Report: Google launches secure multi-party computing service for crypto wallets

Google LLC’s cloud unit is reportedly preparing to launch a service designed to help financial institutions protect their customers’ digital assets.

The offering is called Google Multi-Party Compute, Coindesk reported today. It is currently being tested by a group of early adopters who are considered key players in the financial sector. Additionally, Google parent Alphabet Inc. uses it to secure its Ethereum and Solana holdings.

Cryptocurrency holders store their assets in applications called crypto wallets. Each wallet is protected by a unique private key, a data snippet with a function analogous to a password. Hackers who gain access to a wallet’s private key can steal its contents relatively easily.

Google’s multi-party compute service improves the security of crypto wallets by making their private keys harder to steal. This is achieved through an approach called Multi-Party Computation (MPC).

A wallet’s private key is typically stored on a single device. If hackers compromise this device, they can access its private key. MPC mitigates this attack vector by splitting keys into multiple fragments and storing each one on a separate system. TThe more devices hackers have to break through to steal a key, the less feasible this is.

Different MPC services share keys different ways. Some represent each key fragment as a point on a curved line. When a user needs to make a transaction, the key is mathematically reconstructed from the points. Another popular approach, TSS, never reconstructs the key to avoid giving hackers a target.

Multi-Party Compute will reportedly allow users to customize the application of MPC to their crypto wallets. In particular, it provides the ability to customize the number of key fragments required to authorize a transaction. For example, a bank might allow users to approve low-risk payments using three of the five fragments of a key.

The ability to authorize transactions with only a subset of a key’s fragments, rather than all fragments, allows some fragments to be kept in an offline vault. These offline fragments make it easier to recover the key in the event of data loss. Furthermore, they are simplify certain tasks to comply with legal regulations.

Multi-Party Compute also offers further customization options. According to today’s report, the service will allow users to split keys across Google Cloud, competing platforms and on-premises hardware. Additionally, each transaction is verified to meet a set of custom policies before it is released. For example, a bank could create a policy that blocks outflows to untrusted wallets.

The code that checks whether transactions comply with user policies is reportedly running in Confidential Spaces. These are Google Cloud containers based on a custom, hardened operating system. It encrypts network connections and lacks common operating system features that are sometimes used by hackers for cyberattacks.

Multi-Party Compute is currently in private preview. Google plans to make it generally available in early 2027.

Picture: Google