Update Bitcoin CoinJoin recommendations #28
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What makes Sparrow better than Wasabi? I'm not comfortable adding a recommendation before it's gotten significant review. In the meantime I'll merge this without the Sparrow recommendation |
Recommendation will be added back once Sparrow wallet has been looked into more thoroughly
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Sparrow wallet uses the same Whirlpool CoinJoin service as Samourai wallet. This is what makes it better. |
KyleOfTheCorn
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When it comes to using cryptocurrencies as a means for anonymous payments, the guide seems to put a lot of stress on using Zcash and Monero, while outright discouraging the use of Bitcoin. However, Zcash is simply not used by enough people to provide an anonymous means of financial transactions, so long as anonymity requires the ability to hide in a crowd as is relevant here. Just last year, Zcash was attacked by an entity filling up blocks, causing the [chain size to significantly increase](https://blockchair.com/zcash/charts/blockchain-size) without an [increase in transactions](https://blockchair.com/zcash/charts/transaction-count), while only costing the attacker [approximately $10 a day](https://twitter.com/lopp/status/1577718171468972033). Yet Zcash is recommended as the "Extra-Paranoid anonymous option" in "Online anonymous payments using cryptocurrencies". The reasoning stresses that the crypto algorithms would have to be broken in order to harm the anonymity of its users and that isn't true because an anonymity-focused coin that no one uses is **not anonymous** no matter how secure its algorithms are. The [resources](https://github.com/Anon-Planet/thgtoa/blob/master/guide.md#warning-about-special-tumbling-mixing-coinjoining-privacy-wallets-and-services-wikiless-archiveorg) provided in the warning against special tumbling, mixing, coinjoining privacy wallets and services all target centralized and/or custodial mixing services, while making no mention of modern privacy protocols that work on Bitcoin and give users forward-facing on-chain privacy guarantees today. This PR hopes to clarify the risks of using centralized mixers/tumblers, point readers to tools that are non-custodial and actually **do** provide users with forward-facing on-chain privacy so that they can use Bitcoin anonymously, and remove recommendations to use Zcash. Based on a [previous comment](Anon-Planet#28 (comment)), there was hesitancy on adding a recommendation before its gotten significant review. Whirlpool is an implementation of [ZeroLink](https://code.samourai.io/whirlpool/Whirlpool/-/blob/whirlpool/THEORY.md) which breaks all links between a UTXO and its history. Whirlpool has been used on Bitcoin's mainnet since 2019 beginning with its [public beta](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/samourai-wallets-privacy-enhancing-whirlpool-now-in-public-beta) and has since grown to [6743 BTC in unspent capacity](https://twitter.com/SamouraiDev/status/1615708859641004032). This should provide a basis for "significant review" to be able to recommend.
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There are problems with Wasabi wallets implementation of CoinJoin. The developers have also decided to start blacklisting certain unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs).
Better to recommend Samourai and Sparrow wallets and the Whirlpool CoinJoin mixing service.