TL;DR:

• Squads has been building on Solana for over 2 years;

• the Squads app has undergone a full UI/UX revamp;

• the next iteration of Squads Protocol, v4, is here;

• teams can now access advanced features for their multisig with Squads Pro;

• along with the new platform, we are launching SquadsX - the first multisig web-extension wallet on Solana.

Squads Labs started building on Solana in 2021, originally focusing on DAO tooling infrastructure. As we were progressing in our development journey, we discovered that the Solana ecosystem at the time was (and still largely is) populated by startup teams and crypto native institutions as opposed to DAOs. Consequently, in early 2022 we shifted our focus towards building the ultimate tool for these on-chain organizations to manage their developer and treasury assets via multisig.

In order to ensure that our product offering is built on strong foundations, we developed Squads Protocol - a protocol on Solana allowing developers to securely deploy PDAs with customizable multisig consensus mechanisms. In late summer of 2022 we launched Squads Protocol v3, which has grown to become the multisig standard for the Solana ecosystem, supporting more than 100 teams and securing over $500mln in value.

Today we are releasing a completely redesigned version of our platform as well as the next iteration of the protocol - v4. In this release we have taken into consideration a multitude of user feedback gathered during the year v3 has been on Solana mainnet, as well as our vision as it relates to multisig use cases and user experience required to effectively manage on-chain assets at an enterprise level. Let’s dive into the new Squads app and v4.

A Brand New Experience

We have completely reimagined the design of the app, streamlining the user experience and bringing it closer to what one might expect from traditional fintech and enterprise SaaS solutions. While the addition of light mode, a new color palette, and revised components might be the most obvious changes, this design update includes dozens of quality of life improvements making the experience of navigating the app smoother than ever before.

Powered by Our New v4 Program

Squads Protocol v3 has been an amazing achievement for the ecosystem, since paired with the Squads app it was able to deliver a formally verified and immutable multisig experience for teams on Solana. As user feedback poured in and more teams were reaching out about using v3 as foundation for their products, we discovered that it was not without its limitations, making the need for the next iteration very apparent. To address that, we have built a new powerful program designed for making it even easier for builders to leverage multisig consensus and account abstraction on Solana to deliver seamless product experiences for the next billion users. This is Squads Protocol v4.

The new v4 program expands upon v3 by introducing features such as:

• Time locks

• Sub-accounts

• Roles and permissions

• Spending limits

• Support for ALTs (Address Lookup Tables)

• Network fee relayer.

While our new platform takes full advantage of what this new program has to offer, we believe it can and should be leveraged by all kinds of projects on Solana such as wallets, DeFi protocols and projects tokenizing real-world assets. With industry leaders like Pyth already building on top of v3, we expect that v4 with its expanded feature offering will have an even larger impact on developers in the Solana ecosystem.

At Squads Labs, we strongly believe that finance and medicine are the only two areas where “move fast and break things” approach, popular among many developers, simply does not work. Therefore, as always, smart contract security was paramount for us when developing v4. As of today we have completed several security audits with OtterSec and Neodyme, with two independent formal verifications and a third audit currently in progress. While there was a 6 months gap between the launch of v3 and the day we made the program immutable, we intend to get to that point much faster with v4.

Introducing Squads Pro

Along with v4 and the updated Squads app we are launching a subscription for advanced users, Squads Pro. Squads Pro is priced at $399 per Squad a month and unlocks access to advanced features, priority support and exclusive partner deals. We designed Squads Pro in response to the need of power users looking for granular controls, unlimited capabilities, privacy and a frictionless experience. All of the features our users have come to love in the previous iteration of the app powered by v3, such as multisig deployment, basic treasury management and developer asset management are all available on the new platform, free of charge.

Squads Pro subscribers get access to Spending Limits. With Spending Limits, a multisig can allow certain members to withdraw funds from the treasury without the need to pass the multisig threshold. Spending Limits can be applied to any fungible token with an option to set any timeframe, maximum withdrawal amount and a specific whitelisted destination address.

Enterprises looking for granular control and access management can take advantage of the Pro feature titled Permissions. When adding keys to the multisig, users can now select a single role or any combination of the three roles available: Proposer (only creating transactions is allowed), Voter (only signing transactions is allowed) and Executor (can only execute transactions).

With Permissions and Spending Limits, enterprises now have significant flexibility in reflecting the rights and authorizations certain operators hold when it comes to managing assets, all fully on-chain and governed by multisig consensus.

Another Pro feature we are launching today is Sub-accounts. Each multisig can now have multiple addresses to receive assets. Sub-accounts will allow startups to separate revenue streams into separate accounts for easier accounting purposes or allow venture firms to create multiple accounts for their vesting tokens without the need to deploy multiple Squads.

Additionally, our Pro users are getting access to the Fee Relayer. Activating it enables your multisig to cover network fees for its members when it comes to interacting with the Squad (initiating, signing and executing transactions), making it completely gasless from their point of view. Turn on the Relayer, make sure you have SOL in your multisig and your Squad members can interact with the app without needing SOL or any other token in their individual wallets. This feature in part relies on Turnkey infrastructure as well as being a great showcase of what is possible with account abstraction on Solana.

Finally, each Pro Squad can now be set to Members View Only. In this mode, the only way for someone to view the Squad profile and its contents is to be a member and sign a message for on-chain verification. Please note that this feature does not grant any on-chain privacy and solely relates to the interface.

On top of all the above features, Squads Pro subscribers are getting access to exclusive deals from Solana ecosystem partners and beyond such as:

• Helius - Solana's Leading RPC and API Platform;

• Integral - The enterprise-grade web3 accounting stack;

• TopLedger - On-chain analytics provider on Solana;

• Airfoil - A leading web3 design agency;

• OtterSec - Security audits for smart contracts that protect blockchain ideas;

• Neodyme - Audits, trainings, and consulting services backed by deep-dive security research;

• And more to be announced.

The Squads Pro subscription will be complimentary for SCS members until the end of this year.

SquadsX: Access the Solana Ecosystem with Multisig Security

SquadsX, the first multisig browser extension wallet for Solana, has arrived. It allows teams and institutions to interact with Solana apps, DeFi and the broader ecosystem without compromising security of their assets, thanks to multisig security. SquadsX is a browser extension wallet that a user adds as a member to their Squad and once approved, SquadsX can be connected to various apps in the Solana ecosystem (just like you would connect Phantom or Backpack) to initiate transactions for the Squad to approve.

This is an essential companion tool for your operational setup since it allows accessing Solana with enterprise-level security and perform any kind of activities such as liquidity provisioning, lending, borrowing and on-chain futures trading while maintaining your multisig consensus requirements.

As SquadsX represents a novel approach to interacting with Solana programs, we've collaborated with leading projects in the ecosystem to ensure compatibility upon release. SquadsX users can interact with:

• Phoenix - A fully decentralized central limit order book on Solana

• Orca - A concentrated liquidity automated market maker (AMM)

• Raydium - An on-chain order book AMM

• Tensor - The leading Solana NFT marketplace

• Zeta - An on-chain order book offering perpetual swaps

• Solend - A lending/borrowing protocol

• Jupiter - The leading Solana swap aggregator

• Meteora - A lending aggregator

• Circuit - Decentralized market making vaults
  
  

SquadsX is still in beta and bugs or compatibility issues may occur; for that reason SquadsX is only available to Squads Pro subscribers upon release. For the ecosystem teams out there, we will provide in the coming weeks more details and documentation on how to make your app compatible with SquadsX. For Pro users looking to test out this long awaited product, we recommend sticking to the list of our official partners for now.

What's Next?

This release is a result of many months of research, design and development, and we are beyond excited to finally bring it to Solana. v4, the new Squads app, Squads Pro and of course SquadsX are all available starting today at app.squads.so. During the next few months we will be adding a plethora of features and integrations on our journey towards making Squads the ultimate tool for on-chain enterprises to manage their developer and treasury assets in the most secure and intuitive way.

About Squads Labs

Squads Labs is a core contributor to Squads Protocol, the leading multisig infrastructure on Solana. In addition to helping maintain the protocol, Squads Labs makes the Squads platform, an institutional-grade multisig platform for Solana-based teams. The Squads platform helps web3-native teams manage and secure digital assets on-chain. To learn more about Squads Labs, please visit https://www.sqds.io/.

About Squads Protocol

Squads is a multisig protocol that helps web3-native teams manage and secure digital assets on-chain. Squads Protocol v3 is the first formally verified program on Solana. Squads Protocol v4 introduces time locks, spending limits, roles, sub-accounts, fee relayers, multiple-party payments, support for SquadsX and more. Squads v4 has already been audited by Neodyme, OtterSec. To learn more about Squads Protocol, please visit https://squads.so/protocol