Wasabi Wallet: Open Source Bitcoin Wallet for Desktop

5.00 out of 5
(1 bitcoiner review)

Wasabi wallet is an open-source, non-custodial bitcoin wallet for desktop. It has CoinJoin, PayJoin, SegWit, and Tor built-in features and hardware wallet compatibility to provide an extra layer of privacy, security, and anonymity. Wasabi wallet allows you to store, send, and receive bitcoin.

Description

Wasabi is an open-source, non-custodial bitcoin wallet for desktop. It has CoinJoin, PayJoin, and Tor built-in features and hardware wallet compatibility to provide an extra layer of privacy, security, and anonymity. Wasabi wallet allows you to store, send, and receive bitcoin. The function of buying, selling, and trading sats via an in-built exchange is not provided.

How to Use Wasabi Wallet

To get started with Wasabi bitcoin wallet, download and install the wallet from the official website. It is compatible with Windows 10+, macOS 10.15+ Intel, macOS 10.15+ M1, M2, Ubuntu, Debian, and Linux. You can create a new wallet or recover an already existing wallet in Wasabi. It is possible to create as many wallets as you want. To back up a wallet, write down a mnemonic seed phrase of 12 words and keep them in a safe place. Then create a password that you will enter whenever you use your wallet. To recover your wallet on a different computer using Wasabi or another BIP 39-compliant wallet, you will need to enter the seed phrase along with your password.

Wasabi Wallet Features

Wasabi wallet is a Bitcoin-focused software wallet designed to prioritize financial freedom, security, and enhanced privacy. Here’s a closer look at some of its key features:

Hardware Wallets Support

Being a desktop wallet, Wasabi can be connected to hardware wallets via cable connected to your computer to enhance security. You are able to generate a public address to which you can receive bitcoin. The private keys for this address are securely stored inside the hardware wallet. This feature works correctly and reliably with almost any hardware wallet, including Trezor, Ledger, Blockstream Jade, Bitbox, and Coldcard.

Open Source

Wasabi is an open source wallet, meaning anyone can inspect and verify its functionality. This transparency fosters trust and ensures the community can contribute to its development and improvement. Additionally, Wasabi is a deterministically reproducible software. This basically means that anyone can independently replicate the build process and compare the resulting binaries to the official releases, verifying their authenticity and preventing tampering. This builds trust and transparency in the software.

SegWit

Wasabi Wallet has adopted support for Segregated Witness (SegWit), the newer Bitcoin address protocol upgrade. SegWit brings forth several advantages to the Bitcoin network, including a significant reduction in transaction fees by up to 40%, an increase in transaction capacity, and an enhancement of security through the improvement of transaction integrity. This feature increases the efficiency and security of Bitcoin transactions for its users.

Learn more: What is SegWit?

PayJoin

Wasabi Wallet integrates PayJoin, a collaborative transaction technique designed to enhance privacy features. This innovative approach enables both senders and recipients to collaboratively create transactions, merging payments in a way that makes it challenging to distinguish individual transaction amounts and origins. By incorporating PayJoin, Wasabi not only strengthens privacy measures but also enhances the effectiveness of CoinJoin by obscuring payment flows, contributing to a more secure and confidential transaction experience for users.

Learn more: PayJoin Explained

CoinJoin

Wasabi is well known for its CoinJoin feature. Wasabi wallet CoinJoin is a process that essentially mixes your Bitcoin transactions with those of others, making it significantly harder to trace individual coins back to their source. This anonymization feature is a game-changer for users seeking to protect their financial transactions from unwanted scrutiny.

By integrating the coinjoin API, Bitcoin companies and wallet developers can unlock numerous advantages, including enhanced transaction privacy and improved anonymity for their users.

Learn more: CoinJoin Explained

Tor

Wasabi wallet uses Tor by default for all communication needs. This includes connecting to the bitcoin network for downloading blocks and broadcasting transactions, interfacing with the coinjoin coordinator to receive block filters and coinjoin round statuses during wallet loading, and crucially, handling all communication steps in the coinjoin transaction, such as input selection, output selection, and transaction signing.

This makes it difficult to trace and monitor your activity. It also encrypts your traffic, adding an extra layer of security. The wallet can use both locally installed and automatic Tor integration to mask your IP address. Thus, a much higher level of privacy is ensured.

Buy Anything

Wasabi Wallet 2.0.5 has introduced a new feature called the “Buy Anything” button, marking a significant step towards wider Bitcoin adoption. This feature, powered by ShopinBit, Europe’s leading Bitcoin marketplace, allows users to purchase various goods directly from their Wasabi wallets. Simply clicking the button on the home screen connects them with a personal concierge who assists in acquiring desired items, from everyday essentials to luxury purchases like cars or even ASIC miners. While the minimum order amount is USD 1,000, VIP customers with previous ShopinBit concierge experience can purchase items exceeding USD 60,000. However, it’s important to note that fees may vary depending on the order.

Headless Daemon

Traditionally, users engage with Wasabi Wallet through graphical user interface (GUI), which, despite being user-friendly, may occasionally consume significant computer resources. The introduction of the headless daemon addresses this issue. This feature enables you to interact with their wallet using a streamlined command-line interface, akin to a lightweight version of the wallet. The headless daemon minimizes resource usage, including CPU, GPU, memory, and bandwidth, allowing Wasabi Wallet to operate inconspicuously in the background. With this functionality, power users can incorporate Wasabi’s unparalleled privacy features into their project workflows.

Client-side Block Filtering

The unique feature of client-side block filtering in Wasabi ensures that you don’t have to download the entire Bitcoin blockchain, which can be over 500GB in size, for the wallet to function effectively. Instead, this technique allows Wasabi to download only the blocks potentially containing transactions relevant to your wallet. This approach significantly reduces data transmission and processing. By concentrating on relevant blocks, Wasabi not only lowers the storage and bandwidth requirements, making it more efficient and accessible, but also enables faster execution of tasks such as wallet synchronization and transaction verification.

Ease of Use

Despite its advanced features, Wasabi prioritizes user experience with a clean and intuitive interface that makes it accessible to both beginners and experienced users. The clean layout and intuitive design make navigating the wallet and managing your funds a breeze, making it accessible to a broader audience within the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The interface simplifies tasks such as coin mixing and transaction management. The wallet automatically manages user privacy behind the scenes, handling various aspects such as network connections, input selection, and the coinjoining process.

Wasabi Wallet Fees

The fees charged by Wasabi Wallet can vary based on factors like transaction size and network congestion. Users typically have the flexibility to choose from different fee levels, influencing transaction processing speed. Opting for higher fees generally results in faster confirmations, whereas lower fees may extend the transaction completion time.

Wasabi CoinJoin fees consist of coordination fees and mining fees. Transactions involving coins above 0.01 BTC incur a 0.3% coordination fee, in addition to mining fees. Coins totaling 0.01 BTC or below, as well as remixes, are exempt from coordination fees. Coinjoining funds exceeding 0.01 BTC incurs a 0.3% coordinator fee alongside mining fees. Inputs of 0.01 BTC or below, as well as remixes, remain exempt from coordinator fees, even after one transaction. Consequently, payments made with coinjoined funds allow both the sender and recipient to remix their coins without incurring coordinator fees.

Is Wasabi Wallet Safe?

Wasabi wallet is considered to be a relatively safe and privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet. Being a non-custodial Bitcoin wallet, it gives you complete control over your Bitcoins.

It uses various security features to protect your privacy and enhance the security of transactions. Wasabi wallet uses CoinJoin, a Bitcoin mixer technique that combines multiple transactions into one, making it harder to trace individual transactions.

Wasabi allows you to connect to your own full Bitcoin node, which adds an extra layer of security and privacy. It also supports the use of Tor, which anonymizes your internet traffic. Being an open-source Bitcoin wallet, its source code is publicly available, allowing independent verification of its security features by the community.

Wasabi is a hot wallet. Unlike hardware wallets, hot wallets are more vulnerable to hackers because they are connected to the internet.

Is Wasabi a Good Desktop Wallet?

Wasabi Wallet is a desktop walllet for Bitcoin purists who treasure both ultimate privacy and control. Features like CoinJoin for anonymized transactions, open-source code, and complete custody of your private keys empower you to be your own Bitcoin bank. Its user-friendly interface makes advanced features accessible, and hardware wallet support adds another layer of security.

However, Wasabi sacrifices some convenience for its focus. There’s no Wasabi wallet mobile app, so managing your Bitcoin on the go is out of the picture. And while you can find help in the community forums and documentation, official customer support is absent. You can only count FAQ and documentation.

Wasabi Wallet Alternatives

Here’s a list of best Wasabi alternatives:

More information

Additional information

Bitcoin Only

Mobile App

No

Desktop App

Operating System (OS)

, , , ,

Hardware Wallet Integration

, , , , ,

Lightning Network

CoinJoin

PayJoin

Multisig

2FA

SegWit

API

Yes

Source Code

Tor Support

Year Launched

2018

1 review for Wasabi Wallet: Open Source Bitcoin Wallet for Desktop

  1. 5 out of 5

    Samuel Marcelino

    I frequently use the wallet and find it to be quite impressive. Its security features are top-notch, and the fact that it’s connected to TOR only enhances its privacy. The user interface is relatively easy to use and not too complicated. It also provides options for choosing the speed and security level of transactions, which is a great feature. The only downside I have experienced is the time it takes to log in, which can be up to five minutes. However, overall, I think it’s an excellent wallet.

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