§Research overview + April 2026 update

by Alien Investor

#Bitcoin #Privacy #CoinJoin #Wasabi #WabiSabi #SelfCustody #OpenSource #NoKYC

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🔎 Transparency: I have not used Wasabi myself and have no first-hand experience with it. This post is based on my own research — documentation, technical background, typical pitfalls. Maybe it’s still useful to you as an overview. Do your own research and never trust blindly. If you experiment with CoinJoin: start small, test cleanly, and expect friction with custodians and exchanges. No advice, just context.

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§1) What is Wasabi Wallet?

Wasabi is an open-source Bitcoin wallet for desktop, focused on privacy. It’s non-custodial — you hold your private keys yourself. The focus is on two layers:

Network privacy: Traffic routes through Tor by default (IP obfuscation). On-chain privacy: CoinJoin, to make input/output linkage harder.

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§2) How CoinJoin works in Wasabi (in rough terms)

CoinJoin means: multiple participants build a single Bitcoin transaction together. Outside observers can no longer clearly tell which output belongs to which input. Wasabi uses the WabiSabi approach (credential-based).

Simplified: you register inputs, receive anonymous proofs (credentials), and register outputs later through a separate path. The documentation describes how the “input side” and the “output side” (often explained as “Alice” and “Bob”) run over separated communication streams — to make trivial correlation harder.

“CoinJoin is not invisibility. It’s a tool that makes analysis harder — and after that, discipline is mandatory.”

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§3) Key terms (so you don’t fall for marketing)

Pseudonymous vs. anonymous — Bitcoin is public. Without extra measures, you are surprisingly analyzable. UTXO thinking — Privacy is “which coin is being spent for what?”, not “account balance”. Coin Control — Deliberately selecting and separating UTXOs. That’s the foundation of any privacy strategy. Heuristics — Analysts use patterns (merge, change, timing, reuse). CoinJoin is an opponent — not a cure-all.

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§4) “Setup” — as a mental model, not a how-to

I’m deliberately not writing this as a step-by-step guide from personal experience. But when you research the topic, the same points come up almost every time:

Check the source — Download only from the official site or GitHub. Verify signatures/hashes. Back up cleanly — Write the seed down offline, store it safely, use a strong password. Plan separation — Decide in advance which coins you actually want to CoinJoin and which you don’t. Test, don’t believe — Small amounts first, understand the behavior, then scale.

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§5) Does Wasabi make Bitcoin “anonymous”?

No. Bitcoin is fundamentally pseudonymous — the blockchain is public.

CoinJoin can make input-to-output linkage much harder. But the most common failure is not “the wallet”, it’s the behavior afterwards:

UTXO merge — spending multiple separated coins together later. Address reuse — using the same address again. KYC feedback loop — mixing private UTXOs back into KYC flows. Predictable patterns — timing, amounts, “always the same behavior”.

If you throw everything back together after the CoinJoin, the CoinJoin was just an expensive detour.

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§6) The 2024 coordinator shutdown: why it matters

The well-known default coordinator (zkSNACKs) shut down its CoinJoin service on June 1, 2024. Wasabi continues to work as a wallet, but CoinJoin since then depends on which coordinator you use or configure.

This matters because a coordinator can set rules and parameters (fees, participation conditions, rejection of certain UTXOs). CoinJoin is a protocol — but coordinator policy is still a factor.

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§⚡ April 2026 Update: CoinJoin lives on

The zkSNACKs shutdown was not the end of CoinJoin — only the end of a single coordinator. The WabiSabi protocol is open and still alive.

Third-party coordinators: Wasabi Wallet now actively instructs users to configure a “Third-Party Coordination Service Provider.” The ecosystem has decentralized — several independent WabiSabi-compatible coordinators exist.

GingerWallet: A fork of Wasabi Wallet that emerged after the zkSNACKs shutdown, with its own CoinJoin coordination. Independent project, independent dev team, same WabiSabi protocol.

Wasabi is actively developed: Version 2.7.2 was released in November 2025. New features include Silent Payments (unlinkable static addresses) and improved Coin Control.

“Multi-Party Collaborative Transactions” instead of “CoinJoin”: Wasabi has rebranded the feature. You can hide payment origins, batch payments to save on miner fees, and consolidate self-spends — all through the WabiSabi protocol.

Tor integration: All traffic routes through Tor. Compact Block Filters for blockchain sync — no central server knows your balance.

Bottom line: CoinJoin is not dead. It became more decentralized. But you now have to choose a coordinator yourself — that’s more responsibility, not less privacy.

What that means in practice:

You need to research which coordinator you trust. You need to verify their policies (fees, UTXO filtering, logging). You need to understand that a coordinator sees the transaction being built — even if WabiSabi limits what they can learn.

More freedom, more responsibility. Same deal as self-custody.

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§7) Practical friction: exchanges, banks, “compliance”

CoinJoin is technically a cooperative transaction. Still, reality can bite: exchanges and banks may block deposits coming from a CoinJoin context or demand source-of-funds proof. That’s not “good”, but it’s the world we live in.

If you want to test: start small and keep your flows cleanly separated. If you want to move back into the “KYC world” later: expect questions. If you want privacy: accept that privacy can be uncomfortable.

🛑 Warning: “Mixing” can be flagged as money laundering risk

CoinJoin is quickly labeled as a money laundering indicator or “mixing” by some authorities, banks, and exchanges. That doesn’t automatically mean you’re doing something illegal — but it can lead to questions, blocked deposits, account freezes, or “source of funds” requests. Be aware of this reality and research the legal situation in your country before experimenting.

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§Alien verdict

Wasabi is interesting as a topic because it shows: privacy isn’t a button, it’s a behavior. CoinJoin can help — but only if you take separation and coin control seriously. This article is a research overview with the 2026 state attached. If I ever test it myself, I’ll add an update.

“Trust no one — manage your finances yourself.”

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§Original article (German, with more context on the blog)

👉 https://alien-investor.org/wasabi-wallet-research-transparent.html

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§Tools for Sovereign Individuals (Affiliates — Support at No Extra Cost)

Tools I use myself — for Bitcoin self-custody and digital sovereignty:

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🛡️ Privacy & Mail: For email, VPN, and cloud I use Proton — privacy-first, no Big Tech dependency. 👉 https://alien-investor.org/proton

Note: Some links are affiliate links. Using them supports my work at no extra cost to you. Thanks!

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Money, power, Bitcoin — observed from outside the system.