Safe is a smart-account protocol for Ethereum and compatible networks, formerly called Gnosis Safe. Its contract-based accounts can require multiple owners to approve transactions and can support additional rules through extensions. Safe's history dates the Gnosis Safe product to 2018 and its separation from Gnosis to 2022.12

Accounts and ownersReport an errorSuggest an improvement

Safe's account documentation describes an owner list and a threshold: the minimum number of owner signatures needed for ordinary transaction execution. A three-owner account can, for example, require two approvals. Authorised operations can replace owners or change the threshold. The Safe account itself has no private key; its owners supply the credentials checked by the contract.2

This makes the account distinct from the wallets used to sign for it. A hardware wallet may control an owner address, while the Safe contract holds assets and applies the approval policy. Safe's own history emphasises that Safe is a smart-account system rather than a hardware wallet.1

Modules and guardsReport an errorSuggest an improvement

A module adds an execution route governed by its own logic. Safe's documentation describes uses including recurring payments, spending allowances, and recovery. Once enabled, a module can execute through the module interface without collecting the ordinary owner-signature threshold for each operation. Safe warns that a malicious module can take control of an account; extension permissions therefore matter alongside its owner list.3

A guard performs checks before and after a Safe transaction. It can reject a proposed operation or check the resulting state. This also creates an availability risk: a defective guard can block execution. Safe's documentation explicitly calls for attention to guard audits and recovery mechanisms.4

Development and governanceReport an errorSuggest an improvement

According to Safe's account of its development, the project grew out of a wallet built for Gnosis, introduced the Gnosis Safe smart account in 2018, and formed a separate ecosystem and SafeDAO in 2022. SAFE is the ecosystem's governance token. As of 31 October 2026, the Foundation also describes SAFE staking as securing its Safenet transaction-security network.15

On 15 October 2026, Safe Foundation announced Safenet Aegis, which it describes as a production release that combines independent transaction checks with onchain validator attestations and fees. Its stated scope excludes economic attacks; the announcement does not promise protection against every type of loss.6

Transaction-verification riskReport an errorSuggest an improvement

According to investigator Sygnia, the 21 February 2025 theft from Bybit used modified JavaScript served by Safe{Wallet}'s web infrastructure to manipulate a transaction during signing. The resulting delegate call replaced the wallet's implementation with malicious code. Sygnia found the injected resources in browser caches on all three signers' hosts. This illustrates why valid signatures alone cannot establish that signers understood the operation they approved.7

See alsoReport an errorSuggest an improvement

ReferencesReport an errorSuggest an improvement

  1. ^ a b c Safe Foundation. History of Safe. https://safefoundation.org/blog/history-of-safe 

  2. ^ a b Safe documentation. Smart Account Concepts. https://docs.safe.global/advanced/smart-account-concepts 

  3. ^ Safe documentation. Safe Modules. https://docs.safe.global/advanced/smart-account-modules 

  4. ^ Safe documentation. Safe Guards. https://docs.safe.global/advanced/smart-account-guards 

  5. ^ Safe Foundation. Safe Token. Accessed 2026-10-31. https://safefoundation.org/token 

  6. ^ Safe Foundation (2026-10-15). Introducing Safenet Aegis: Enforceable transaction security for Safes. https://safefoundation.org/blog/safenet-aegis-live 

  7. ^ Sygnia. Sygnia’s Investigation into the Bybit Hack: What We Know So Far. https://www.sygnia.co/blog/sygnia-investigation-bybit-hack/