How Does a Time-Locked Smart Contract Differ from a Multi-Signature Wallet?

A time-locked smart contract is an autonomous program that automatically releases funds at a pre-defined time, with no human intervention possible to unlock them early. A multi-signature wallet (multi-sig) requires a minimum number of pre-approved private keys (e.g.

3 out of 5 team members) to authorize a transaction. Multi-sigs are flexible but rely on the honesty of the key holders; time-locks are immutable and trustless.