Concerns about dark wallet

[Theoboy]

According to research
The project of the Dark wallet was officially know on may 2014 and was created by Cody Wilson and Amir Takki
The Dark wallet was initially created to improve the anonymity of Bitcoin transaction; as of December of last year the dark wallet could no longer be accessed on the dark web. Although the dark wallet wasn't really completed it inspired many other anonymity projects like the Samourai wallet and Electrum wallet which gave users part of what the dark wallet promised.

How The Dark Wallet Works
Dark wallet was an underground site that needed the software to be installed in either the chrome or Firefox browsers, once installed a new digital wallet will be created with a wallet key phrase. The wallet comes equiped with with three parts which are spending, business and savings and with no limits to the number of user created parts. Each part has it own shealth address from which Bitcoin transaction could be made

Meaning of shealth address: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/stealth-address-cryptocurrency.asp

What we really need to know is the concerns about the dark wallet
Critics were worried that the dark wallet could open doors to money laundering and other illegal activities. Since Dark wallet Is designed to protect the identity of it's users far more strongly than the partial privacy protection Bitcoin offers. And the code of the Dark wallet app is protected by the First Amendment Safeguard on free speech.

Source: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wired.com/2014/04/dark-wallet/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjBmpbOl4LuAhXSCuwKHXPBAnUQtwIwAHoECAkQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2ig18kw4XPKf-6SfXKMC0B

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[Theoboy]

Although the dark wallet wasn't really completed it inspired many other anonymity projects like the Samourai wallet and Electrum wallet which gave users part of what the dark wallet promised.

Electrum don't offer any privacy feature, unless you count feature to use proxy.

part of what the Dark wallet tried to offer

Although the dark wallet wasn't really completed it inspired many other anonymity projects like the Samourai wallet and Electrum wallet which gave users part of what the dark wallet promised.

Electrum don't offer any privacy feature, unless you count feature to use proxy.

[bob123]

I don't get your statement.

Are you saying privacy is bad? Or are you trying to find an alternative?
What is the intention of the small story?

There are privacy-focused wallets, but electrum is none of them. Electrum is pretty much one of the worst wallets regarding privacy.
Samourai (mobile) and Wasabi (desktop) are privacy-focused wallets. Samourai's PayNym feature is the same as DarkWallet's Stealth Addresses, if that's that you are interested in.

[casperBGD]

~snip
Samourai (mobile) and Wasabi (desktop) are privacy-focused wallets. Samourai's PayNym feature is the same as DarkWallet's Stealth Addresses, if that's that you are interested in.

and what is your opinion on wasabi, do you use it, and are you satisfied with it
I am thinking about wasabi, but did not make up my mind about installing it, and trying to figure out how reliable is it, but did not found many users that are sharing their experience
it is not intended for large payments, or even enhanced privacy, just looking for another wallet to use

[ranochigo]

Although the dark wallet wasn't really completed it inspired many other anonymity projects like the Samourai wallet and Electrum wallet which gave users part of what the dark wallet promised.

Electrum was developed very early on. Certainly a few years before 2014.

Dark wallet was an underground site that needed the software to be installed in either the chrome or Firefox browsers, once installed a new digital wallet will be created with a wallet key phrase. The wallet comes equiped with with three parts which are spending, business and savings and with no limits to the number of user created parts. Each part has it own shealth address from which Bitcoin transaction could be made

If you have to install something in your web browser to use it, I wouldn't trust it. Browser extensions are notoriously insecure when used. I would rather use something that doesn't require me using a web browser to use it.

The last commit was years ago on the official repo. The wallet was dead before the site went down.

and what is your opinion on wasabi, do you use it, and are you satisfied with it
I am thinking about wasabi, but did not make up my mind about installing it, and trying to figure out how reliable is it, but did not found many users that are sharing their experience
it is not intended for large payments, or even enhanced privacy, just looking for another wallet to use

The main benefit of Wasabi Wallet is the privacy features since it bakes CoinJoin and various other privacy methods into the client. It functions like other SPV wallets but with much more privacy features.

[bob123]

and what is your opinion on wasabi, do you use it, and are you satisfied with it
I am thinking about wasabi, but did not make up my mind about installing it, and trying to figure out how reliable is it, but did not found many users that are sharing their experience
it is not intended for large payments, or even enhanced privacy, just looking for another wallet to use

Wasabi definitely is a good wallet.
The main benefits are the privacy enhancing technologies. As opposed to electrum, wasabi does not send the server all of your addresses and your IP address.
Wasabi uses your tor instances and has its own if no tor is running on your machine.

However, if you don't care about privacy then you'd be better off with electrum.
Wasabi's transaction for example don't support RBF because it would decrease the privacy (only a fraction of all transactions are marked as replacable).
It really should only be used if you care about your privacy and know how to choose an appropriate fee (CPFP is possible anyway if you control at least one output).

[posi]

the Samourai wallet and Electrum wallet which gave users part of what the dark wallet promised.

Electrum doesn't give users anything the dark wallet promises cause it doesn't offer anonymous transaction services other than the changing addresses features.

Critics were worried that the dark wallet could open doors to money laundering and other illegal activities

Honestly, things like this are like Uranium which can be use for something good and also be abused if get to the wrong hand.

Wasabi definitely is a good wallet.

Yes, but it not advisable for sending big transactions when anonymity is a big priority.

[bob123]

Wasabi definitely is a good wallet.

Yes, but it not advisable for sending big transactions when anonymity is a big priority.

When anonymity (a.k.a. privacy with a relatively large anonymity set) is priority, wasabi is the only SPV desktop wallet which can be recommended.
It is either Core or Wasabi for a desktop system or samourai for a mobile.

Anything else wouldn't be as good as these.

[posi]

Wasabi definitely is a good wallet.

Yes, but it not advisable for sending big transactions when anonymity is a big priority.

When anonymity (a.k.a. privacy with a relatively large anonymity set) is priority, wasabi is the only SPV desktop wallet which can be recommended.
It is either Core or Wasabi for a desktop system or samourai for a mobile.

Anything else wouldn't be as good as these.

Which i agreed with you but a flaw was discovered about Wasabi wallet by OXT research last year and it was discussed on this forum which is the reason why i advise the sending of large amount of BTC through Wasabi may expose the sender UTXO.

[bob123]

Which i agreed with you but a flaw was discovered about Wasabi wallet by OXT research last year and it was discussed on this forum which is the reason why i advise the sending of large amount of BTC through Wasabi may expose the sender UTXO.

I remember.
I have commented on that topic back when i read first about it:

Ok, so i read the article and the statement from samourai.

The two reasons why the vulnerability is critical (according to samourai) are:

When a mixed output is remixed, these vulnerabilities break the ZeroLink guarantee for the previous mix, cancelling its benefits.

and

These vulnerabilities break a core assumption of mixing, with each remix effectively canceling out the privacy gains of the previous mix.

If this is based on the assumption that the attacker has to know every UTXO in the wallet, there is no privacy to begin with.
Further, they only reference on multiple mixing events. So the coinjoin itself is not "vulnerable", they claim that multiple coinjoins have the same effect than one coinjoin.

To me, this seems just like the regular war between samourai and wasabi.
The privacy is not broken, the coinjoins are not useless.

Assuming that every UTXO of a user is known before coinjoining and also assuming that all UTXO's are enqued into a coinjoin is a pretty strong assumption to say at least.
And even then, it is not like there is a vulnerability which de-anonymizes people.

And further:

After reading the published vulnerability, i'd still stay that this is by far not as severe as outlined by samourai.

Assuming that an attacker knows every UTXO in your wallet:

• Choosing the UTXOs to mix yourself, does circumvent everything mentioned by them.
• Not mixing multiple BTC's automatically at once does circumvent this.

Assuming that an attacker does not know every UTXO in your wallet, the "vulnerability" isn't exploitable at all.


The recommendation from samourai to "stop using coinjoin" is exaggerated. Especially for a wallet which calls "ricochet" a privacy extending mechanism.
For everyone wondering what that is: It simply adds hops between your address and the destination. Basically it makes 3-4 transactions out of 1: Source -> hop1 -> hop2 -> hop3 -> destination
And these transactions are always broadcasted after the previous one has 1 confirmation. That's quite easy to detect and not sophisticated at all.

Calling that privacy extending while also assuming an attacker knows every UTXO in a competitors wallet to find vulnerabilities is kind of insincere.

As far as i am aware there hasn't been published anything new after that. Correct me if i am wrong.

[posi]

Which i agreed with you but a flaw was discovered about Wasabi wallet by OXT research last year and it was discussed on this forum which is the reason why i advise the sending of large amount of BTC through Wasabi may expose the sender UTXO.

I remember.
I have commented on that topic back when i read first about it:
[Snip]

Oh i remembered.

As far as i am aware there hasn't been published anything new after that. Correct me if i am wrong.

Yes, concern the coinjoin network which is what Wasabi used to mix coin nothing new was said by the OXT research and the majority of people believe that the flaw they detected last year was because of the competition between Samurai wallet and Wasabi but we still need to be careful and use the not sending large BTC idea.