Thread by @brian_trollz

To everyone shitting all over @SamouraiWallet right now, here's what you sound like to me:

"Bitcoin Core didn't catch a bug that allowed billions of Bitcoin to be inflated, introduced a chainsplit DB bug, and a second inflation bug. I will never use Core/trust them again."

You are demonstrating a childish and arrogant ego stroking attitude. If you have a problem with something, point out the problem, not the reputation. Because I _GUARANTEE_ that mud can be thrown back just as hard, if not harder. I don't care who you are.

Privacy isn't a binary thing, it is a gradient on multiple axes, the two most important being your on chain privacy, and your network privacy. Does Samourai connect to a node they run on the network level? Yes. Does this mean your on chain privacy gains are pointless? No.

I can literally only think of TWO mobile wallets right now that do not connect to a single central node to query your balances, GreenAddress and Breadwallet. And neither of them incorporate any of the on chain privacy tools and features that Samourai does.

And both of those, unless they have made changes I am unaware of, are using bloom filters which can be broken and potentially scattering that private information across MULTIPLE servers, which is objectively worse than just a single exposure.

I am a big fan of @LarryBitcoin and Greenwallet, not so much of Bread Wallet, but the reason I bring this up is not to shit on either wallet, just point out that this is all about trade offs. To my understanding Greenwallet like Samourai is a small team with little resources.

Samourai incorporates a system to gauge and optimize the privacy of on chain transactions and outputs they link, a technique to fake TXes looking like Coinjoins, a feature to break linkages through multiple TX chains, is about to roll out a Pay To End Point and Coinjoin system...

...to say that all of this is pointless and offers no benefit in privacy simply because the wallet connects to their backend(which can be done over VPN and Tor) is completely and utterly stupid. _They have to be compromised or malicious_ for those on chain gains to be lost.

Yes, this involves a degree of trust, but newsflash: so does pretty much every wallet out there. Your only other options are 1) run a node, 2) use a light wallet that queries balances to multiple unknown entities using a provably broken technique to keep you private.

Should people be discussing the wallet architecture so that users can make informed decisions? Yes. Should people be acting like a developer is totally untrustworthy in all things because their software isn't immaculately perfect? No.

If you think the appropriate answer to that second question is "Yes" then you are a dumbshit. You might as well sell all of your Bitcoin now, and fuck off and don't come back, because that imaginary person in your head does not exist in this ecosystem.

Samourai is a VERY small team, making some of the biggest improvements in this ecosystem in terms of implementing privacy tools that are possible now(i.e. without core protocol modifications) that I have seen anywhere. Is it perfect? No. Do I trust them? As much as I do anyone.

They will keep building, people will keep shitting on them, and I will keep using them because I know that the level of effectiveness of what they build will keep improving.

So you have a problem with downsides in software architecture? Keep your criticism about that and not the people. You want things to improve? Then get off your fucking ass and pitch in.

/FIN