT3AbxdlJDDWozIgMDAA== │
│ │
╰─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
╭───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ Transaction Effects │
├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Digest: 7mBWUxT6HUVDa8bii3PZJc7nhWqefTLNTsGbHYnx7ZA4 │
│ Status: Success │
│ Executed Epoch: 600 │
│ Mutated Objects: │
│ ┌── │
│ │ ID: 0xc62a5e163e599729509d6cebde097cac04e5d1b3bbc9a169144e8dfa602a0768 │
│ │ Owner: Account Address ( 0xfc9a64c928a09725cfe01478ad50c2418320b4c079d944ed430eff0f30666a35 ) │
│ │ Version: 289574880 │
│ │ Digest: DWmLziJZEHwhkAfdBWVhn8HnJU7DMepDmjVLps2peSx8 │
│ └── │
│ ┌── │
│ │ ID: 0xe7acb59c190d7fcfcb622916e929c92007f6da15128fd84c8a2afd94a39edf11 │
│ │ Owner: Account Address ( 0x65437300e280695a40df8cf524c7bca6ad62574cac3a52d3b085ad628c797241 ) │
│ │ Version: 289574880 │
│ │ Digest: JBA6PrhWuTUJ3P8NXBpgBetFBaSJacEvQKS4USK9EfAr │
│ └── │
│ Gas Object: │
│ ┌── │
│ │ ID: 0xc62a5e163e599729509d6cebde097cac04e5d1b3bbc9a169144e8dfa602a0768 │
│ │ Owner: Account Address ( 0xfc9a64c928a09725cfe01478ad50c2418320b4c079d944ed430eff0f30666a35 ) │
│ │ Version: 289574880 │
│ │ Digest: DWmLziJZEHwhkAfdBWVhn8HnJU7DMepDmjVLps2peSx8 │
│ └── │
│ Gas Cost Summary: │
│ Storage Cost: 1976000 MIST │
│ Computation Cost: 1000000 MIST │
│ Storage Rebate: 1956240 MIST │
│ Non-refundable Storage Fee: 19760 MIST │
│ │
│ Transaction Dependencies: │
│ F6TBXbvdK9fi4BnxZMBkL7QeNyv1612778i12ZPhafJD │
│ HFi4TniDvgL1jDzgPHjzJhxR8nbavLmPH3LLDnNL5Tqd │
╰───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
╭─────────────────────────────╮
│ No transaction block events │
╰─────────────────────────────╯
╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ Object Changes │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Mutated Objects: │
│ ┌── │
│ │ ObjectID: 0xc62a5e163e599729509d6cebde097cac04e5d1b3bbc9a169144e8dfa602a0768 │
│ │ Sender: 0xfc9a64c928a09725cfe01478ad50c2418320b4c079d944ed430eff0f30666a35 │
│ │ Owner: Account Address ( 0xfc9a64c928a09725cfe01478ad50c2418320b4c079d944ed430eff0f30666a35 ) │
│ │ ObjectType: 0x2::coin::Coin<0x2::sui::SUI> │
│ │ Version: 289574880 │
│ │ Digest: DWmLziJZEHwhkAfdBWVhn8HnJU7DMepDmjVLps2peSx8 │
│ └── │
│ ┌── │
│ │ ObjectID: 0xe7acb59c190d7fcfcb622916e929c92007f6da15128fd84c8a2afd94a39edf11 │
│ │ Sender: 0xfc9a64c928a09725cfe01478ad50c2418320b4c079d944ed430eff0f30666a35 │
│ │ Owner: Account Address ( 0x65437300e280695a40df8cf524c7bca6ad62574cac3a52d3b085ad628c797241 ) │
│ │ ObjectType: 0x2::coin::Coin<0x2::sui::SUI> │
│ │ Version: 289574880 │
│ │ Digest: JBA6PrhWuTUJ3P8NXBpgBetFBaSJacEvQKS4USK9EfAr │
│ └── │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
╭───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ Balance Changes │
├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ┌── │
│ │ Owner: Account Address ( 0x65437300e280695a40df8cf524c7bca6ad62574cac3a52d3b085ad628c797241 ) │
│ │ CoinType: 0x2::sui::SUI │
│ │ Amount: 1000000000 │
│ └── │
│ ┌── │
│ │ Owner: Account Address ( 0xfc9a64c928a09725cfe01478ad50c2418320b4c079d944ed430eff0f30666a35 ) │
│ │ CoinType: 0x2::sui::SUI │
│ │ Amount: -1001019760 │
│ └── │
╰───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
Related links
Multi-signature (multisig) transactions require multiple keys for authentication rather than a single key. Sui supports multisig transactions for pure Ed25519, ECDSA Secp256k1, and ECDSA Secp256r1 encryption keys.
How to create multisig addresses and sign transactions using the Sui SDK.
See the Sui TypeScript SDK documentation to learn how to use the library with multisig transactions.
Sui provides command line tools to interact with the network, its features, and the Move programming language. Individual command groups are referred to as Sui Client CLI, Sui Keytool CLI, Sui Move CLI, and Sui Validator CLI.