So even the developers are saying that multi sig is not really essential and is obviously an advanced feature. So why in Gods Green earth has it held up the release of NEM?
call me suspicious but I think it was used to cover up much deeper issues and work. Otherwise NEM just made everyone almost give up on it over an advanced feature that 99.9% of people will never use. Who's in charge of NEM....cause they ain't doing it right.
We aren't releasing without multisig because there are huge amounts of NEM (like the community fund) that need to be managed after launch. Also, we don't want exchanges to get hacked as easily, so multi-sig is absolutely essential for any live crypto currency. Otherwise it is playing Russian roulette with a semi-auto; you are just asking to be killed. Multisig (if used) will save a lot of trouble.
If you had used our beta for the last 3 months, you would know that there are no major issues with NEM or our network. We just don't want to release a half-assed product like other coins have. We won't compromise quality.
Try it out for yourself:
https://forum.nemcoin.com/beta-launch-discussion/nem-beta-0-5-4/