A new era for hardware wallets? As wallets of this type come under increasing scrutiny by regulators, Trezor has just extended its anonymity options. It is now possible to make transactions with Coinjoin, directly from the wallet.
Trezor now offers anonymous Bitcoin transactions
Announced last fall, this development was made possible by a partnership with the anonymous wallet Wasabi. As a reminder, Coinjoin technology allows, as its name suggests, to mix assets in order to mask their origin and offer a better anonymity to users. Transactions are grouped with hundreds of others, blocking any attempt to determine the origin and destination of funds.
“Pay with your money, not your data. That’s how the option, unveiled by Trezor yesterday, is presented. The wallet details several benefits, including protection against fraud, and keeping amounts held in cryptocurrencies anonymous. In addition, Trezor highlights the value of anonymity options for people under authoritarian political regimes.
For now, the option is only available on Trezor’s Model T, and not on the Model One. But it will eventually arrive on the latter, according to the company. Coinjoin’s usage fee is 0.3% of the transaction amount.
Coinjoin use criticised by some
The anonymity options offered by Coinjoin are sometimes criticised, however – and Trezor’s initiative has reignited the debate. The company has been criticised for censoring Coinjoin transactions in accordance with government lists:
Trezor is hiding all replies to its tweets that mention the fact that it will be censoring Bitcoin addresses that the government asks it to block from its new Coinjoin feature. https://t.co/CdWu5CHkRD
– Chris Blec (@ChrisBlec) April 19, 2023
In addition, questions have been raised about the effectiveness of Coinjoin. Rumours have been circulating for some time about the ability of the analytics firm Chainalysis to “unravel” transactions. According to Elliptic, Coinjoin transactions can be revealed… But only in certain cases where the user has made mistakes, for example by reusing an address.
Beyond these considerations, we can still retain that this is a rather symbolic step forward for Trezor, at a time when governments and regulators are hunting anonymity in the cryptocurrency sector. It shows that the “monetary sovereignty” so much defended by cryptocurrency enthusiasts is not just a catchword, but that real issues are emerging over the years.
