Wasabi Wallet ReviewDownload processVery fast and straight forward. It took me less than 2 minutes to navigate to the website, download and install the wallet – very convenient. The application pops up on the desktop and all you have to do is to double-click and you’re all ready to experience the Wasabi experience (sounds like I’m an ambassador, but this is just my style of writing)
Branding & FunctionalitiesThe branding of the wallet backed by its functionalities really appeals to those who are concerned about their privacy. We should all be if you ask me.
Wallet initializationSuggestion: As a nice little addition I suggest adding the possibility of sliding back & forth between the above presentation of wallet’s features.It is a little confusing that on the website it is specified that users shouldn’t pay coordinator fees while on the prompts this is not specified:
Terms & Conditions ReviewNot overly complicated with legal jargon. It was quite easy to read and understand. I took the time to go through it thoroughly and no phrases raised up question marks regarding their commitment to keep privacy as a top priority.
UI AnalysisFirst of all I am a little bit confused about the gradient lines when having no transaction in my wallet. It looks like something might still be loading.
I like that I can very easily disable CoinJoin if I don’t want to use it from the Wallet settings just by one-click. And even more privacy settings are available in the left toolbar like changing themes and some other privacy settings. I particularly dig the discreet mode. There are times when I want to use my wallet, but there are other people in the room. Most of the time I don’t want them to take a peek at my balance.
I’m getting a warning in the wallet and I am not sure why. It looks like the “backend” is not connected, whatever that might mean.
EDIT: This problem got solved just by waiting a little bit more.
Suggestion: I like that we can label transactions when we ask the wallet for a receiving address, but I don’t understand why it is mandatory to enter it. Sometimes I just want a one of my bitcoin addresses without specifying from who I receive them.Search feature – I find this feature extremely useful, especially if I want to delete a wallet and/or access the data folder of the application. I tested the wallet recovery option so I only had to delete the “.json” file from the ‘wallets’ folder and then quickly recover the wallet by providing the recovery phrase.
Wallet list – I dig the way wallets are displayed on the left side of the wallet and the animations when transitioning between them. Smooth & simple!
TransactionsThe most practical test --> transactions handling. For the purpose of this test I have used the Bitcoin mainnet. I have sent a transaction from a segwit address with an insignificant fee of a few cents to a well-known online casino. Everything went smoothly. I also made a withdrawal from the casino to another address – no issues here.
CoinJoin ReviewCreated a new wallet on the Bitcoin testnet to try the CoinJoin feature. I have selected the optimization for speed.
1st test- It took some time for the wallet to find peers. However, once I started the CoinJoin it took about 5 hours for my coins to become fully private (100%).
- Starting balance: 0.0007 BTC
- Ending balance: 0.00008 BTC (~ - 0.00062 BTC)
- The CoinJoin process was indeed uneconomical as warned by the wallet. That is why Wasabi recommends to perform a CoinJoin when you have at least 0.01 BTC in your wallet. However I’m not really sure why Bitcoin left my wallet in so many transactions. I see both transactions labeled as CoinJoin and simple outgoing transactions that I haven’t made manually. This is a bit confusing to be honest. I’m going to try Coinjoining again with a balance of around 0.005 and re-test the feature.2nd test- Managed to load my wallet with 0.0259 TBTC from different faucets. Now my goal was to make them all private so I started the CoinJoin process with the "Maximize speed" setting activated
- Starting balance: 0.02590404 BTC
- Ending balance: 0.02477675 BTC (~ - 0.00112729 BTC)
- The CoinJoin process was performed in 69 transactions and 0.00112729 BTC was charged as mining fees --> not sure if coordinator fees were included in that. Anyways that amounts to ~4.35% of the sum coinjoined. That is quite decent taking into account that I optimized for speed, not cost.
- TIME: in ~4 hours the coinjoin process was finished
CPU UtilizationIt looks like the wallet is a bit CPU intensive, but not exaggerated. It constantly uses around 10-20%. I suspect this is due to tor implementation. To be mentioned that this is also mentioned in the Wasabi FAQ: “No, Wasabi and CoinJoin features require considerable computational power, not currently replicable on a smartphone.”
Wallet RecoverySteps:
1) Delete the .json file from the wallets’ folder of the application.
2) Close and re-open the Wasabi application.
3) Select the Wallet Recovery option.
4) Provided the 12 recovery words and the password associated with the wallet.
5) Wait until the Bitcoin network data is downloaded and processed --> it took around 1 hour for the wallet to get sync’ed.
SecurityThe wallet is privacy-focused, but I think it would be a killing combination if you can upgrade its security and this is also a
branding suggestion --> “Wasabi – security and privacy at its finest” or something around those lines
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2FA Authentication – this is really essential – also I would like to be able to place limits on the amount of transactions per day I can make without using 2FA. (sometimes I prefer speed over security), plus this security feature will limit my loss if someone get a hold of my wallet's password.
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Conclusion: For normal Bitcoin transactions the wallet is excelent, but you need to be careful about activating CoinJoin by mistake if your focus is stacking sats and not privacy. But hey, Wasabi has been created for the privacy-concerned audience in mind. So you might want to opt for a simpler wallet and not that CPU-intensive if you’re not interested in keeping your transactions private. My opinion is that if you’re dealing with higher amounts of Bitcoin (>0.01 BTC) a 0.3% fee for anonymity is really a cheap price to pay. Just as a side-note I noticed on Github that @nopara is one of their main developers (making most of the commits). He is well recognized for his work on Bitcoin privacy.