Trezor, the company behind one of the most popular crypto wallets, has teamed up with privacy project Wasabi to bring CoinJoin mixing to Bitcoin transactions on its hardware wallets.
The two projects confirmed the partnership via Twitter Monday. The idea is that users will be able to use CoinJoin on their Trezor devices for greater transaction privacy beginning next year.
CoinJoin is a coin mixer that groups Bitcoin transactions together to obscure their origins. Wasabi Wallet is a popular Bitcoin wallet made by software firm zkSNACKs that uses CoinJoin technology.
🚨 BREAKING: Hardware wallet coinjoins are coming next year with our friends at @Trezor pic.twitter.com/2RFCgM9wK2
— Wasabi Wallet (@wasabiwallet) September 4, 2022
Trezor specializes in cold storage—wallets that store cryptocurrency offline, the safest way to store digital assets.
Wasabi Wallet contributor Rafe told Decrypt that the goal is for Trezor Suite users to be able to send private coins directly from their hardware wallets.
"You will be able to join our zkSNACKs WabiSabi CoinJoin rounds with your hardware wallet in the Trezor Suite application," he said, explaining that WabiSabi is a new CoinJoin protocol.
Hi, we're working on a CoinJoin implementation, not an album. Thanks for understanding🤟
— Trezor (@Trezor) September 5, 2022
"The reason why Trezor is integrating this is because this is the most advanced CoinJoin protocol out there by far," he said.
Karo Zagorus, who leads community and reputation management at zkSNACKs, added that the partnership was formed out of talks that began in 2019 and represented “a phenomenal achievement.”
zkSNACKs and those working on Wasabi Wallet say crypto privacy is more important than ever before. This is because, they claim, government surveillance is increasing—and financial transactions eventually could be used to closely monitor what citizens do.
And they told Decrypt that’s why they are working tirelessly on tools that make Bitcoin, the biggest digital asset, more private. Contrary to popular belief, Bitcoin is easily traceable and therefore not inherently anonymous.
Coin mixers—and crypto privacy in general—have been in the spotlight a lot since the U.S. government sanctioned Tornado Cash last month. The Treasury Department banned Americans from using the coin mixer, which allowed users to make private Ethereum transactions, because it claimed criminals had used it to launder dirty funds.
The crypto community erupted following the news, with Washington, D.C.-based crypto advocacy group Coin Center threatening to challenge the ban in court.