Ashigaru Whirlpool and Terminal v1.0.0 Released

Ashigaru Whirlpool is a ZeroLink coinjoin implementation designed to sever all deterministic links between inputs and outputs, ensuring enhanced bitcoin transaction privacy.

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The Ashigaru Open Source Project has released Ashigaru Whirlpool, a version of Samourai Wallet’s Whirlpool, allowing users to join Zerolink coinjoins for enhanced Bitcoin transaction privacy.

"This has been a huge undertaking and effort for the Ashigaru Open Source Project over the last 6 months, having to get familiar and comfortable with the extensive code base across multiple repositories. It is for this reason our development on Ashigaru mobile has been quieter and slower during this period, and for this we hope our users may now understand our justification as to why," was stated in a blog post.

Ashigaru Whirlpool retains the core coinjoin cycle design by Samourai’s TDevD, ZeroLeak, and OXT’s LaurentMT, with various protocol enhancements added by the Ashigaru Open Source Project.
Alongside the coordinator code, the project has launched a desktop client terminal application (available on Linux, macOS, and Windows), forked from Sparrow Terminal.

Ashigaru Terminal is a non-custodial Whirlpool client that lets users join chosen pools, enhance their transaction anonymity, and retain full control of funds during coinjoin cycles, without needing a personal Dojo server.

NOTE: The Ashigaru.rs website is the official home of the Ashigaru Open Source Project. The project does not maintain a presence on social media, and all second-hand information should be verified against the content on the official website.

What's new

Tor-Only Implementation: Ashigaru Whirlpool operates exclusively over Tor, preventing clearnet connections to protect against IP address linking and wallet clustering by malicious coordinators.
Tor identity isolation is built in to prevent coordinators from linking session IDs across coinjoin stages, ensuring user network anonymity.
Enhanced decentralization strategy: The Tor-only setup eliminates DNS dependency and hides coordinator locations, supporting rapid deployment of new instances.

"Our coordinator has been further modularized by eliminating the dependency of RPC connections to a local full node. The coordinator can therefore be connected to any Dojo full node over Tor, enabling faster deployment and recovery, minimal hardware resource requirements, and greater jurisdictional flexibility."

Anti-Sybil Measures: An Anti-Sybil fee, fixed at 5% of pool size, is charged for Tx0 broadcasts to enter pools, with a cap of 20 UTXOs per Tx0 for added Sybil resistance.
Vulnerability Fixes: RSA keys for Chaumian blinding are not sent to clients, mitigating potential input-output linking risks and building trust as a new development team.
Output Restrictions: Multisig addresses are barred as mix-to outputs in coinjoin cycles to maintain anonymity and compatibility with post-mix tools like Ashigaru mobile and Sparrow.
Code Improvements: Numerous under-the-hood fixes and optimizations have been made to Samourai’s forked codebase, including updated dependencies, enhanced performance, and architectural adjustments.
Ashigaru Terminal: Forked from Sparrow, Ashigaru Terminal defaults to .onion Electrum servers for privacy, with options for private server connections via Tor or clearnet.
- Only native SegWit Whirlpool account paths are supported for hot wallets, with mandatory BIP39 passphrases; unsupported wallet types include Legacy, Wrapped SegWit, Taproot, and multisig scripts.
- Tx0 fee estimation targets next-block confirmation, advising users to wait for lower rates if block space competition is high.

"Remote and automatic update of Tor URLs for connecting to both Ashigaru Whirlpool and for transaction broadcast using our “Hanzaki” feature will be coming in a future release," was stated in a blog post.

Quick guide

Check out this quick overview by k3tan to learn how to use the new Ashigaru Terminal:

"My advice is to take a measured approach to this. This is new software and there may still be bugs. Start small, get comfortable, then level up progressively. Don't expect mixes straight away. It's important to be patient. Randomness of time intervals between mixes plays a role in obfuscating chainalysis. You should find using the interface overall quite responsive," writes k3tan.

Ashigaru Terminal is optimized for use with Sparrow Wallet, Ashigaru Mobile, and Samourai Wallet. These wallets support Whirlpool's unique account derivation paths and include spending tools tailored to maintain privacy during transactions from the pool.