tl;dr: Turns out that the Chinese already get the idea of crypto private keys. They’ve been using it for centuries.

There was a fascinating article in the WSJ a few days ago entitled The Real Power Brokers In China: Those Who Wield the Rubber Stamps Corporate tech giants rely on some ancient tech to run their businesses—physical seals of approval that cost about $20 each

In my earliest days of describing Bitcoin, I would open up with a story about the historical role of signet rings.

Those were “proof of authenticity” of a letter or a document.

The challenge, of course, is that whoever has the signet ring, has the power. That was 4,000 years ago in Egypt and into the Middle Ages.

And apparently today in modern China.

Some habits die hard, I suppose.

But, maybe they don’t die for a reason?

The signet ring and the chop (the rubber stamp that is used in China) are the ultimate in authority. On the one hand, power can be compromised.

On the other hand, it is essentially a version of Truman’s “The Buck Stops Here.”

It’s a final resting place for decision-making and authority.

That can be a great thing, requiring someone, anyone to make a decision one way or the other.

Bitcoin works the EXACT same way only instead of a signet ring or a chop, you have a private key that is digital.

The key \can reside on a laptop, a phone, a USB device or, if you want, you can give it to someone else, like Coinbase, to hold it for you.

As the saying goes, “Not your Chop, Not Your Company.”

Actually, the saying goes “Not your keys, not your crypto.”

Same, but different

So, in some respects, Bitcoin and other cryptos are merely an upgraded version of the way we’ve been doing business for millennia. Same idea, just digital.

BUT…and here’s the BIG but..

with a digital private key, you can actually slice up the right to use it.

So, while there may only be ONE key, one signet ring, one chop, with a digital key, you can do something that you cannot do with physical ones.

You can create something known as a “multi-sig.”

These are often referred to as “m of n” multi-sigs. So, for example, you could have “2 of 3” or “3 of 5” or “100 of 150.”

Any asset that is actually managed by more than one person, say the crypto coins in a fund or a DAO treasury, must be resistant to centralized control of one person.

So, a multi–sig basically says “this money may only be spent by the holder of the private key for the account. However, the authorization to move the funds must be approved by 2 of 3 different accounts.”

Or whatever the rules are.

This type of security makes a digital private key FAR superior to a chop or a signet ring.

It removes risk from the organization and its shareholders and provides peace of mind.

Casa does this beautifully already for people serious about protecting their Bitcoin.

We’ll see a lot more of these in the future.