Scammer lead developer resigns from honeypot Wasabi Wallet

[kayirigi]

From Dread.

http://g66ol3eb5ujdckzqqfmjsbpdjufmjd5nsgdipvxmsh7rckzlhywlzlqd.onion/post/461a84a003112589e347

Nopara73, the lead developer at failed bitcoin wallet Wasabi, has decided to leave the project. In his wake he leaves behind over 132 arrests of users who were scammed into believing that Wasabi provided any kind of transactional privacy whatsoever.

Both Wasabi 1.0 and its later 2.0 incarnation were demonstrably broken.

In early 2022 Wasabi admitted to working with chain analysis companies in order to identify and filter bitcoins entering their system. These are the same chain analysis companies that are providing information and "evidence" to be used for the government prosecution of privacy developers like Roman Sterlingov and Alexey Pertsev. In effect, Wasabi has been operating as a law enforcement honeypot.

See earlier posts from this Dread with regards to Wasabi misdeeds.

https://www.nobsbitcoin.com/wasabi-wallets-cto-leaves-to-focus-on-next-gen-bitcoin-privacy/

http://g66ol3eb5ujdckzqqfmjsbpdjufmjd5nsgdipvxmsh7rckzlhywlzlqd.onion/post/b1f32ddd71f9b14c6245

Questions keep arising concerning Wasabi Wallet mixing. Wasabi bugs, user arrests, user accounts flagged and so forth are becoming too numerous to keep track of.

I will try to keep this list up-to-date as new elements become available and are documented.

UPDATE: As Wasabi Wallet flaws continue to be ignored this list is also kept up-to-date at http://scam7kwuwdjksshy6ocig5k34zuxigvhjbdy2hkvqbqsylt6eey2fmyd.onion/

    Wasabi user account is flagged at BitFinex and this is pointed out by anonymous tweets thus causing Wasabi Lead Dev Nopara73 to dox competitor who he suspects is spreading the (true) facts about Wasabi's poor implementation. https://web.archive.org/web/20200128233910/https://old.reddit.com/r/WasabiWallet/comments/beqj8r/bitfinex_lock_account/ https://twitter.com/sthenc/status/1251655851443515393

    There have been 5 documented cases of coinjoins being flagged by exchanges and brokers. All have concerned Wasabi. Rather than fix recurring issues with their implementation, Wasabi claimed that the problem was due to an anti-coinjoin campaign by KYC actors despite the fact that only Wasabi coinjoins have ever been targeted https://6102bitcoin.com/coinjoin-flagging/ (Update: now 6 documented cases. See below.)

    6 arrests each from PlusToken and WoToken scams. See OXT Research links below.

    Bitcoin address bc1q3zr88h3czss85xxp4lyyhes2xcgu7cg8vhcnzy is tagged as being BitClub. 700 btc into Wasabi via transaction 9a9cb20635db66de837685d01e7d00de9cc13c9bc80f7bcd1fe4f4173a4c503c. 3 arrests soon followed.

    Wasabi hires known scammer Cedric Dahl as paid shill. Dahl peddles bogus DNM stats and falsely claims to have subjected Wasabi to a battery of tests. https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/dark-markets-and-bitcoin-adoption-with-cedric-dahl

    Wasabi staff member doxes Wasabi corporate account via his own use of Wasabi wallet https://twitter.com/keonne/status/1151437292730560512

    Respected developer confirms that Wasabi ZeroLink is incorrectly implemented https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2019-December/017542.html

    PlusToken uses Wasabi, mixes unwound https://research.oxt.me/special-situation-report

    China & North Korea entities use Wasabi, mixes unwound https://research.oxt.me/china-and-north-korea

    Nopara73, Wasabi lead developer, "donated" a Wasabi mixed output (almost 0.1 BTC) to a scammer who was stealing funds from Wasabi users in the Wasabi Telegram chat. The "donation" took place in transaction 683aba09e87f02611842c698bad49f48734247358c673b48941f8075416a3d49 and the amount was thereafter sent to an address controlled by Huobi. This can be confirmed in the Wasabi Telegram chat logs.

    Wasabi lead developer publishing misleading usage statistics https://twitter.com/6102bitcoin/status/1263464894323658757

    Wasabi staff member admits providing liquidity to Wasabi via multiple wallets (Wasabi is self-sybilling) https://twitter.com/6102bitcoin/status/1267449330975244290

    Serious red flag about Europol report and Wasabi collaborating with law enforcement https://twitter.com/6102bitcoin/status/1269243083314659328

    Explanation of how Lasarus Group mixes were unwound https://stephanlivera.com/episode/179/

    More about the purported Europol report: closer examination of the PDF file reveals many major differences with other Europol EC3 reports available to the public via their website. As opposed to being a PDF-exported report with selectable text like all the others, the Wasabi report is a document made up of scanned images. In addition, the page template used for the Wasabi report is not used in any other EC3 report available which all use identical page layout and style templates.

    Wasabi Wallet caught using fraudulent data against a competitor http://dreadytofatroptsdj6io7l3xptbet6onoyno2yv7jicoxknyazubrad.onion/post/bb22f5e261bbeb24e157

    114 new arrests of individuals associated with the PlusToken scam https://twitter.com/molllliy/status/1288771023437852677

    3 arrests following use of Wasabi wallet mixing by the #TwitterHack scammers http://dreadytofatroptsdj6io7l3xptbet6onoyno2yv7jicoxknyazubrad.onion/post/325349fd8c53d0a7320f

    OXT Research identifies vulnerabilities in Wasabi Wallet mixing http://dreadytofatroptsdj6io7l3xptbet6onoyno2yv7jicoxknyazubrad.onion/post/dadd01b95a8f0586109f/

    6th instance of user account blocked due to proximity to Wasabi Wallet http://dreadytofatroptsdj6io7l3xptbet6onoyno2yv7jicoxknyazubrad.onion/post/c6220de5b865e09d4c8c

    Upon Wasabi's refusal to acknowledge reported vulnerabilities, OXT Research publishes report which confirms that a modified Wasabi client can be used to observe the anonymity set without taking part in any actual mixes. Chain analysis companies and law enforcement have probably been doing the same thing for quite some time which would certainly explain the 132 arrests and the 6 blocked/flagged accounts https://twitter.com/anwfr/status/1297068327165026304

    Wasabi Wallet linked to demise of Empire Market. Addresses "peeled back" https://twitter.com/nixops/status/1299013819210096643

    Wasabi Wallet developer "NothingMuch" warns users to not use Wasabi Wallet for DNM puchases http://dreadytofatroptsdj6io7l3xptbet6onoyno2yv7jicoxknyazubrad.onion/post/2e822260eb74f8b85496 It should be noted that "NothingMuch" is the same developer who teamed up with a business associate of Wasabi Lead Dev in order to provide a list of faked data in an attempt to make a security disclosure against a competitor.

    Security researcher 6102Bitcoin releases data on Wasabi symmetric address reuse. Symmetric address reuse occurs when a same address is used as both an input and an output in a same mix transaction. This is a huge flaw that degrades the anonymity set. https://twitter.com/6102bitcoin/status/1318583039006511104 After contacting Wasabi Lead Dev in order to disclose findings, he is banned from Wasabi chat rooms https://twitter.com/6102bitcoin/status/1313447816379981827

    After repeated reports on Dread submitted by many different users, Wasabi’s coinjoin implementation is classified as a scam by Hades Onion Directory http://hades3nre5yvwmoy5h4tgitvqu56e5j4euaatvyp62regy3ivwhwjwad.onion/

    KuCoin hackers use Wasabi, mixes unwound https://research.oxt.me/china-and-north-korea

    User ‘DominicG’ in Wasabi Telegram group reports ( https://t.me/WasabiWallet/54236 ) that Voyager exchange ( https://www.investvoyager.com/ ) is telling users not to deposit outputs from Wasabi or to use Wasabi after withdrawal.

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[o_e_l_e_o]

A few months ago it was leaked on Twitter that the Wasabi team were trying to sell shares or even sell the company entirely, and were "open to the idea of merger and acquisition": https://nitter.cz/SamouraiWallet/status/1708068554208117028#m

Does this mean they found some institutional buyer and so some of the devs are selling out and leaving?

[Pmalek]

I wonder what our Wasabi Wallet forum fan and shill Kruw will say about all of this? History tends to repeat itself, so I expect he will point the finger and call other implementations faulty, highlighting the open-source nature of Wasabi.

I don't support or like anything related to Wasabi, but it's important to keep in mind that if a user has a problem on a CEX because their coins come from a mixer or coinjoin implementation, it isn't a fault of the privacy tool they used. It's the CEXs hating on anything privacy-related or privacy-improving.

[Medusah]

Everyone should use Wasabi above all else.

Everyone except:

• People who do not want to risk their privacy with faulty software.
• People who would rather not pay blockchain analysis firm to spy their inputs.
• And people who do not like treating their bitcoin as non-fungible.

[kayirigi]

So

Wasabi volume dying....https://i.postimg.cc/wj12bP0t/image.png
Wasabi then want to sell company
3 months later and nopara sells up and quits

Now Wasabi get magic funds from some where to do signature adverts on forum???


Wasabi have been bought by bigger company with advert budget. But who? Exchange? BC analysis? Law enforcement? What a scam!

[NotATether]

Wasabi have been bought by bigger company with advert budget. But who? Exchange? BC analysis? Law enforcement? What a scam!

I think you mean zksnacks. Wasabi is not the company, it's just the name of the wallet. The full-time wasabi devs work for zksnacks.

[ABCbits]

From Dread.

http://g66ol3eb5ujdckzqqfmjsbpdjufmjd5nsgdipvxmsh7rckzlhywlzlqd.onion/post/461a84a003112589e347

http://g66ol3eb5ujdckzqqfmjsbpdjufmjd5nsgdipvxmsh7rckzlhywlzlqd.onion/post/b1f32ddd71f9b14c6245

Can anyone access any of those links using Tor Browser? The estimated waiting time is <3 minutes, but i already wait for over 15 minutes with no change.

A few months ago it was leaked on Twitter that the Wasabi team were trying to sell shares or even sell the company entirely, and were "open to the idea of merger and acquisition": https://nitter.cz/SamouraiWallet/status/1708068554208117028#m

Does this mean they found some institutional buyer and so some of the devs are selling out and leaving?

But can we trust that leak, especially when it comes from Samourai Wallet who also has some controversy and few questionable behavior on social media?

[Lucius]

From Dread.
http://g66ol3eb5ujdckzqqfmjsbpdjufmjd5nsgdipvxmsh7rckzlhywlzlqd.onion/post/461a84a003112589e347
http://g66ol3eb5ujdckzqqfmjsbpdjufmjd5nsgdipvxmsh7rckzlhywlzlqd.onion/post/b1f32ddd71f9b14c6245

Can anyone access any of those links using Tor Browser? The estimated waiting time is <3 minutes, but i already wait for over 15 minutes with no change.

I can confirm that I waited less than 3 minutes, and that after some strange captcha I was able to see the content. The home page that opens contains exactly what is in the OP. Maybe the problem was only temporary, or you should try changing the Tor Circuit (if you haven't already).

[Medusah]

Can anyone access any of those links using Tor Browser? The estimated waiting time is <3 minutes, but i already wait for over 15 minutes with no change

I can neither access Dread.

But can we trust that leak, especially when it comes from Samourai Wallet who also has some controversy and few questionable behavior on social media?

Very questionable.  I cannot find these documents in samourai's tweet anywhere.  Maybe someone else can. 

[Bitcoin_Arena]

Can anyone access any of those links using Tor Browser? The estimated waiting time is <3 minutes, but i already wait for over 15 minutes with no change.

I waited for less than a minute to access what is in the links, though they have some very hard captcha challenge

The profile that made the quoted posts in the dread forum (MoneroHead) seems to be a long time critic of Wasabi wallet. This perhaps explains why they went out so hard by calling Nopara73 a scammer. I don't know if he scammed anyone.

But here is part of the post history. Perhaps OP is MoneroHead?

[kayirigi]

Dread uses POW protection for DDOS. Update Tor and it works.

Wasabi never denies leak. Probably true... they only care about money.

Wasabi is a honeypot and works with BC analysis. BC analysis give evidence to put innocent people in jail. Everyone working with Wasabi is guilty collaborater.

[digaran]

How are the people you mentioned are "innocent" people? To me it looks like they arrested a bunch of hackers and scammers, why would that be wrong, and if all the claims are facts and true, then they are indeed honeypot, but what would be a good move is to pay at least 2 reputable experts to audit their code in secret and when their report was ready to publish, they could publish it themselves, however they won't lie to damage their reps, also they won't simply do the audit for free, so there is that.

But if there was no "software" related flaws, and the leakes were server or user related, then you'll have nothing to complain about.

[kayirigi]

BC analysis helping to put innocent privacy devs in jail.

Code audit not needed. Anyone can go find code that ask BC analysis to spy on your coins!

[n0nce]

These are some big news, but I've got to say: Bitcointalk always had its doubts.

'Bitcointalk Wasabi saga' timeline (did I miss something?):

|	Date	|	Topic	|	URL
|	March 14, 2022	|	The default Wasabi Wallet coordinator will start censoring "illegal" UTXOs	|	https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5389567
|	July 06, 2022	|	Wasabi blacklisting update - open letter / 24 questions discussion thread	|	https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5405325
|	July 24, 2022	|	'Wasabigeddon' article discussion (it supposedly solves fungibility)	|	https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5407473
|	June 25, 2023	|	Petition to remove Wasabi from recommendations of bitcoin.org	|	https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5457560
|	January 04, 2024	|	Scammer lead developer resigns from honeypot Wasabi Wallet	|	https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5480440

[PrivacyG]

Wasabi messed up tremendously already.  If o_e_l_e_o is right then offering to sell Shares or their entire company only means one thing is bound to happen at some point in the future and we all know what that is.  The one category of entities who would desperately pay any price to have Wasabi on to their hands is the one we hate the most.  Blockchain Analysis companies.  They are in a collaboration already so one foot is in their boat already anyway.

Unfortunately this Wasabi product will end up tainting the names of many reputable persons of the Bitcoin community.  Not necessarily the members who joined their Signature Campaign but the much more important people who are keen on publicly supporting Wasabi as the best option for Privacy.  It will taint their names too late however, because the big damage will already be done.

The signs are all there and stronger than ever.  From now on it is a matter of whether or not we want to support Wasabi and their likely honey pot and seemingly innocent strategy against Privacy.

There is an even larger red flag than ever before now.  Crack downs happen strongly on Mixers but not on Wasabi Coin Joins.  Kruw already has a very suspect yet interesting way of behaving and deceiving, it all speaks volumes.

Think about it.  You are being told it is fine to work with Blockchain Analysis as long as Privacy is still the number one priority.  It is a very contradictory and creepy way of deceiving users into believing it is completely fine for our Privacy to collaborate with the enemies of Privacy.  This while committing even further creepy actions such as exposing real identities, pushing false accusations and so on.  They tell you they are offering Privacy while exposing any public information they have about their competition and working with and funding who Privacy oriented people hate using the money you pay them for offering you 'Privacy'.

If some body bigger with even more malicious intentions gets to own Wasabi then expect the worst.  Betrayals from some of our most beloved members of the Bitcoin community.  Even more crack downs on what truly offers Privacy.  More restrictive laws and so on.

I wish I am wrong but time keeps telling me my gut feeling is right.  I keep hearing worse and worse news.  Wasabi is not to be trusted.

[o_e_l_e_o]

The one category of entities who would desperately pay any price to have Wasabi on to their hands is the one we hate the most.  Blockchain Analysis companies.  They are in a collaboration already so one foot is in their boat already anyway.

And it's a great acquisition for a blockchain analysis company. Simultaneously remove a large cost of running Wasabi since they can obviously supply their mass surveillance tools to themselves for free, while also gaining more information about every output which is even attempted to be coinjoined through Wasabi (even if they ultimately censor it), giving them more information to further their blockchain analysis capabilities. Plus it further opens up the possibility of self Sybil attacks (as OP has linked to) to further deanonymize Wasabi users. (On another note, some of the Twitter links OP has provided are now dead, but can be found on The Wayback Machine.)

It will taint their names too late however, because the big damage will already be done.

The writing has been on the wall for Wasabi since the day they announced they will start cooperating with and directly funding blockchain analysis. Anyone who has chosen to support them from that day onward has no excuse.

Think about it.  You are being told it is fine to work with Blockchain Analysis as long as Privacy is still the number one priority.  It is a very contradictory and creepy way of deceiving users into believing it is completely fine for our Privacy to collaborate with the enemies of Privacy.

I've been poking around the Dread forum after seeing the links shared by OP; the distrust of Wasabi there is pretty widespread (for good reason), and I would think people regularly using Tor and Darknet Markets know a thing or two about privacy. The most privacy orientated people on this forum do not recommend Wasabi. The most privacy orientated people on Twitter do not recommend Wasabi. It would seem the people who do recommend Wasabi largely either work for Wasabi or are being paid by Wasabi. It's pretty telling.

[PrivacyG]

And it's a great acquisition for a blockchain analysis company.

Blockchain Analysis companies would drool over this opportunity for sure.  Not only would it remove a large cost of running Wasabi but there would be no more need for the input of the Bitcoin community and they could simply diminish or abolish the Wasabi Commissions too in order to attract more people, collect more information, apply more Censorship and so on and so forth.

The writing has been on the wall for Wasabi since they day they announced they will start cooperating with and directly funding blockchain analysis. Anyone who has chosen to support them from that day onward has no excuse.

I am very intrigued although either the last time I asked this it was pure coincidence or it is a very sensitive subject for the moderators.

It seems like Peter Todd is / was a reputable contributor to Bitcoin for a very long time even though I did not hear of him until weeks ago.  I find it strange that Kruw is consistently reminding every body about Todd almost every time he posts a reply to a Thread.

What is your personal opinion of Todd ever since the Wasabi Censorship drama?

I've been poking around the Dread forum after seeing the links shared by OP; the distrust of Wasabi there is pretty widespread (for good reason), and I would think people regularly using Tor and Darknet Markets know a thing or two about privacy. The most privacy orientated people on this forum do not recommend Wasabi. The most privacy orientated people on Twitter do not recommend Wasabi. It would seem the people who do recommend Wasabi largely either work for Wasabi or are being paid by Wasabi. It's pretty telling.

Fortunately Wasabi was well known to the Privacy community way before they turned the blade against us.  I really believe it would of been much worse had they turned against us before their strong reputation.  Much easier to fool.  Considering most of us were up to date with them and highly supportive however, they hit a big nail into their own fingers by deciding to turn their back and present support to Blockchain Analysis.  All of us found out quickly, and most of us decided to stay away and question their behavior.

[n0nce]

The one category of entities who would desperately pay any price to have Wasabi on to their hands is the one we hate the most.  Blockchain Analysis companies.  They are in a collaboration already so one foot is in their boat already anyway.

And it's a great acquisition for a blockchain analysis company.
[...]

Another reason why it would be a great acquisition for them is that it would give them a huge competitive advantage over other blockchain analysis firms. They'd be the only ones able to provide data on Wasabi CoinJoin'ed transactions.

What is your personal opinion of Todd ever since the Wasabi Censorship drama?

No authorities, no heroes, and all that. There's a reason satoshi did what he did. Don't trust or care about people too much, no matter if they're Bitcoin developers, former privacy advocates or whatever else.

[icopress]

3 months later and nopara sells up and quits
Now Wasabi get magic funds from some where to do signature adverts on forum???

To be honest, this is quite funny to read. Especially since he was the guy I was chatting with about restarting the campaign.

[o_e_l_e_o]

It seems like Peter Todd is / was a reputable contributor to Bitcoin for a very long time even though I did not hear of him until weeks ago.  I find it strange that Kruw is consistently reminding every body about Todd almost every time he posts a reply to a Thread.

What is your personal opinion of Todd ever since the Wasabi Censorship drama?

I've had Kruw on ignore for a long time so I've not been keeping up with his latest copy and paste nonsense.

In terms of whatever Peter Todd thinks of Wasabi, I tend not to care what one person's opinion is, regardless of who that person is. Gavin Andresen was a reputable contributor to bitcoin, and people blindly listening to his opinion has caused untold damage in this space. The opinion of one person is irrelevant, especially when that opinion can be bought. I care about the facts. And the facts of the matter are that Wasabi directly funds the enemies of privacy, and that Wasabi coinjoins are deeply flawed: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5476210.msg63334000#msg63334000.