Which address gets the money from the multisig transactions? (and multisig in general)

Question

I am playing with the blockchain and I saw this transaction there

https://blockchain.info/tx/60a20bd93aa49ab4b28d514ec10b06e1829ce6818ec06cd3aabd013ebcdc4bb1

the output from decoderawtransaction by bitcoind is here

http://pastebin.com/wbLH3HZa

I don't really get what is hapenning. I tried to read this https://blockchain.info/wallet/escrow but I am not that much wiser.

• Does it mean that the multisig output works as some kind of "escrow" for the whole transaction, not just the 0.01 output?
• more importantly, who from the two addresses can spend the output of the multisig transaction?
• How do the parties "free" the money from "escrow"?

I would like to see it on this specific transaction - who gets what kind of money and how? Thanks.

Answer 1

I don't know how a 1 of n multisig transaction would affect the balance display of individual wallet clients, but because only one of the two addresses must sign, the coins effectively belong to both until one spends them.

To explicitly address your bullets:

• A multisig output can be used for escrow, but it only affects the multisig output itself. Because this output only needs signature of one, it doesn't make for effective escrow. 2 of 3 outputs with two parties and an arbiter make for good simple escrow.
• In this case, either address can spend this output
• In this case, the funds are 'freed' when either party decides to spend them. In a 2 of 3 escrow situation, an unsigned transaction is created to spend the multisig output and then two of the addresses must sign that transaction individually before it becomes valid. Broadcasting the fully-signed transaction frees the coins by sending them to whatever output was specified, which could very well just be a regular address.