How to Migrate Samourai Wallet & Implications for Whirlpool Users

Privacy and freedom tech advocate Seth For Privacy shared some key insights on implications of yesterdays indictment for Samourai Wallet and Whirlpool users.

How to Migrate Samourai Wallet & Implications for Whirlpool Users
Source: Planb.network

Samourai Wallet Users without Dojo Server

  • The default architecture of the Samourai Wallet meant that your xpub was at some point exposed to Samourai, and could possibly end up in the hands of the DOJ.
"Though it's a worst-case scenario, you should assume that your xpub was compromised, and thus all previous mixes you have done have been unwound and are now traceable. You should also assume that the gov can now derive all past/present/future addresses of yours and track movement of funds if so desired," said Seth For Privacy.
  • Samourai's coordinator and backend sync servers were seized, and so the wallet will no longer sync, show received funds, or allow sending funds out.
  • "As such, you have to migrate funds to another wallet like Sparrow," he added.

To ensure successful migration, check out the Samourai documentation here and follow this step-by-step guide on freedom.tech. Alternatively, you can also watch this video guide by Bitcoin QnA below:

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Samourai Wallet migration tutorial (by Bitcoin QnA).

  • Migrating funds to a new seed phrase is highly recommended to prevent anyone holding the xpub from seeing all future received and spent funds.
"You should also disable automatic updates in the Play Store (if used) to ensure no malicious updates are pushed," added Seth for Privacy.

Samourai Wallet users with own Dojo

  • Your xpub has not been compromised and the worst case scenario is that your previous mixes may not have the full anon set you expected if non-Dojo users xpubs were compromised.
  • Users are still be able to sync, send, and receive from Samourai Wallet app, but one may want to migrate funds some time in the future if there are no further updates for the project.
"You should, however, disable automatic updates in the Play Store (if used) to ensure no malicious updates are pushed."

According to a blog post written last September, self-hosted users constituted 85-90% of the Whirlpool user base.

Whirlpool users of other wallets

  • "The worst case scenario for you is that your previous mixes may not have the full anon set you expected if non-Dojo/Samourai users xpubs were compromised."
  • Whirlpool users will no longer be able to participate in coinjoin as the Samourai coordinator was seized.
  • In one of its late updates, the Samourai team introduced decentralized coordination option of Whirlpool, although it seems like the implementation has not been fully rolled out in time to keep Whirlpool up and running.

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