Some people contribute to open source software to fill their resume/CV, so i expect some developer chose not to be anonymous.


OP probably refer to discussion of cashless idea or ban of transaction using cash above few hundred/thousand euro.

Few thoughts,
1. While it's interesting project, personally i see it as trade-off between security and ease of recoverability.
2. I checked PDF of encryption/decryption table, but i find the font is very small if people print it on legal/A4 paper size.
3. Take note while Electrum support BIP 39, it generate 12 words using it's own seed format. It'd be appreciated if you let visitor of your website know about that since you mention Electrum as example of software wallet.

IIRC many Wasabi Wallet developer work at zkSNACKs since the beginning, so kicking zkSNACKs from Wasabi wallet development seems to be impossible. Even so, they have different choice such as shut down their mixing coordinator on Bitcoin mainnet.


zkSNACKs (company behind Wasabi Wallet) and zk-SNARKs (one of cryptography technology used by ZCash) are 2 different thing.


I don't know, but
1. Choosing public Electrum server or not using VPN/Tor when you use Sparrow Wallet could weaken your privacy.
2. In past, people prefer Wasabi CoinJoin (on Wasabi Wallet 1.x) over Whirpool (part of Samourai wallet).

OP of that thread already share the link at post #34. Here's the link http://www.christelbach.com/ECCalculator.aspx.

Another cons: you'll break expected behavior of all Bitcoin script which use block height as it's locktime.


It has limited practical usage when user need to use compatible wallet, unless it can be done in non-interactive way.

I use Tor Browser and yesterday i was also seriously affected with CloudFlare security check page. I managed to reduce frequency of check page by only opening 1 tab, change Tor circuit occasionally and save post text/draft on text editor. But it wasn't pleasant experience.

Edit: even now, i still see CloudFlare security check page on few occasion.

I only own very small amount of tBTC, so i would recommend you to perform solo mining where you could get some tBTC by mining block which has difficulty 1.

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I briefly read BitPay documentation and found out it's possible to recycle/obtain tBTC you used to make payment.

Their ToS doesn't mention word "vpn", "proxy", "tor" or "hide". Although their privacy policy mention about prevent fraud/monitor anomaly using third-party.

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I don't know about HodlHodl, but Bisq use Tor by default.

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Honestly i don't know.

I can see the confusion, although IMO Bech32 encoding is better than other 32-bit encoding such as RFC 3548 Base32 which use A-Z, 2-7 and =.


To be fair, reading, writing and speaking are 3 different action.

Bitcoin Core 23.0 and 24.0 make this statement on it's release notes.



Although in practice i do not experience any bug or notice performance difference.

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1. People usually refer Bitcoin Core (previously called "Bitcoin Qt" and "Bitcoin") as reference software, not official software.
2. Bitcoin Core is just one of many software to run full node. Although i can't deny Bitcoin Core is most popular option to run full node.

My review about Mixero

Initial visit

Using Tor Browser, i visit both clearnet ([banned mixer]) and onion version of Mixero website. The clearnet version load faster, but it's not surprising since Tor use 6 hops to access onion website while it only use 3 hops to access clearnet website. As i mentioned on earlier post, there are so many JS library used[1]. But this time i also notice clearnet version access fonts.gstatic.com and fonts.googleapis.com. It could be red flag for some people who have very serious privacy concern, so it'd be great if those file is hosted on your own server.


When i check "About" page, i see ambiguous claim about Bitcoin/blockchain security. This sentence need to be worded better to let people know you're talking about possible security reduction due to transparent blockchain, not other kind of security (cryptography, PoW, etc.).


When i read about contact method, i notice you only use protonmail. I would recommend you to mention it's more secure if user also use protonmail due to end-to-end encryption[2] and there's free pricing tier option[3]. And adding additional contact method would be great addition.

Mixing Bitcoin

To try mixing, i decide to use Tor Browser and onion version of Mixero website. As i mentioned on earlier post[1], Taproot/P2TR address isn't supported, so i decide to use native SegWit/Bech32 address. And since i only plan to send Bitcoin slightly higher than 0.002BTC, i only choose 1 destination address with 1.8% service fee. Afterwards, i was presented with deposit address and button to download guarantee latter.

I decide to download guarantee latter and then send Bitcoin from my wallet. Shortly after sending the Bitcoin, i click "check transaction" and it shows pop up which say receive the fund and i can close the page. After almost 2 hours i received CoinJoined/mixed coin. I checked received value and it match with 50K satoshi fee/address and 1.8% service fee.

Conclusion

Overall the mixing process is relative easy. But as other user mentioned, choosing percentage of each destination and flexible service fee are important feature which should be added. Obviously there should be lower/upper percentage limit for both destination address and service fee. And personally i feel 0.002BTC lower limit could be turn off for few people people since other mixer such as cryptomixer[4] and Whirlpool CoinJoin on Sparrow Wallet[5] only have 0.001 BTC limit.

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[1] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5422495.msg61365081#msg61365081
[2] https://proton.me/support/proton-mail-encryption-explained
[3] https://proton.me/support/create-a-free-email-account-address
[4] http://[banned mixer]/faq.html
[5] https://sparrowwallet.com/docs/mixing-whirlpool.html

Only if you have relative new/fast desktop though. My past review with 2 core CPU/2GB RAM show Wasabi use decent amount of resource. I expect cheap or old Android smartphone could experience similar performance problem.

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No, while there's coordinator server to manage all CoinJoin participant, it doesn't create any off-chain transaction and only create single on-chain transaction.

Personally i consider 14671 reachable nodes[1] & 82454 all nodes[2] is long. And to verify the list is true from another node, a node must connect to 82K node.

[1] https://bitnodes.io/
[2] https://luke.dashjr.org/programs/bitcoin/files/charts/software.html

You might want to read their past news/announcement, https://blog.wasabiwallet.io/zksnacks-blacklisting-update/.

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No, according to their FAQ. Although you may want to ask this question again in next 3-5 years assuming smartphone will be faster.

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I doubt closed source wallet which created by exchange (such as Coinbase Wallet or Trust Wallet) have any reason to add mixing feature. But only implementing mixing feature is mostly pointless when the wallet isn't designed with privacy in mind. For example, Electrum simply list of wallet addresses to Electrum server.

The code format is valid since Utopia software say "uVoucher code is valid". But i unable to active it where the software say "The uVoucher does not exist or was already activated".

Few suggestion,
1. Check whether all character on your private key is in Base58 symbol chart, https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Base58Check_encoding#Base58_symbol_chart.
2. If you copy the private key, be careful you may copy invisible character which cause the error.

On a side note, which software did you use to generate private key? Very old or unpopular wallet software may have implementation bug (such as wrong checksum calculation when generating WIF).

Here's my review about Utopia ecosystem and it's desktop software.

Installation

I use freshly insalled Debian 11 on VM with 4 core CPU & 4 GB RAM for this review, so i choose .deb file. I have no problem installing Utopia using dpkg and i don't need to install other dependency. While i do not experience any problem, AppImage would be great addition since there are some linux distro which isn't based on Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL or RPM.

First impression

After creating new wallet, i was greeted with Welcome tour. It's quite helpful to write this review, although it'd be great if mining/stacking feature is also briefly explained on it's own page. Initial/first sync took some time (about 15-25 minutes) since my internet connection isn't very fast. Adding estimated remaining sync time or how much data need to be downloaded would be great addition.

The UI reminds me of email client and application from early 2000. Personalty i like the UI, although people who mainly use mobile device or web-based application will find the UI is unattractive. Initially i have problem finding feature such as "Idyll browser", where i had to check all option on top menu bar one by one. And when i quit and re-open Utopia software again, it failed to detect location of the db/wallet file and i had to find it manually using command find ~ -name "*\.db. However, i unable to reproduce the problem since Utopia software automatically select db/wallet file when i try to quit and re-open it again.

Idyll browser

After opening Idyll browser, i see homepage which show an image and address bar which say "Please enter address in P2P Utopia Network". But since Idyll can't access regular website (such as https://bitcointalk.org) and the browser doesn't show any list of Utopia-based website/link (such as Utopia offcial website), i cannot proceed further. I would suggest to give short explanation/tutorial and list of utopia-based website on the homepage so user won't be confused or feel disappointing.

Mining

After reading FAQ about mining[2] and description about mining bots (located under "Tools -> Mining Bots..."), i found out mining process require Public IP. But since i'm behind NAT, i couldn't try mining feature. But reading mining description (located under "uWallet -> Cryptons -> Mining...") and reading FAQ at one of Utopia block explorer[3], i have confusion whether Utopia actually use PoW, PoS or dPoS. I also found out there's option to delegate your crypton coin to someone. But i couldn't try delegate feature since i couldn't find public key of delegator/node which perform mining on both Utopia website[1] and block explorer[3].

uWallet

uWallet UI is intuitive, so i have no problem understanding what each uWallet feature does. Although to test uWallet more throughfully, i decide to make payment on merchant listed on Utopia website[4]. After looking at list of merchant, i decide to choose WorldVPN[5] since they offer VPN which cost $1.99 (less than 5 CRP). But when i make payment, i'm surprised instruction by Utopia is outdated[5] where there's no "crypto currenies" option (see below screenshot). There's nothing i could do, so i cancel the transaction.



Afterwards i decide to try other feature on uWallet. While i'm not sure where or when to use crypto cards, i find uVoucher is handy and could be really useful in various scenario. Here are few voucher i created (each voucher has different amount). Feel free to redeem 1 (one) of these to try uVoucher feature.


uChannel

I don't have much to say about uChannel. While there are >2800 channel, there are less than <50 channel which have 10 or more guest. It's rather unusual there are many channel which isn't moderated, which is different from Telegram and Discord ecosystem. I also tried "Advance search" feature, but while it's useful i 2 critique.
1. There's no autosuggestion when i choose filter "uTag". It bring some inconvenience since i don't know which tag is available and i could make typo.
2. The filter "Language" actually show list of country rather than list of languages (see screenshot below)



Additional note

1. When i check the FAQ, i found out Utopia software is closed source[6]. It's a red flag for most people who care about privacy or decentralization.
2. When i use the desktop application, it might freeze for few second on few occasion (such as joining channel or opening Mining tab/window).

Summary

While Utopia have many features, lack of documentation and tutorial could discourage some people to choose Utopia as their cryptocurrency choice. I didn't review all features available on Utopia desktop software, but i will leave that for other reviewer. And i strongly encourage to make Utopia software open source to build trust among cryptocurrency community.

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[1] https://u.is/en/
[2] https://u.is/en/faq.html#faq38
[3] https://explorer.utopiaecosystem.com/faq
[4] https://u.is/en/merchants.html
[5] https://u.is/en/redirect_merchant.html?website=worldvpn.net&ret=1,All,worldvpn
[6] https://u.is/en/faq.html#faq4

But take note for popular open source software, it's possible certain company hire someone to make contribution or make donation to existing contributor. BitMEX wrote good article about it at https://blog.bitmex.com/who-funds-bitcoin-development/.

And few open source wallet such as Mycelium put some ads on their application.

I really really recommend you to take a break from Bitcoin puzzle/recovery and look for free/cheap mental health support offered by government or non-profit organization. Legal assistance probably will just waste your time and money, especially when you don't know nationality of the harasser.


I don't know how much about legal/law, but personally i would recommend you to do these
1. Report the PM with reason "unsolicited pm" or "harassment"
2. Block/ignore this user from all communication medium you use (this forum, email, etc.).

But don't forget there's rare case such as address 1111111111111111111114oLvT2 which has unreachable spending condition due to RIPEMD-160.


Personally i would not use this website as reference or information source since it contains BSV propaganda.