Bitcoin Forum

Correct me if I am wrong, are developers or tech experts the only ones that can detect if a crypto wallet is simply fully open source or not? Can a random human who knows too less about a crypto wallet detect if it's open source or closed source? If yes please share me a way, I am tired of people saying a wallet is open source and some other are arguing that it's closed source, I need to get things done myself.

What and what to deep dive into to real if the wallet is open source? Or there is something else I need to learn first.

As far as I know, the source code should be hosted at https://github.com/.
With the help of a search engine, you should find information about the software you are interested in.
https://github.com/search


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GitHub

You can mostly know by doing a quick Google search. And if a certain wallet is fully open-source, chances are, they're going to definitely advertise it as such. The best way to know though is checking if a wallet's source code is reproducible or not.

Check this out: https://walletscrutiny.com/

github is the most popular one, but there are tons of other sites where a dev can host their sourcecode. Github is a free "tool" for version control and collaboration, but if i put the sourcecode of my application on my own site (without version control) it can also be open source.
@OP: basically, if the developer is sharing his sourcecode, it's an open source wallet. Open source doesn't mean free, free doesn't mean open source...

The problem is that some wallets look like they're open source, but when the community looks at the sourcecode they're sharing, it's obvious that compiling said sourcecode doesn't result in the wallet distributed by the vendor... I can't remember which wallet exactly, but there's a big mobile wallet for which this is the case.

EDIT: one last thing... open source =/= automatically safe.
I can code a wallet using a lot of very confusing classes, ending up with a huuuuuge code base and open source it... But as long as there aren't a lot of senior developers that actually go trough my codebase and verify i'm not doing anything stupid/evil, an open source wallet can be as dangerous as a closed source one... And if you download binaries that are pre-compiled (and signed), you're basically trusting the signer that he/she didn't meddle with the sourcecode before compiling (unless you reproduce the compilation, but then there was no need to download the pre-compiled binary to begin with)

Being open source means that the source code is available for anyone to view and potentially modify. This is typically hosted on a platform like GitHub. If a developer chooses not to make the source code publicly available, then the software is considered to be closed source. An example of an open source Bitcoin wallet is Electrum. You can easily find and view its source code on GitHub https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum

I recommend checking out these threads:
Do beginners know what closed & open source wallets are? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5244810.0.)
[General] Bitcoin Wallets - Which, what, why? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1631151.0)

It has longer explanations and examples, as well as some discussions from other forum members.

If you are not a developer, I will advice you not to be tired of asking if a wallet is open source or not, you can just always create a thread on this forum to ask if a wallet is open source or not than for you to think a wallet is open source but not.

On gitHub, their are some wallets that are not completely open source that their developers may say it is open source, do not believe that because you can view the source code of a wallet on github and consider the wallet an open source, first check if you can view the codes on github and if you can, then ask on this forum to truly know if the wallet is open source or not.

Or yet send the link of the website here and ask if its open source or not. For sure there will be helpful users will check it for him. But its quite better if we will learn to check it ourselves using attached links above. This isnt easy too but can be learn if given time. Just watch on youtube or check online some ways. For sure there are lots of reference too.

Tech people will know this things more than random people. It is advisable to stick to what tech gurus have found out than argue with them ignorantly. Am not a tech person and so I do not like to bother my head about wallet stuff like that. I do not even have much bitcoin that will cause me to always change wallet to keep it safe. I stay with what works for me. For your convenience, why not stick to only wallets mentioned as open source to keep your mind at rest.

Tech experts and developers may have a better understanding about the difference between open source and closed source software, but it is not necessarily limited to only them. Even if you don't know much about it, you can still figure it out by understanding the basics of open source and closed source software. For example, there are ways like checking the documentation or software license (A license file is almost always present with open source software). A company can also use GitHub, or any other public repository, to make the code available for anyone to see and use. However, just because the code is open to the public, it doesn't necessarily mean that the software is trustworthy or safe, or that it's free of any potential issues.

No, anyone could as long as they understand how to detect the difference between the souce code being available or not for viewing, then you can take advantage also from forum like this to ask about a particular one you have in mimd and suggestions will be rendered base on their various experience in using it, but always ensure that you don't assume it because many developers will claim the wrong thing for you to use.


Preferably let the developers, technicians or experienced members into it gives you the conditions attached to it either being open or closed, you can ask such on technical discussion board.

Mostly you can find this Information when you at the Project Github looking at https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/releases (https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/releases)
If there are new releases already you will find it on every new release .
Here you have to click the Assets button on the release and it will show you the source code for.

like all the others are saying it should be on Github and classified as open source, for it to be open source it should be audited, and developers can inspect the code and see if there are no flaws or bugs, if the developers report that they cannot do that then it's not open source, you need to learn how to code to inspect it yourself if you are not then you can rely on other developers who analyze the wallet.
Any developers that claim their wallet to be open source when in fact is not will easily lose their reputation and community support.

Sorry to rebump this, but i have to say this because i see this a lot of times between newbies in the forum and also normal persons in the world.

All the explanation giving above are 100% accuracy, but im refering at the missleading of the open source concept, and i think this its pure fault of Microsof Windows and Linux.

Everybody in his life always refered the term OPEN SOURCE = FREE because always they think in some Linux distribution that its free, but here comes the thing, a lot of Linux distribution arent free, but yes they still open source.

And i think in the past when we dont have so much programs and so much users in develop, we always  recorded MICROSOFT ------ PAYED ------ OPPOSITE TO OPEN SOURCE, and for magic and reverse thinking we record to ourself, OPEN SOURCE-------- FREE, and NO! its tottaly wrong.

I close the OT.

I like the fact that Op already identified a fault or should I say lapse and is willing to seek the right knowledge to bridge that gap. Else, why bother if this knowledge isn't of importance. I do not like being the dumb one mostly when I can do my findings , research or whatever you call it, in order to stay abreast with such info.
Be it open source or closed source, what matters Op is if you can actually distinguish both and use them to your advantage or growth. Forget about the tech specialist, they only  have just one part of the information.

Finding out if a software is open source or not is not always easy. One way to do it is by checking the provider's website or documentation. The developers usually mention if it's open source or not in the license. If you can't find the info there, you can try looking for discussions or questions about the source code on online forums or related communities.  Just keep in mind that even if the source code isn't on GitHub (although most open source software is) it can still be open source, or if the software has its own GitHub repo, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's open source. So, it's not always a straightforward answer.



It's perfectly fine to learn how to do things by yourself, but it's equally okay to listen to the opinions of others. People with diverse expertise may know better than us in many areas. For instance, if your car breaks down, would you attempt to repair it yourself or consult a licensed mechanic? It's crucial to acknowledge when we require assistance and seek it from those who have the requisite abilities and knowledge.

3 easy ways that anyone without any technical knowledge could use to quickly tell if a project is closed source are:

1. Having an actual source code
If a project claims to be open source it has to have a source hosted somewhere. That means you have to be able to see actual code. Usually there is either no source code to be found or something else the scammers do is to share binaries (eg .exe) on Github pretending to be open source.

2. How active the repository is
You can reject a lot of fake claims using this. For example a project claims to be open source and has real source code on Github too. This project released a new version (eg. on google playstore) today but the code on Github was updated a year ago. That is a clear indication that the project is not open source.

3. Dependencies
Although this is a bit technical I don't think it is that hard. Sometimes what scammers do to pretend their project is open source is to release part of the code (usually UI related code) and use a closed source backend that does everything else.
Usually the name of the repository, the explanations in the readme file or the dependencies in the dependency section of the project show you what part of the code you are looking at.

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These are easy ways to figure out "closed" source software, but in order to be able to tell if a project that doesn't fit into the 3 above categories is open source (eg. Electrum) you have to be able to review the whole code which requires programming knowledge and time.
You'd have to also look into the external libraries the project is using and whether those libraries are open source and if the project is using the same binaries (built from that code not something else with the name).

It's a bit of a late response but I hope this answers your question since I didn't see anybody cover these.

What any tech expert take look on is the wallet source code, they try to know if it's open or close, this is how they determine wallet wether they are custodial or non custodial wallet, you need to know how to verify if a wallet is a close source or open source wallet even if they are cold storage, because many developers now make use of different styles to claim they are these and that while wallet like electrum believed to be a an open source cold storage must be downloaded from their official website.

I don't understand programming, I can look at wallet's github, look at code and don't understand a thing, what's use of that to me? So yes is answer to quoted statement.

However, there is benefit, there are good persons who warn the community if there suspicious code pushed into the wallet or wallet suddenly went closed source so people can save themselves.

Sometimes, under download sectino, website put the Github code of their open-source code. Easy way to check whether a program is open-source or not, is to check their license. Another method is to just google: Is [programname] open source? If answer is yes, then look for their source code. By the way, if you don't trust their executable file and only want to run what you see, then learn how to run from source. Electrum, for example, comes with a tutorial.

By the way, name the wallet you want to know if that's open-source or not, we will help.

Like wise here, alot of cryptocurrency terms here are still confusing to me a bit and i get confused at times when i hear things like open source and closed source, custodial and non-custodial wallets etc. thats why i most of the time spend time here reading and trying to understand some of these things.



Its good to improve one’s knowledge and learn about things you don’t understand so no one else can deceive you but sometimes Its just as Charles-Tim mentioned, its better to never get tired of asking especially when you are not an expert yet so you don’t end up making a mistake. When you create a thread here you will always get answers to your questions.

If the wallet is open source then it would be hosted on public repositories.
There might be many contributors as well if its in development stage.
Some companies do create softwares and then make it open source.

Closed source softwares will not be completely available to the public users.
There will be some kind of restriction implied on the software.

I'm pretty sure that he would have shared the name of the wallet within the opening post if he really wanted to, but since he didn't do that, he probably didn't want to disclose that information publicly for any reason that he might have. Also, I didn't understand your reference about checking the license of the software to know if it's open-source or not.

I also don't think that one needs to first Google if a wallet or any program or project is open-source or not, all they need to check is their website and to try and find their repository which contains the source code. If one understands a bit of coding and can identify if they have their source code open to the public, they can identify whether the project is open-source or not.

What's the point of disclosing that information? Am I in danger if I publicly state that I use Bitcoin Core or Electrum? That makes no sense.
If software comes with General Public License or MIT license, for example, this means that the software is open-source.

I have never said that one needs to first Google if wallet is an open-source or not. First step, according to my quote, is to check it software's website if they include GitHub url.