Samourai is a Bitcoin wallet for Android with sophisticated built-in privacy.
The primary feature is its integration of the
Whirlpool
protocol, which aims to improve privacy and thwart chain-analysis.
Samourai also includes many other features such as "Ricochet" to improve fungibility, "Stonewall" for better transaction privacy, Tor to mask IPs, as well as Taproot, PayNyms, and more.
rating: 4/5
platforms:
- Android
pros:
- high level of privacy
cons:
- lacks lightning network support
- not good for continuously mixing coins
Sparrow is a desktop wallet with an emphasis on security, privacy, and usability.
Similarly to Samourai, Whirlpool & Stonewall can be used in order to obfuscate transaction history and improve privacy.
Meticulous organization and micromanagement of funds is made optionally available for advanced users,
while still providing an accessible interface for beginners.
Sparrow also features a private block explorer, Tor integration, support for PayNyms, and several methods of connection for interacting with the Bitcoin network.
rating: 4.5/5
platforms:
- Windows
- Linux
- macOS
pros:
- high level of privacy
- support for hardware wallets
- advanced features
- lightweight
Electrum is a multi-platform, well-established, and simplistic wallet for Bitcoin.
There's not much else to say, Electrum is old-fashioned, robust, and very popular.
If you want a wallet that is very simple and to-the-point, then Electrum is an excellent choice.
rating: 3/5
platforms:
- Windows
- Linux
- macOS
- Android
- python
pros:
- simple to use
- lightning network support
- support for hardware wallets
- large community, and widely used
- lightweight
Blue Wallet is a user-friendly wallet for Android, iOS, & macOS.
Several wallets can be set up and utilized at once, including regular, lightning, multisig, and view-only wallets.
Payjoin can optionally be used to improve transaction privacy.
Blue Wallet also allows the user to set up a "fake" wallet, which acts as a decoy and provides plausible deniability.
While the lightning network is supported, lightning wallets are custodial;
if it chooses to, the company is able to steal, monitor, or otherwise mishandle your lightning funds however it wants.
However, this removes the need to set up your own payment channels, and allows you to receive lightning payments while offline.
rating: 3/5
platforms:
- macOS
- iOS
- Android
pros:
- very user-friendly
- lightning network support
- can host several wallets at once
- decoy wallet for plausible deniability
cons:
- lightning wallets are custodial
- lacks many privacy features
Wasabi Wallet is a relatively popular and supposedly privacy-focused desktop wallet.
Wasabi is not recommended; use Sparrow Wallet instead.
Historically, Wasabi has used a very flimsy privacy technique, which has led to the deanonymization of countless unsuspecting users.
Wasabi has refused to acknowledge the deanonymization caused by their lousy and primitive implementation.
Additionally, their implementation of Coinjoin is only usable with large amounts, and the coordinator is now disallowing certain funds to be mixed.
rating: 1.5/5
platforms:
- Windows
- Linux
- macOS
pros:
(N/A)
cons:
- bad track record
- censorship
- high barrier to entry for privacy
- only offers low-quality privacy
- lacks lightning network support
