Den Launches Beta, Touting Faster And Safer Transactions On Heels Of FTX Collapse

They say that the current down market is a time for building. If so, then blockchain developers have a new resource for faster transactions and more secure self-custody.

On Tuesday, on-chain multisig solution Den announced the launch of its public beta:

“Introducing Den: the fastest multisig for on-chain teams, built on @safe. Starting today, you have access to the same tool that world-class teams have been using to manage over $80M in assets.”

Introducing Den: the fastest multisig for onchain teams, built on @safe

Starting today, you have access to the same tool that world-class teams have been using to manage over $80M in assets

You're about to move 10x faster pic.twitter.com/7sona95m7U

— Den (we're hiring!) (@OnChainDen) January 17, 2023

A multisig solution generally has stronger security, but can be less convenient to use since more than one key is required for transactions.

Den explains the challenge they are trying to address:

“Onchain teams are still slower than off-chain teams. They need to be 10x faster to transition the world to a crypto-native economy.”

“Hundreds of multi-sig signers” spoke with Den to determine what holds up transactions. Among the challenges:

• Transactions can take days or weeks. This is a matter of human error as signers can be away from their ledgers, or just forget. Den helps coordinate signers with automatic notifications on Discord and Telegram.
• Transactions are tedious and time-consuming to understand. Den expresses transactions into user-friendly, plain-language descriptions – and allows users to simulate transactions to remove the hesitation that comes from being unsure you understand the transaction.
• Transactions can be so hard to create, teams hire outside engineers. Den wishes to help blockchain projects streamline the process and batch transactions so users only need to go through the process once.

Den Co-Founder: 'Onchain Asset Storage Is Critical'

Benzinga spoke with Den co-founder Jonah Erlich to learn whether recent events in the industry, such as the collapse of FTX FTT/USD, put greater emphasis on the need for a faster, on-chain, multisig solution.

“Onchain asset storage, today in the form of multisigs, is critical for the future of crypto asset storage. Storing assets on centralized exchanges is an unacceptable security risk for our customers, and events such as FTX's collapse, show how pertinent this risk is.”

Self-custody also presents its own hazards, particularly the fear of being hacked or losing your key. However, the collapse of centralized projects that were custodying funds for customers has put many users squarely in the mantra of “your keys, your crypto” — a sentiment Den wishes to support.

“Multisig solutions are the best ways for a team to securely self-custody their assets on-chain today. Den's current focus is making this experience secure, easy, and fast. In the long term, we expect to provide additional on-chain asset storage mechanisms that ensure security and flexibility.”

In open Beta, the Den multi-sig solution is currently available on Ethereum ETH/USD, Polygon MATIC/USD, Optimism OP/USD, Arbitrum ARBI/USD, and Gnosis GNO/USD. Den stated that greater than 180 teams are using Den to secure more than $80 million in assets. They claim that more than $10 million in transfers have been expedited using Den and that customers are a mix of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and centralized organizations that work with DeFi.

Cover image by Stephen Steffler from Pixabay