Wasabi Wallet, a privacy-oriented, bitcoin-only wallet has made it clear that they will be introducing censorship into their mixing process. Wasabi announced the change via social media. The official Wasabi account stated that a blacklist would block some UTXOs or unspent transaction outputs from registering with Coinjoins. Coinjoins is the way Wasabi and other wallets enhance transaction anonymity.
Wasabi Wallet: Coinjoin to Remove Some UTXOs
Wasabi Wallet, a privacy-friendly bitcoin wallet, has announced it will begin to censor certain transactions by using its mixing methods. This is the announcementThe way these transactions are being censored was explained in a social media post. Some unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) coming from certain addresses won’t be able to register to participate in the Coinjoin process that helps users mix and anonymize their bitcoin. UTXOs play a critical role in how bitcoin works. They allow you to organize bitcoins which have been stored in different wallets and in different quantities.
This was met with negative reactions from the community, who criticized the impact it would have upon Wasabi Wallet’s popularity and acceptance. Nopara73 also known by Adam Ficsor is the founder of Wasabi Wallet. stated:
Coinjoins was the first to experience blacklisting. IMO it is a major setback to Bitcoin’s fungibility.
Wasabi Wallet was owned by zkSNACKs (a Gibraltar-registered company). While the announcement didn’t explain the reasons behind the resolution, Rafe, another member of Wasabi’s team, clarified the motivations that made Wasabi adopt these measures. He declared:
Our goal is to keep the company safe and protect the project. We do this by trying to reduce the number of hackers and scammers who use the coordinator. While this is within the rights and obligations of the company, I can assure you that none of us are pleased about it.
Reactions and Incoming Fork
The backlash the announcement caused also gave origin to a proposal to fork Wasabi’s code to eliminate the limitations the current version of Wasabi now has. Wasabi BTC is the name of the fork. proposes to:
…remove all corporate/state censorship and make coinjoin possible for anyone. Fully open-source, decentralized coinjoin and with no attack vectors for nation states.
Ficsor gave his blessing to the fork’s future design. wishedAll the best to the entire team.
Samourai Wallet’s team also created a privacy-centric Bitcoin wallet. criticized the situation, declaring that “the radical encroachment of the state into the lives of ordinary law-abiding citizens is on a concerning upward trajectory.”
What do you think about Wasabi Wallet’s decision to censor transactions at a UTXO level? Leave your comments below.
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