Since the release of Wasabi 2.0, many users have told us that they felt that hardware wallet integration had been put on hold. They were somewhat right. WabiSabi has made so many changes to the way coinjoins work that it has required almost exclusive focus for the past two years.

Fast forward to April 2024, WabiSabi coinjoins have largely stabilized and major performance improvements have been made to block filters. Because of this, active work on hardware wallet integration support has resumed.

In 2.0.6, two new wallets were added to Wasabi’s list of supported hardware wallets: BitBox02 and Blockstream Jade. 

With the latest release (2.0.7), we’re announcing that the newly released Trezor Safe 3 hardware wallet with secure element protection is now compatible with Wasabi Wallet. 

If you want to know all the details about this integration, keep reading. We will talk about what exactly is supported in this integration, how to use your Trezor with Wasabi, and finally how you can coinjoin directly from your hardware wallet using Trezor Suite. 

Why the Trezor Safe​​ 3?

The Trezor One and Model T do not rely on secure elements for protection, making them vulnerable to physical security attacks without the use of a passphrase. 

The Trezor Safe 3 introduces Secure Element Protection (EAL6+), and combined with a device-entry passphrase, it provides bulletproof security. 

It also features Trezor’s open-source design, on-device transaction confirmation, and an intuitive user experience. And as with all Trezor hardware wallets, you can use Shamir backups for added security. 

The most surprising thing about Trezor Safe 3 is how affordable it is: just $79 USD. If you don’t already have one, get yours here. 

What is Supported in Wasabi’s Latest Integration?

This integration is very similar to the existing integration for Trezor’s One and T models. Wasabi only uses one device management component, HWI (Hardware Wallet Interface), which limits the scope of what we can support.

You can add a wallet, send and receive bitcoin, and confirm your transactions and addresses on the device. You can also use and manage your passphrase directly from your Trezor Safe 3.

Keep in mind, device initialization and firmware updates are not supported and you’re better off using Trezor Suite for that. Finally, as with all our hardware wallet integrations, there’s no support for coinjoins directly from your hardware device with Wasabi.

Coinjoin on Trezor Suite

However, you can coinjoin on Trezor Suite using the Safe 3 and the other two devices. The best part of this feature is that you’ll be using the same coordinator as on Wasabi, the zkSNACKs coordinator based on WabiSabi technology.

To learn more about this integration made possible by our partnership with Trezor, read here. 

How To Use Trezor Safe 3 with Wasabi Wallet

Follow these easy steps:

1. Select ‘Add Wallet’ from the sidebar in Wasabi.
2. In the modal window, click on ‘Connect to hardware wallet‘.

3. Name your new wallet, then click ‘Continue’.

4. Connect your Trezor Safe 3 to your computer and unlock it with the PIN.
   1. If necessary, click on Rescan once your device is ready.

5. Wasabi will recognize your Trezor Safe 3. Confirm by clicking Yes.
6. A success message will confirm the connection. Click on Done.

Your Trezor Safe 3 is now ready for use with Wasabi Wallet!
Download and verify the latest version today.

The post Latest Hardware Wallet Integration: Trezor Safe 3 on Wasabi appeared first on Wasabi Wallet - Blog.

The next time you need to spend some bitcoin to buy something, we invite you to try buying it this way. You might be surprised how well it works for you. And if you’re still unsure whether this is for you, keep reading.

Who is it for? What features are they looking for that they can’t find elsewhere? What kind of products do they buy? I was curious about these questions, so I took the time to interview some users (anonymously) to bring you this information.

Who Uses Wasabi’s Buy Anything Button?

Wasabi users care about protecting their privacy. They value expertise and want something that just works. Buy Anything Button users are pretty much the same but they also appreciate personalized attention.

Let’s explore what that means in more detail by looking at the exclusive features of the Buy Anything Button.

Anonymous: No Email, No IP

Wasabi is one of the most anonymous software out there. It’s not just about bitcoin privacy, but online privacy in general. If you’re using the Buy Anything Button, you’re prioritizing your privacy.

The Buy Anything Button takes advantage of Wasabi’s Tor implementation (learn more about how Tor works in Wasabi) to provide strong network privacy when communicating with the ShopInBit team in the chat interface. Your IP address will never be revealed.

Unlike most other services, you don’t need to provide an email address or any other identifying information when ordering digital products. Of course, when ordering physical products, you must provide a shipping address, but ShopInBit’s privacy policy ensures that this data is pseudo-anonymized after 30 days. 

It’s also important to remember that you can buy products, from different stores, but you do it all through one gateway: The Buy Anything chat interface. This way, you avoid giving shipping information to multiple vendors. 

“it’s very much akin to ordering something from the hotel reception: you tell them what you want, they bring it to your door, and you pay for the product + service. Nobody else except for the person at the hotel reception knows what you bought and how much it costs.”

Concierge Service: Hassle-Free Experience

It’s pretty convenient to ask for what you want through a chat interface, get a bitcoin invoice, pay it, and have the items delivered to your computer or door. Especially if it’s more than one product, you can order it all together instead of visiting multiple websites. 

For many, convenience and time savings are everything.

Particularly when it comes with extra personalized attention. One user revealed that when he ordered an airline ticket, the concierge found a way for him to get extra legroom for free. Other times, if there are auctions for a business class seat, he can get you to bid on it.

Concierge service means that you are being taken care of, which is very different from a DIY (do-it-yourself) shopping experience.

Top Shopping and Travel Expertise

Sometimes when you go to a fine restaurant, you don’t want to choose from the menu yourself: you want the professional waiter to tell you what’s popular or what he thinks is best for you. 

The same can be said for online shopping, especially if you have a concierge service with top expertise. One user needed Christmas gifts for 5 different people, so he provided the description of the people and the budget in the chat interface. The ShopInBit team quickly figured this out, he was able to save time, and everyone was happy with their gifts.

Why waste countless hours figuring this all out when someone already has?

The same goes for travel. You want to go to Italy, but you might not know which cities are better this time of year, which hotels, which airlines to avoid, or what activities to do. Well, your anonymous concierge will help you figure all that out.

Which Item Categories are the Most Popular?

As you may have guessed, travel is one of the most sought after categories. Many bitcoiners have developed a nomadic lifestyle (somewhat related to sovereignty) which requires them to always be arranging travel plans. This service is perfect for those that appreciate privacy, convenience, time saving and access to travel expertise. 

Tech products are also quite popular, and personal care products too.

Conclusion

You know yourself, you know if this is the type of experience you’re looking for. If you’re a Wasabi Wallet user, and you’re someone that spends bitcoin to live, maybe you also appreciate personalized attention, well then why not give it a try?

I know I will. 

The post Your Anonymous Bitcoin Concierge: Buy Anything User Stories appeared first on Wasabi Wallet - Blog.

The privacy Warnings have three levels of severity, and suggestions are actions you can take to keep your privacy intact. 

In this post, we’ll take a deep dive into what each of these warnings and suggestions mean, and how you can leverage them to maximize your privacy when using Wasabi.

Privacy Warnings Explained

Wasabi categorizes its warnings into three levels of severity: Critical, Warning, and Informational. Here are the 6 privacy warnings that Wasabi may give you when you send bitcoin. 

Transaction Interlinks Labels (Critical)

When you use Wasabi, you’ll be prompted to add labels to receiving and to destination addresses. 

When a coin reaches full privacy (anonymity score goal), the label is automatically removed because its traceability is broken. However, if you’re spending non-private or semi-private coins, you’ll be warned about their labels when you send them.  

This is what a warning might look like:

In addition, when you hover over it, a tooltip appears with more information.

 “Those entities know this is your transaction. Coinjoin more or use the label management tool to carefully select who would know that this transaction is yours.“

To resolve this, simply continue coinjoining to achieve full privacy for all your coins. 

Transaction Uses Non-Private Coins (Critical)

This critical warning is raised when your transaction spends coins that have not gone through Wasabi’s coinjoin, meaning they are easily traceable on the blockchain.

“Some entities can deanonymize this transaction because it spends coins with no privacy. Coinjoin more to have enough private coins for this transaction.” – Wasabi’s Tooltip

Transaction Uses Semi-Private Coins (Warning)

While better than non-private coins, this warning indicates that your transaction is spending coins that were part of a coinjoin but have not yet reached Wasabi’s anonymity score target.

“This transaction is not private enough because it spends not fully private coins. Coinjoin more to have enough private coins for this transaction.“

Consolidates Over 10 Coins (Warning)

It’s always better to avoid consolidating any coins, even fully-private ones, as it can only hurt their anonymity score. That said, if you only combine a few mixed coins, you may not reveal your pre-coinjoin transaction history, especially if you have done several re-mixes. 

Wasabi warns you about extreme cases such as consolidating (spending) more than 10 inputs in a single transaction, as this may allow observers to link your transaction history and negate the benefits of coinjoin mixing.

Transaction Uses Unconfirmed Funds (Info)

This warning appears when you attempt to spend coins that have not yet been confirmed on the blockchain, which carries many risks.

“This may cause your transaction to be rejected, or delay its confirmation, or cost more than needed to get it confirmed within the desired time. Wait for a confirmation to only use confirmed coins.“

Transaction Uses CoinJoining Funds (Info)

If your funds are currently part of a coinjoin, it’s better to be patient and to wait for it to complete before sending funds. 

“This may cause your transaction to be replaced by the coinjoin. Consider waiting for the current coinjoin to be finished before sending this transaction.” />

Transaction Creates Change (Info)

Creating change outputs in a transaction can potentially compromise your future privacy, although the impact isn’t immediate.

“Change can be used to link this transaction with the next transaction that will use it. Use the change avoidance suggestion to send a little more or less if this is OK for the receiver, or coinjoin the change later.”

This brings us to the next part, Wasabi’s Privacy Suggestions. 

Improve your Privacy with Wasabi’s Suggestions

In addition to warnings, Wasabi provides suggestions to help you make your transactions more private. Suggestions appear when there is room for improvement, such as when sending 10% less would avoid creating change. 

Everyone’s favorite part is that suggestions are clickable, they’re easy to implement. Let’s take a look.  

Better Privacy

If sending a little less would avoid using non-private coins, this suggestion will appear. 

Full Privacy

If sending a little less would avoid using non-private and semi-private coins, this suggestion will appear. 

Change Avoidance

Change avoidance works both ways, you can either send less or send more to avoid creating change.

Label Management

When you have interlinked labels, you’ll be able to choose the labels you want to link with this transaction. 

Conclusion

As you can see, Wasabi’s warnings and suggestions provide a wealth of information to help you create truly private bitcoin transactions. 

Pay close attention to the critical and important warnings, as they indicate potential privacy risks, and easily resolve privacy warnings by clicking on the suggestions. 

Download Wasabi Wallet.

The post Only in Wasabi: Privacy Warnings and Suggestions appeared first on Wasabi Wallet - Blog.

Wasabi has proven its reputation as the best privacy-focused bitcoin wallet, and now we’re on a mission to become the best desktop wallet for security-minded users. Integrating support for major hardware wallets is a fundamental step towards that goal.

Swiss-Made Exceptional Engineering

The BitBox02 offers a blend of user-centric design and state-of-the-art security features for Bitcoin cold storage. To learn more about the device or purchase one, check out Bitbox’s website. 

Read on if you want to know how to set up your Bitbox02 with Wasabi Wallet and also how to use it for sending and receiving bitcoin daily. 

How to Setup BitBox02 with Wasabi Wallet

Follow these easy steps to link BitBox02 with Wasabi.

Warning: You may need to disable the “Pairing code” feature or unlock the device with the BitBoxApp or hwi-qt before using it with Wasabi, as Wasabi currently does not support this function.

1. Select ‘Add Wallet’ from the sidebar in Wasabi.
2. In the modal window, click on ‘Connect to hardware wallet‘.

3. Name your new wallet, then click ‘Continue’.

4. Connect your BitBox02 to your computer and unlock it with the PIN.
   1. If necessary, click on Rescan once your device is ready.

5. Wasabi will recognize your BitBox02. Confirm by clicking Yes.

6. A success message will confirm the connection. Click on Done.

Your BitBox02 is now ready for use with Wasabi Wallet!

How to Receive Bitcoin with BitBox02 and Wasabi Wallet

Using your hardware wallet like the Bitbox02 on Wasabi is perfect to send your coins to secure cold-storage after you’ve used the coinjoin feature on your hot wallet.

Receiving Bitcoin is as simple as the following steps:

1. Click on Receive
2. Enter a label with the name of your choice for your receiving address.
3. Verify the address on your BitBox02 by clicking on the small icon shown below.
4. Scan the QR code or copy and paste the bitcoin address.

How to Send Bitcoin with BitBox02 and Wasabi Wallet

Here are the instructions to send bitcoin out of your secure cold-storage BitBox02 wallet. 

1. Click on Send
2. Enter the destination address and the bitcoin amount.
3. Enter a label with the name of your choice for the destination address. 
4. Most importantly, verify the details of the transaction on your BitBox02 before confirming. 

Congratulations!

You’ve made a successful transaction with your favorite hardware wallet from Wasabi. 

Ready to use BitBox02 with Wasabi Wallet? 

Download and verify the latest version today.

More on the Juggernaut Release

The Juggernaut Release of Wasabi Wallet introduces significant advancements in performance and privacy. 

This update extends support to two leading open-source hardware wallets: BitBox02 and Blockstream Jade. It also introduces the Safety Coinjoin feature, adds 11 new RPC calls, and implements numerous performance and user experience enhancements.

To dive deeper into the specifics of this update, including all the new features and improvements, read the full announcement article here.

The post How to Use BitBox02 (New) with Wasabi Wallet appeared first on Wasabi Wallet - Blog.

You might wonder: What are the main performance improvements made in this release?

First of all, the application launch was significantly improved such that users can now benefit from a tighter delay when starting the wallet on their computer. This performance improvement reduces CPU usage and memory consumption by half. Then, the initial transaction processing was reduced considerably because of a complete rewrite of the CoinsRegistry component, which is in charge of tracking your wallet’s balance. 

Want to see how performant the new Wasabi Wallet feels? Download and verify the new version now.

This article will outline the changes that contribute to quicker launch times in the latest Juggernaut release (Version 2.0.6), including the migration of transaction data to a database and optimizations for handling multiple wallets. Then, we delve into the rewrite of the CoinsRegistry component and how it improves initial transaction processing. Finally, we’ll explore additional updates that enhance general usage and overall performance.

Reducing the Software’s Launch Time

Whenever you launch Wasabi Wallet by clicking on the application’s icon, there’s a slight delay between that and the moment the GUI (graphical user interface) appears. During that brief instant, many essential background operations take place. 

Here are a few of the adjustments made in the latest Juggernaut release Version 2.0.6 that minimizes the execution time of these operations.

Transaction Data Migrated to a Database

Previously, transactions were stored in a single plaintext file, which was inefficient for data modifications, requiring complete file rewrites for new transactions. This approach was particularly cumbersome for wallets with thousands of transactions.

In 2.0.6, transaction data (TransactionStore) has been migrated to an SQLite database, considerably reducing disk IO (input/output operations), thereby enhancing the software’s launch time. 

This migration also lowers disk and CPU usage during general use and decreases the memory (ROM) used by Wasabi, especially for larger wallets. Users with HDDs (hard disk drives) will notably benefit from these speed improvements.

Multi Wallet Usage Improvements

Wasabi’s ability to support multiple wallets is very convenient. With the latest release, we’ve optimized the loading of multiple wallets to boost performance. Now, when only using Wallet A, the software refrains from loading irrelevant information from other wallets.

Implementing lazy initialization for scripts in HdPubKey significantly benefits multi-wallet usage by deferring important calculations to reduce launch delays. In some tests, this adjustment cut software launch time from 30 seconds to just 10 seconds.

Improving the Initial Transaction Processing

Wasabi monitors the state of your UTXOs and thus of your wallet’s balance with a key component called the CoinsRegistry. In 2.0.6, this component underwent a full rewrite to enhance initial transaction processing. Whenever your wallet is loading but after it’s done downloading blocks, the update of this component is what takes the most time.

In short, this rewrite mainly transforms data structures into a Dictionary format, enabling faster lookups, of which there can be millions.

Additional Performance Improvements

Another notable performance enhancement in this release is the optimization of the Logger, which now requires slightly less time to log an entry. Finally, some algorithmic complexity reduction improvements were implemented such as improving most used labels, to enhance software’s performance during general use.

Conclusion

By re-engineering key components and optimizing data handling, the development team was able to significantly reduce load times and improve overall performance, resulting in a smoother and faster experience for Wasabi users.

Keep in mind that these are only the performance features of this release. You can find all the changes in the announcement article.

The post Load Time Reduced by an Additional 60% in Version 2.0.6 appeared first on Wasabi Wallet - Blog.

The question then becomes: How do coinjoin wallets compare on on-chain transaction fees?

Bitcoiners may find different protocols advantageous depending on the amount they are coinjoining, or how long they are willing to wait before spending. For example, if an input you want to coinjoin is of a ten million sats or less, WabiSabi wallets are ideal unless you’re willing to wait days or weeks coinjoining, which in that case Whirlpool would be better due to the free remixing policy. 

In cases where you are willing to provide liquidity and wait for others to coinjoin, you may prefer acting as a Joinmarket maker to passively earn sats. Finally, if you’re coinjoining more than 1 BTC, Joinmarket basically almost always wins in terms of fees. 

It’s also important to remember that this analysis was purely from the fees to be paid point of view, and didn’t take into account how strong each privacy guarantee is for each protocol. To learn more about the benefits and the tradeoffs of each coinjoin protocol and wallet, visit the open-source educational website Coinjoins.org. 

If you want to know how WabiSabi, Whirlpool and Joinmarket fee structures work, read on. We’ll define all the fees of a coinjoin transaction, the way fees are calculated for each protocol and finally, which one is better for many different user profiles. 

What are the Different Fees for Coinjoin Transactions?

To answer what are the different types of fees on a coinjoin transaction, we will explain how coordinator fees work for each protocol, and then how mining fees work for each protocol. 

What are Coinjoin Coordinator Fees?

Protocols like WabiSabi and Whirlpool use a centralized coordinator model to scale privacy, allowing multiple users to cooperate in a transaction without any participant knowing which coins belong to the others. Cryptography and discreet network communication are required in order to ensure that movements of funds are not revealed to the coinjoin coordinator. To learn more about how coinjoin protocols work, read more on Coinjoins.org.

Coordinator fees are what you pay the third-party in exchange for their services. The fee can be static (fixed amount) or dynamic (percentage). 

Coordinator Fees for WabiSabi Coinjoins

For example, in WabiSabi wallets like Wasabi Wallet, BTCPay Server or Trezor Suite, coordinator fees are 0.3% (dynamic) of what you’re mixing (for the zkSNACKs coordinator). You’re only charged on the first transaction so remixing is free of coordinator fees. Also, if someone sends you coinjoined bitcoin, your coordinator fees are waived too. This feature is called Friends don’t pay.

In addition, the Plebs don’t pay feature makes it that coordinator fees are waived for any coinjoin input less than 1,000,000 satoshis (0.01 BTC). This improves accessibility for users with low amounts of bitcoin. 

Coordinator Fees for Whirlpool Coinjoins

On the other hand, on Whirlpool wallets like Samourai, Sparrow, and Bitcoin Keeper, coordinator fees are of a fixed amount, depending on the liquidity pool you choose to be part of. Here’s the breakdown per pool:

• 100,000 satoshis pool: 5,000 sats of coordinator fees
• 1,000,000 satoshis pool: 50,000 sats of coordinator fees.
• 5,000,000 satoshis pool: 175,000 sats of coordinator fees.
• 50,000,000 satoshis pool: 1,750,000 sats of coordinator fees.

You might be wondering what a coinjoin pool is. In short, it’s the coinjoin output denomination amount. The 100,000 satoshis pool will result in coinjoined outputs of that precise size. Here’s a visual example for the 5,000,000 satoshis pool: 

As you can see, every output is of the same value. When you enter a pool, you pay the fixed fee amount. However, you can enter a pool with much more than the pool denomination, to be exact you can enter with up to 70 times the pool denomination, split across 70 outputs (for the 100k sats pool it’s only 25 times). 

Now on to Joinmarket, which doesn’t have coordinator fees but there are coinjoin fees.

Coinjoin Fees on Joinmarket

Joinmarket works differently than other coinjoin protocols because it doesn’t have a centralized individual entity coordinator, but rather two user roles in a P2P (peer-to-peer) environment: makers (who provide liquidity for a fee) and takers (who pay a fee for liquidity and coordinate the transaction). Any user can be a maker or a taker.

In short, instead of paying for coordination, you pay for liquidity. There’s an orderbook with all maker offers and at different price points. Some charge a static fee (fixed amount) but most charge a dynamic fee (a percentage of the liquidity used). 

When you’re a taker, you use the liquidity of many makers in a single transaction, usually 8, which makes 9 participants including you. You pay each maker what they ask for. For example, if there’s 8 makers and each charge a dynamic fee of 0.0001% BTC for the liquidity used, and you use 1 BTC of each, you pay a total of 10,000 sats * 8 = 80,000 sats.

This is the case for each Joinmarket transaction you’re the taker on. If you’re a maker, you enjoy privacy and you get paid for it: the best of both worlds.

How Mining Fees Work on Coinjoin Transactions?

Mining fees are part of every transaction on the bitcoin network, and coinjoins are no exception. It works differently for all three major protocols. Here’s a tool to calculate bitcoin transaction size. 

Mining Fees on WabiSabi Coinjoins

On WabiSabi coinjoin transactions, you only pay the fees associated with the blockspace your inputs and outputs take. For example, if you have a P2WPKH (segwit native) wallet and you have 3 inputs and 5 outputs in a coinjoin transaction, and the current fee is 50 sats/vbyte, you will pay:

Total blockspace: 3 * 68 vbytes + 5 * 31 vbytes = 359 vbytes

Total mining fees: 516.5 vbytes * 50 sats/vbytes = 17,950 sats

You pay exactly what you consume in blockspace, in every coinjoin transaction you participate in. 

Mining Fees on Whirlpool Coinjoins

The mining fee structure of Whirlpool coinjoins is a bit more complicated, but nothing that we can’t explain. Here it goes.

First off, it’s important to understand that before the coinjoin process begins, a premix transaction, also known as Tx0, takes place. The claimed purpose is to split your total input amount into the outputs to coinjoin, the non-private change output that goes into a separate wallet account called BadBank, and the coordinator fee to pay. 

For example, if you have a 1,500,000 sats UTXO for the 1,000,000 sats denomination pool, your premix transaction (Tx0) will have 1 input and three outputs: one output to coinjoin, a 50,000 sats output to pay the coordinator, and a non private change output that goes to the BadBank wallet account.

It’s important to understand that your premix can have many inputs and many outputs to coinjoin (up to 70), but the minimum number of inputs is 1 and outputs is 2 (if there’s no change). 

The first part of the mining fees for Whirlpool coinjoins is the fee you pay for the premix transaction. However, there’s a second part: you have to pay mining fees for the first coinjoin transaction, and not only for you, but for anyone remixing in it. You share that cost with at least one additional user out of 5, but it can be up to 4 out of 5 participants. When you remix and enter further coinjoins, you don’t pay any fees.

How to calculate Whirlpool Tx0 Mining Fees

The formula for the mining fees on Tx0 is as follows (assuming all are P2WPKH UTXOs): 

Total vbytes: Base transaction vbytes + input vbytes * number of inputs + output vbytes * 2 (for change and coordinator fee outputs) + output vbytes * number of coinjoin outputs

Which comes out to: 10.5 + 68 * inputs + 31 * (2 + cjOutputs)

For example, if there are 5 inputs and 10 cjOutputs, the total vbytes will be:

Total vbytes: 10.5 + 68 * 5 + 31 * (2 + 10) = 722.5 vybtes

Total fees (assuming 50 sats/vbyte): 722.5 * 50 = 36,125 sats

How to calculate Whirlpool Coinjoin Mining Fees

Regular Whirlpool coinjoin transactions have 5 inputs and 5 outputs, which comes out to a total of 505.5 vbytes. Considering that 2 new entrants are paying, this splits the duty in two. You’re then responsible for paying 202.75 vbytes, for each one of your 10 coinjoin outputs.

Total fees (assuming 50 sats/vbyte): 202.75 * 50 * 10 = 101,375 sats

This gives you a total of 36,125 + 101,375 = 137,500 sats to pay on mining fees. However, this is a one-time fee, and you will be able to remix for free, for as long as you want.

Now, let’s cover the remaining protocol, Joinmarket.

Mining Fees on Joinmarket Coinjoins

By default, a taker is in charge of paying all the mining fees for a Joinmarket coinjoin transaction. However, there’s a setting for makers to include a mining fee contribution in their offers. In practice, as of the 10th January 2024 at 6:00 AM UTC, there’s not a single offer that includes a mining fee contribution out of 65 offers.

This means that as a taker you will almost certainly pay the entirety of the mining fee required for the Joinmarket coinjoin. This means that for every input, there will be a coinjoin output and a change output. If there are 9 participants, there are at least 9 inputs (there can be more), and at least 18 outputs. It’s also not mandatory that everyone uses the same wallet standard, which means some inputs can cost more than others. Let’s assume every input and output is P2WPKH and that every participant only has 1 input.

Total vbytes: 9 * 68 + 18 * 31 = 1,170 vbytes

Total fees (assuming 50 sats / vbyte): 58,500 sats

In short, the formula to calculate the mining fees paid is (68 * number of inputs + 31 * number of outputs) * mining fee in sats / vbyte.

Now that we’ve broken down how exactly to calculate the fees for every coinjoin protocol, let’s examine which would be better for different profiles.

I have a 990,000 sats (0.099 BTC) UTXO to mix. Which protocol is better for fees?

If you have a million sats or less, here are the coordinator (liquidity for Joinmarket) fees paid for every different coinjoin protocol:

• You won’t pay any coordinator fees with WabiSabi.
• You can only enter the 100,000 sats pool on Whirlpool and you will pay 5,000 sats in coordinator fees.
• FOR TAKERS only: On Joinmarket, it depends on the orderbook: as of the 10th of January 2024, you will pay an average of 0.0007% for 8 makers, which would be a maximum of 56 sats (depending on the mining fee market to know how much you have left in sats). 

Here are the mining fees to pay for every different coinjoin protocol (assuming 50 sats/vbyte);

• WabiSabi: Assuming you have 1 input and 7 outputs (extremely high estimation) are created, you will pay 17,925 sats for the first coinjoin transaction. For each further coinjoin transaction, considering you will have 7 inputs now, you will pay 35,175 in sats.
• Samourai: assuming you have 1 input and 8 coinjoin UTXOs will be created, you will pay a total of 120,650 sats for the Tx0 and the coinjoin mining fee.
• Joinmarket (FOR TAKERS only): assuming you have to pay for a total of 9 inputs, and 18 outputs, you will pay a total of 62,150 sats for each coinjoin transaction. 

In total:

• WabiSabi: 17,925 sats for first, 35,175 sats for further transactions.
• Whirlpool: 125,650 sats in total.
• Joinmarket: 62,182 sats for each transaction.

The conclusion for this user profile is that WabiSabi is better if you’re doing 4 transactions or less, but Whirlpool will become more economical after that. It depends on whether you want to mix fast or slow, and also it’s important to consider that to gain the same level of privacy as with 4 WabiSabi transactions, you will need to make many more on Whirlpool.

Joinmarket is not worth it for this amount unless you’re a maker.

The winner for this user profile: WabiSabi Coinjoins.

I have 10,000,000 sats (0.1 BTC). Which wallet is better?

Now that we’ve broken down the first user profile, we can just jump straight to total fees for the next ones. We keep the same assumptions. 

Total fees for each coinjoin protocol:

• WabiSabi: 30,000 sats (coordinator fee) + 17,925 sats (mining fee) = 47,925 sats for first + 35,175 sats for further transactions.
• Samourai 1M sats pool: 50,000 sats (coordinator fee) + 134850 (total mining fee) = 184,850 sats (5M sats would be possible too but not as economical and with more change)
• Joinmarket (FOR TAKERS only): 317 (liquidity fee) + 62150 (mining fee) = 62467 sats for each transaction

Joinmarket is more competitive but the result remains the same. WabiSabi is better for 3 transactions or less, and Whirlpool for continuous remixing. However, 3 WabiSabi transactions gives you a sufficient level of plausible deniability that is enough to make tracking the transactions of most users super hard.

Winner: WabiSabi (unless you’re a Joinmarket maker)

I have 100,000,000 sats (1 BTC). Which wallet is better?

Total fees for each coinjoin protocol:

• WabiSabi: 300,000 sats (coordinator fee) + 17,925 sats (mining fee) = 317,925 sats for first + 35,175 sats for further transactions.
• Samourai 5M sats pool: 175,000 sats (coordinator fee) + 276850 (total mining fee) = 451,850 (50M sats would be possible too but not as economical and with more change)
• Joinmarket (FOR TAKERS only): 3168 (liquidity fee) + 62150 (mining fee) = 65,318 sats for each transaction

For this category, Joinmarket is the winner under 7 transactions, then Whirlpool is more economical. WabiSabi is better than Whirlpool for 3 transactions or less.

Winner: Joinmarket

I have 1,000,000,000 sats (10 BTC). Which wallet is better?

Total fees for each coinjoin protocol:

• WabiSabi: 3,000,000 sats (coordinator fee) + 17,925 sats (mining fee) = 3,017,925 sats for first + 35,175 sats for further transactions.
• Samourai 50M sats pool: 1,750,000 sats (coordinator fee) + 276850 (total mining fee) = 2,026,850 sats in total
• Joinmarket (FOR TAKERS only): 31680 (liquidity fee) + 62150 (mining fee) = 93,830 sats per transaction

For this category, Joinmarket is the winner under 20 transactions, which means it’s the winner hands down. 

Winner: Joinmarket

Conclusion

We explained how fees work on every major coinjoin protocol such as WabiSabi, Whirlpool and Joinmarket. We then compare them in different contexts ranging from a user that has less than a million sats to one that has a billion sats. Many assumptions are required to be made, but the formulas are shared so you can calculate it in other scenarios where variables such as the number of inputs, the number of outputs and the current mining fee, change. 

It’s also important to remember that this analysis was purely from the fees to be paid point of view, and didn’t consider how strong each privacy guarantee is for each protocol. To learn more about the benefits and the tradeoffs of each coinjoin protocol and wallet, visit the open-source educational website Coinjoins.org. 

The post How Coinjoin Wallets Compare on Fees appeared first on Wasabi Wallet - Blog.

In this article, we’ll explain how Wasabi coinjoin fees work, how it differs from Wasabi Wallet 1 with Free Remixing, what Friends don’t pay means, the importance of accessibility in coinjoin transactions, what Plebs don’t pay means, why mining fees are never waived, and finally how to minimize mining fees in a high-fee environment.

Basic Explainer of Wasabi Coinjoin Fees

There are two types of fees in a coinjoin transaction: coordinator fees and network mining fees.

As with all bitcoin on-chain transactions, there’s a network mining fee proportional to the amount of space your inputs and outputs consume. This is also true for Wasabi coinjoin transactions; you pay for the space you use. For example, if you have two P2WPKH inputs and two P2WPKH outputs, your transaction size is 209 virtual bytes. If the fees are 50 sats / vbyte, you will pay 10450 sats in mining fees. 

In a coinjoin transaction, a coordinator (default is zkSNACKs) takes care of the complex communication between all the participants and receives a fee for the hefty task. This allows users to gain privacy. This fee is 0.3% of the total bitcoin you bring to a coinjoin round, so if you bring 3,000,000 sats (0.03 BTC), you will pay 9000 sats in coordinator fees.

Unlike Wasabi Wallet 1.0, where you paid coordinator fees on every transaction, since the 2.0 release you pay upfront on your first coinjoin transaction and then enjoy free remixing.

Pay Coordinator Fees Upfront: Free Remixing

It doesn’t matter if you participate in 1 or 100 coinjoin transactions with the same bitcoin, you will only pay coordinator fees for the first one. This allows you to enjoy additional privacy at a massively reduced cost.

How is this possible?

Whenever you join a coinjoin round, the coordinator can detect that your UTXOs (unspent transaction outputs) are from a previous Wasabi coinjoin, and therefore waives the coordinator fees for those coins. 

But what if the ownership of coins changes hands between two coinjoin transactions? Would the same apply? Yes, and this is what we call Friends don’t pay.

Friends Don’t Pay

The “Friends Don’t Pay” feature allows users to coinjoin as many times as they want for as long as they want at no additional cost other than the mining fee. 

This is great for liquidity as users are incentivized to coinjoin many times to improve their own privacy, making coinjoins better, faster and stronger for everyone! Anyone can coinjoin multiple times for 0% coordinator fees. 

Just send some previously coinjoined bitcoin to your friends and family members and watch them enjoy the benefits of acquiring privacy without having to pay coordinator fees. That must feel pretty awesome.

But wait, there’s another way to avoid paying the coordinator fees.

The Importance of Accessibility in Coinjoin Transactions

Before we get into the Plebs don’t pay feature, we want to reiterate our commitment to the accessibility of coinjoin transactions. We’re always working to improve on this front, whether it’s making the software more performant for low-bandwidth users as we did with the 2.0.4 release, or by adding the “Buy Anything Button” to allow you to purchase literally anything with your coinjoined bitcoin. 

The most important way to improve accessibility is to lower fees, and we’re doing that with Plebs Don’t pay.

Plebs Don’t Pay

If you participate in a coinjoin transaction with less than 1,000,000 sats (0.01 BTC), you will never pay any coordinator fees. Not a single sat. 

Wasabi is the only coinjoin protocol that waives coinjoin coordinator fees for users with small amounts of bitcoin,  often referred to as the bitcoin plebs in various bitcoin community channels. 

I know what you’re thinking, you’re almost convinced to coinjoin, but the high network mining fee environment makes you doubt. Yes, you will pay zero in coordinator fees but you will end up paying more in mining fees. 

Well, read on to learn why mining fees are crucial and shouldn’t be waived, and how to minimize your coinjoin transaction mining fees.

Why Mining Fees Should Never Be Waived

By enforcing mining fees for all coinjoin participants, we ensure an economic cost for everyone and collapse the opportunity for sybil attackers.

What is a Sybil attack? 

The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology defines it as: “A cybersecurity attack wherein an attacker creates multiple accounts and pretends to be many persons at once.”

Coinjoins work because many participants join together to form collaborative bitcoin transactions. The privacy gain is strictly correlated to the diversity of participants, and a Sybil attack in this context means that an attacker can fool others into believing that they are many different people, when in fact they’re only one.

This could theoretically be taken to the point where you think you’re with dozens of participants, when in fact you’re with only one attacker. This could easily compromise your privacy.

By never waiving network mining fees, we ensure that Sybil attacks have a cost that will deter potential malicious attackers.

Now for something practical…

How to Minimize Mining Fees

When you set up a wallet on Wasabi, you will be asked to choose a coinjoin strategy between Minimize Costs, Maximize Speed, and Maximize Privacy. The first two strategies aim for an anonymity level of 5, and the last one is a random number between 50 and 100. You can also customize the parameters.

The Minimize Costs strategy will ensure that you only participate in coinjoins that take place at times of the week when there’s less pressure on the network mining fee market, so you can minimize the fees you pay.

You can change coinjoin strategies at any time in your coinjoin settings.

Conclusion

The next time a friend wants to coinjoin but is hesitant because of the fees involved, be sure to point them to this blog article so they can understand the many ways they can pay zero coordinator fees and minimize their mining fees. 

No doubt he’ll be grateful to you!

Download Wasabi Wallet.

The post Friends and Plebs Don’t Pay Wasabi Coinjoin Fees appeared first on Wasabi Wallet - Blog.

You’ve downloaded the new version and now you’re ready to give it a try. You want to treat yourself and your loved ones to some nice gifts, but you feel uninspired and don’t know what to get. If that’s the case, this article is for you. 

We asked ourselves: “What are 10 crazy things you can buy with Wasabi Wallet’s Buy Anything feature?” Let’s push the boundaries of your imagination. Expect to be surprised, even shocked for some.

1. Garden with 50 Bonsai Trees

Are you a fan of the Japanese art of growing and training miniature trees? How about going all out and creating a bonsai garden with up to 50 trees? 

This is what your backyard could look like (if you have a yard the size of a downtown area).

Not a Bonsai fan? On to the next one. 

2. Pay for a Funeral Bill

Things got dark pretty quickly, but the point is that we’re here for you in the good times and the not-so-good times. Whether the funeral home accepts credit card payments or only bank transfers, ShopInBit’s support agents can take care of it for you.

Let’s go back to something happier.

3. A Harp

The Buy Anything feature is also geared toward musicians, and there’s no discrimination based on the size of the instrument. Just make sure you have enough storage space for your harp. 

You + A brand new harp + the Scottish Highlands? 

But how are you going to get your harp there? You’re going to need a car, and while you’re at it, you might as well forget about the harp and just get a very cool car.

4. A Mercedes GLE 63 S AMG

Imagine it’s the middle of 2025 and Bitcoin is now at $300,000, wouldn’t you dare to buy your dream car? I know the most frugal of you will still have only one chair in your house, but the rest of us deserve to live a little!

Of course, you will be sure to print your favorite wallet’s logo on your brand-new Chad car.

Enough with the jokes and the luxury, let’s talk practicality.  

5. 1 Year Rent for your New Apartment

You just found a great new place in your town. The only problem is, they want you to do an extensive credit check investigation, but that goes against your principles. You’d rather pay a year’s rent in advance so they’ll respect your privacy. 

Wherever you are in the world (except Iran, North Korea, Ukraine, and Russia), you can pay your rent using the Buy Anything feature in Wasabi Wallet. 

You have the apartment and a floor mattress. Try to guess what’s next.

6. Completely Furnish your Apartment using the Buy Anything Feature

For the interior designers out there, Wasabi and ShopInBit have got you covered. We already know you love bitcoin, so we took the liberty of imagining a living room with an orange touch.

We know you do a better job of designing than we do, and whatever you choose to furnish and decorate your home, you’ll be able to have it shipped to you directly from your Wasabi Wallet.

7. A 3m² Swimming Pool

We imagine that after all that hard work decorating your home, you are hot and ready for a dip in the pool, but where can you get one? 

Open up Wasabi Wallet, click ‘Buy Anything’, and order the outdoor pool of your dreams. Or pay a pool contractor to build you an indoor pool.

Bitcoin or Swimming Pool? Why not both? 

8. An 85″ TV

After a long day of swimming, why not end it by watching the bitcoin price rise on an 85 inch TV you just got delivered from ShopInBit? Might as well bring the family together for that.

Ok, enough with the fun, let’s get serious.

9. 2x Server Rack R182-Z93, Dual Epyc

We know that you value privacy and self-custody, not just for bitcoin, but for your entire digital life. 

You live by two mottos: “Not your keys, not your coins” and “Not your metal, not your computer”.

You want to take things to the next level and build a server room at home. There you’ll be able to run open-source software to replace cloud-based systems, and also run your own open source LLM (Large Language Model) to train your AI models without the censorship of Big Tech.

Okay, it may not look like that, but it will feel like it, and you will feel like a real cyborg.

10. A Fully Customizable Adult Sex Doll

Now that you’re a cyborg, you might want a cyborg companion. I won’t post any images here, I’ll let your imagination run wild. As crazy as this sounds, it will be possible to buy anything, even this, directly from your Wasabi Wallet.

What are you waiting for? Download Wasabi Wallet’s new version.

The post 10 Crazy Christmas Gifts You Can Buy Through Wasabi Wallet appeared first on Wasabi Wallet - Blog.

A BIP39 passphrase is an additional layer of protection for your bitcoin wallet; it acts as the 13th word to your 12-word seed phrase, or the 25th word if you have a 24-word seed phrase. If you lose your passphrase, you will lose access to your wallet and won’t be able to recover your funds.

A bitcoin wallet password is a way to lock your wallet application, and in the case of Wasabi Wallet, it’s the same as a BIP39 passphrase. However, in other wallets, it will only lock you out of the wallet, but you will be able to recover with your seed phrase without the need for the password.

In this article, we will explain what BIP39 is, the benefits and tradeoffs of passphrases, how to properly back them up, and how they differ from regular passwords.

What is BIP39?

BIP39 is a bitcoin improvement proposal from 2013 that revolutionized the way bitcoin wallets work. Here’s the description straight from the BIP:

“This BIP describes the implementation of a mnemonic code or mnemonic sentence — a group of easy-to-remember words — for the generation of deterministic wallets.”

Today, BIP39 is the standard for how bitcoin wallets work. You create a wallet and you get a set of words, often 12 or 24, and if you back up that property, you can retrieve your wallet anywhere, anytime.

But what if someone other than you finds your seed phrase backup? They would have instant access to your money, and you wouldn’t be too happy about it.

What can be done to solve this problem?

What is a Passphrase?

To add an extra layer of protection to your wallet, you can add a passphrase to protect your seed phrase. This passphrase can be anything you want; any combination of alphanumeric and special characters of any length.

When you set up Wasabi Wallet, you’ll be asked to enter a passphrase. This is a BIP39 passphrase, and you should take the time to understand that you will need this passphrase every time you want to use your wallet, and if you lose it, you will lose access to your funds.

As long as you understand and accept the tradeoff of losing access to your funds if you lose your passphrase, you’re ready to use it. Just make sure you back it up properly.

How to Properly Backup a Passphrase?

First, remember why you’re using a passphrase in the first place: to protect your seed phrase. The first step to properly handling your passphrase backup is to keep it separate from your seed phrase backup.

Then, you should test your passphrase and your full wallet backup before sending a significant amount of money to your wallet. Also, make sure you’re comfortable with the recovery process. 

Some people may tell you that you shouldn’t write your passphrase down anywhere and that you should memorize it, but they’re dead wrong. You should never make your memory your single point of failure, unless you have no choice, like crossing a border in a war zone.

So is there a difference between passphrases and passwords?

The Difference Between a Passphrase and a Password

The answer is that it depends on the wallet. In the case of Wasabi Wallet, there’s no difference between a passphrase and a password, they are used interchangeably.

However, in many other wallets, such as Blue Wallet, a password is not part of your wallet, it’s just a way to protect access to your application. This means that if you restore your wallet from your seed phrase backup, you won’t be asked for your password to access your funds, and you will be able to set a new password.

Conclusion

In this article, we explained what BIP 39 is, what is a passphrase, how passphrases help protect your seed phrase, how to properly back them up and the difference between a passphrase and a password.

Bitcoin self-storage isn’t too difficult, but you do need to take the time to familiarize yourself with the basics and feel comfortable with the recovery process. We recommend that everyone take the time to properly test their wallet backup so that they are not nervous when the time comes to do it for real.

The post What is the Difference Between a Passphrase and a Password? appeared first on Wasabi Wallet - Blog.

Connecting to the internet through Tor is a core component of a bitcoin privacy wallet. Along with block filters, it’s the answer to bitcoin network privacy.

As expected, Wasabi Wallet comes with Tor bundled in and enabled by default (you can opt out, but it’s not recommended), but how exactly does Wasabi Wallet implement Tor?

Wasabi Wallet makes all of its requests through Tor, but it alternates the connection (circuit) modes so that for super-private things like coordinating a coinjoin, its circuit is updated after each operation. This allows the user to have privacy from both the coordinator, the Bitcoin network and the Tor network.

This article will define what Tor is, how Wasabi Wallet implements Tor exactly, what are the operations that require an immediate circuit update, why the coordinator doesn’t use an onion service anymore, and how Conflux could be a future solution to improve reliability.

First, it’s important to understand that using the Internet without Tor (or alternative protocols) reveals your IP address to the server you’re connecting to. The goal is to protect a user’s IP address from their Internet peers and the public.

How Does Tor (The Onion Network) Work?

Tor is a free and open source software that enables anonymous communication for online activities by encrypting and routing Internet traffic through a network of servers, making it difficult to trace the origin or destination of data.

In other words, Tor is a peer-to-peer network that anyone can join to hide their IP address from the destination server. Here’s a simple illustration of how Tor works:

Tor is used in Wasabi Wallet for all communication purposes by default, i.e. to connect to the bitcoin network to download blocks and broadcast transactions, and to the coinjoin coordinator to receive block filters and the state of the coinjoin rounds when loading the wallet, and most importantly, for all the communication steps of the coinjoin transaction such as input selection, output selection, transaction signing. (Read about how a coinjoin transaction works in detail). 

Now let’s take a closer look at Wasabi Wallet’s Tor implementation. 

How Exactly Does Wasabi Wallet Implement Tor?

First off, we want to make sure that all communication happens through Tor. Each time we communicate we create an HttpClient (software used to send and receive responses from a server) and we set it up with Tor.

In addition, Wasabi enables Tor’s control port to manage and switch connection (circuit) modes. There are three circuit modes:

• For DefaultCircuit, on every session, we set up a default circuit that we will use when we don’t use other modes, usually for operations that are not too sensitive. 
• For SingleCircuitPerLifetime, we create a new circuit just for this HttpClient, which we will reuse throughout the lifetime of the component that created the HttpClient.
• NewCircuitPerRequest is the most private mode. We use it when we want each request to have its own unique circuit, such as during the coinjoin coordination process.

 It’s important to note that Tor circuits are slow and hard to create, which is why we try to avoid creating new ones when it’s not necessary. Here’s an example to understand better circuit mode management.

When a component needs to communicate on the Internet, it requests a new HttpClient configured with the mode it needs. When we use the RoundStateUpdater (to get the state of the coinjoin round), privacy is not critical. This is because every Wasabi client polls this endpoint, whether it’s actively participating in a coinjoin or not. 

Since this query does not reveal client uniqueness, we create the HttpClient for the component with the SingleCircuitPerLifetime mode.

Now what are the operations that require the highest level of privacy with the circuit mode NewCircuitPerRequest?

What are the Operations that Require Tor Circuit Updates (NewCircuitPerRequest) in Wasabi Wallet?

As mentioned above, Tor is used for all communication when enabled, and a Wasabi Wallet client only communicates with Bitcoin Network peers and the coinjoin coordinator server. Let’s look at the operations that require circuit updates, starting with the coinjoin coordinator process.

For the coinjoin communication, it works separately in two parts:

• Inputs Registration + Inputs Confirmation phases: In this case, it makes sense to use one circuit for all requests related to one input, so we use the SingleCircuitPerLifetime mode, and we create a new HttpClient per input.
• Everything else: For the rest of the critical phase, we shouldn’t link any requests with each other. So we can use a single HttpClient, but we have to use the NewCircuitPerRequest mode.

For Bitcoin network communication, we use NBitcoin and its own Tor implementation so it works very differently. To protect privacy additionally on the block download step, we disconnect from a network peer every time we download a block. 

We’ve explained in detail how the Wasabi Wallet client Tor implementation works, now let’s answer a common question regarding the abandoned use of an onion service for the coordinator server.

Why The Wasabi Coordinator Doesn’t Use an Onion Service Anymore

An onion service is a server configured to only receive incoming connections through Tor, providing privacy and censorship resistance to servers by bypassing DNS.

It used to be the case that the coordinator would run an onion service and clients would connect to it. However, this is no longer the case due to reliability issues inherent in onion services. In addition, the coordinator server doesn’t need privacy from the public so there’s not too much incentive. 

For Wasabi’s coinjoin coordination process to work properly, the standard deviation of the request time must be small. Each request has to happen in a few seconds, and this time frame can’t vary much from request to request. Reliability is a major issue for Tor.

However, a solution seems to have arised…

Conflux as a Potential Reliability Solution for Tor

Conflux is a new Tor project that aims to solve Tor’s inherent reliability problems. If you need bandwidth reliability: you use Conflux, and it duplicates your request and sends each one through different circuits. Since reliability failure is a low-probability event, it’s extremely unlikely to happen with two different requests (e.g., 0.1 * 0.1 = 0.01),

Since Wasabi’s use of Tor varies depending on the action, sometimes we would use Conflux and sometimes we wouldn’t. Unfortunately, this isn’t possible with our current implementation. An alternative implementation called Arti would allow us to solve the Conflux management problem.

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve explored how Tor works, how it’s implemented in Wasabi Wallet through the alternative circuit modes depending on the action, which operations require the most private mode, why the coordinator no longer uses an onion service, and how Conflux is a solution to the reliability issues inherent in Tor. 

This article, among other technical content, demonstrates that Wasabi Wallet is the superior bitcoin wallet for network privacy. To learn more about all the benefits of Wasabi Wallet, check out the Coinjoins.org review. 

The post Explaining Wasabi Wallet’s Tor Implementation appeared first on Wasabi Wallet - Blog.