Sparrow Bitcoin Wallet

[apogio]

It's like, losing a hand vs losing a life.

Well, kind of exaggeration, but I agree it would be a loss to lose Sparrow wallet  forever.

However, luckily, Bitcoin is open-source, just like most of the reputable wallets that you can use.
So, I am certain that there will be other wallets in the future that will gain significant popularity.
Don't forget that most people don't even use self-custodial wallets... So...

[AprilioMP]

Following the latest development with Samourai Wallet , Sparrow team hurriedly released v.1.9.0

Sparrow got rid of the mixing feature, which is a bad birdcage at the current circumstances.

"Remove Whirlpool client, and other Soroban related features and dependencies".

They also  removed "mixing with whirlpool" section from the wallets docs.

I know that whirlpool is used to help prevent people from tracking transaction movements[1]. I know that Whirlpool was made by the Samourai Wallet Development Team and was an implementation of Zerolink coinjoin[2].

When the party who has the power to make a decision as was done on Samourai, Sparrow also moved to remove the whirlpool client in the release version 1.9.0. I think this is an attempt to be made to avoid the desired thing. In addition, is the remove whirlpool client on the release version 1.9.0 based on fear?

[1]. https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/how-to-whirlpool-bitcoin-sparrow-wallet
[2]. https://bitcoiner.guide/whirlpool/

[satscraper]

is the remove whirlpool client on the release version 1.9.0 based on fear?

On    common sense and wisdom rather on fear.  Better to be safe and maintain the development of the good product than be involved into hearing of a case. Sparrow has a good  feature, namely PayNym, that allows  to keep transactions between contractors in the dark, That is why I  prefer to lose the controversial wirlpool mixing feature  rather than the whole wallet.

[dkbit98]

On    common sense and wisdom rather on fear.  Better to be safe and maintain the development of the good product than be involved into hearing of a case. Sparrow has a good  feature, namely PayNym, that allows  to keep transactions between contractors in the dark, That is why I  prefer to lose the controversial wirlpool mixing feature  rather than the whole wallet.

PayNyms exist for years but I still don't know anyone who is using them for any payments
I don't think Sparrow developers took any earnings from whirlpool integration and they didn't charge any fees for this, unlike samourai developers, so they should not be in any danger.
But if government seriously wants to stop something and make it look bad, they will do it one way or another.

[satscraper]

On    common sense and wisdom rather on fear.  Better to be safe and maintain the development of the good product than be involved into hearing of a case. Sparrow has a good  feature, namely PayNym, that allows  to keep transactions between contractors in the dark, That is why I  prefer to lose the controversial wirlpool mixing feature  rather than the whole wallet.

PayNyms exist for years but I still don't know anyone who is using them for any payments

This fact proves that PayNyms is indeed very good for privacy   - no one (even dkbit98 ), except contractors themselves,   can identify who use it and who behind it because  those reusable codes do not publicly glued to addresses.  I can not get why developers of wallet are reactant to add  PayNyms functionality to their product. Sparrow and  Samourai have it, which ones else?

The more wallets add PayNyms the faster adoption of this payment scheme  within Bitcoin community.

[Synchronice]

That's another reason why I run my own node for my wallets and for my own Electrum server. I know what going on with my node and I don't need to rely on foreign and unknown other nodes to submit a transaction from my wallet or when my Electrum or Sparrow wallet has to inquire transaction history and transaction updates.

I know, my own Electrum server doesn't collect my wallet's addresses for nefarious address analysis purposes.

I value my privacy.

Running your own node is the most underrated thing in Bitcoin world. Everyone talks about using a mixer, coinjoin, etc but people rarely talk about the importance of running your own node (or at least using a proxy when you are connected to other node).

But if government seriously wants to stop something and make it look bad, they will do it one way or another.

It's easy to manipulate, especially for governments, that owns all the media resources and collects data about each people. No one talks about JP Morgan and other banks where billions of money is laundered but somehow Bitcoin becomes the major source of illegal money. Just ask anyone who isn't in cryptos, what they think about Bitcoin and majority of them will tell you that it's used for money laundering and illegal purchases while ask them about JP Morgan or Deutsche Bank and they'll tell you that these are official, government regulated banks. They completely ignore that these big banks are the main source of money laundering.

I can not get why developers of wallet are reactant to add  PayNyms functionality to their product. Sparrow and  Samourai have it, which ones else?

Maybe it's not popular enough. I came up with a conclusion that privacy doesn't matter much for many people and for those whom matters, use Monero instead of Bitcoin.

[apogio]

Sparrow and  Samourai have it, which ones else?

The more wallets add PayNyms the faster adoption of this payment scheme  within Bitcoin community.

According to my research, only these 2 support paynyms.
I think Sparrow has always been innovative with new features.
Craig Raw said in a podcast that they try to incorporate the features that they think are beneficial for the great majority of Bitcoiners.
But, then, it's on the user to actually use them!
I have tried paynyms and it worked smoothly, but it was more like a feature experiment to use them, rather than to actually get paid.

[Pmalek]

I can not get why developers of wallet are reactant to add  PayNyms functionality to their product. Sparrow and  Samourai have it, which ones else?

Besides Sparrow and Samourai wallets, it's apparently also used by Stack Wallet. Also, Blue Wallet uses it partially, only to receive payments. This is the data I see in The Bitcoin Hole's software wallet reviews.

[satscraper]

New release after 3 weeks slack period and retreat from  wirlpool

[cygan]

version 2.0.0 of the Sparrow wallet has been released today!
there is now support for the hardware wallets Trezor safe 5 and for Ledger stax and flex and there are also the following new features/updates:

• slip39 shares recovery
• update to java and javafx 22

the complete changelog as well as the download files for the new version can be found in the github link


https://github.com/sparrowwallet/sparrow/releases/tag/2.0.0

[satscraper]

Definitely all new features brought by the  newest  2.0.0 release are valuable but among all of them I would highlight the following:

• "Show a warning dialog when sighash none is selected"
• "Show a warning dialog on broadcast if a transaction has a fee rate beyond the range slider maximum"

Sighash none ^{(which signs all inputs in relevant transaction but no outputs)} is a very dangerous flag which ^{(when selected)} may result in the wrong fund destination. Thus a pertaining warning is more than welcomed.

Warning about  fee rate that is beyond its maximum limit ^{(established by Sparrow)} is also of great importance as it mitigates the risk of loosing funds for inattentive users. The last case seems to be happened recently when user payed 0.7BTC as a fee

[dkbit98]

Very nice to see Sparrow wallet fixing many bugs and adding full support for SLIP39 format and for Trezor 5 hardware wallet.
Few days ago I created a topic with all bitcoin wallets supporting SLIP39 and Sparrow wallet is also included there.

[cygan]

sparrow has published a new release today
version 2.1.0 includes the following new features:

• lark for usb hardware wallets
• Jade plus usb support
• Ledger multisig wallet registration save
• restore table sort & sizing on wallet load
• psbtv2 support

the complete changelog can be found in the github link: https://github.com/sparrowwallet/sparrow/releases/tag/2.1.0
you can also download the new version for your os there as well as on the official website: https://sparrowwallet.com/download/

[Forsyth Jones]

Although it is not my main wallet, I use Sparrow Wallet for testing and I can say that it is the best bitcoin wallet we have currently, similar in quality to Electrum.

In some aspects, Electrum is better.

For air-gapped wallets, Sparrow is better.

[satscraper]

For me Sparrow  wallet is the benchmark of a desktop client with bunch of user-friendly features like robust transaction management, multisig  and cold storage support, well-timed integration with the newest   hardware wallets  t^{he latest Jade Plus is  a good ascertainment of this fact.}

The latest release made this client  even  more attractive for  both novices  and  experienced  users.

[cygan]

right after the 2.1.0 release, a few hours later the 2.1.1 version was released which includes the following bugfixes

Bug fix: Fix libusb library linking issue when scanning for USB hardware wallets on macOS aarch64
Bug fix: Fix error parsing responses from Jade DIY devices with additional firmware version information
Bug fix: Revert to standard system font for table label cells
Bug fix: Test if /sys/devices is writeable before calling udevadm

https://github.com/sparrowwallet/sparrow/releases/tag/2.1.1

i personally still use Bitcoin core but it's time to install and try out the highly acclaimed Sparrow wallet

[Synchronice]

Although it is not my main wallet, I use Sparrow Wallet for testing and I can say that it is the best bitcoin wallet we have currently, similar in quality to Electrum.

In some aspects, Electrum is better.

Sparrow and Electrum, both are so good that I find it hard to finally say which wallet is the best. To be honest, Electrum's UI sucks but at the same time, it's very simple One important disadvantage that I think Electrum has is that it's not intuitive to send transaction to multiple addresses.
Sparrow's UI design is superior to Electrum but to be honest, it's not the best. They could have used better colors and better styles. One of the most important disadvantage that Sparrow has is that it doesn't have have a smartphone version while on in case of Electrum, you can access your wallet from your desktop and smartphone.

For air-gapped wallets, Sparrow is better.

Why do you think so?

i personally still use Bitcoin core but it's time to install and try out the highly acclaimed Sparrow wallet

What about Electrum? Haven't you used it? I thought that everyone's first wallet is Electrum because it's lightweight and more popular.

[apogio]

i personally still use Bitcoin core but it's time to install and try out the highly acclaimed Sparrow wallet

Oh my god, I thought I was the only one who still uses Core as a wallet and not only as a node. In fact it's another Core instance that I run as wallet and another as a node.

But, I use both Electrum and Sparrow and I strongly suggest them to be honest

[Cricktor]

~~~

LOL, you're not the only nerd here.  

While I mostly use Electrum for my wallets, I use Sparrow a little, too. For some special watch-only wallets I exclusively use Bitcoin Core because it would be a pain with Electrum. Imagine how long Electrum would need to sync a wallet with approx. 22,000 descriptors or equivalent addresses. Also I can't use Electrum to sync me P2PK public keys.

There's a niche for every wallet where one or another shines, e.g. Ginger wallet to boost privacy with coinjoins, since Sparrow abandoned that funcionality.

[Forsyth Jones]

Sparrow and Electrum, both are so good that I find it hard to finally say which wallet is the best. To be honest, Electrum's UI sucks but at the same time, it's very simple One important disadvantage that I think Electrum has is that it's not intuitive to send transaction to multiple addresses.
Sparrow's UI design is superior to Electrum but to be honest, it's not the best. They could have used better colors and better styles. One of the most important disadvantage that Sparrow has is that it doesn't have have a smartphone version while on in case of Electrum, you can access your wallet from your desktop and smartphone.

I like Electrum's UI, I find it simple and intuitive, except for the receive tab where a kind of invoice is generated that lasts for 1 day or the time you define among the available options, this only confuses newer users and should be removed, since we know that bitcoin addresses never expire, I think this is nonsense, it should be simpler. Sparrow is superior in this aspect because it has a simpler and more intuitive receive tab.

Why do you think so?

Because Sparrow has a more detailed review process, but this doesn't invalidate Electrum for air-gapped transactions, both meet this requirement well.

i personally still use Bitcoin core but it's time to install and try out the highly acclaimed Sparrow wallet

Oh my god, I thought I was the only one who still uses Core as a wallet and not only as a node. In fact it's another Core instance that I run as wallet and another as a node.

But, I use both Electrum and Sparrow and I strongly suggest them to be honest

I also use Bitcoin Core, as it is the wallet where you will have the most control for self-custody. I don't use any other wallet, not even a mobile one nowadays, with the exception of hardware wallets.