Bitcoin users can now enjoy enhanced privacy and security on their transactions thanks to a new collaboration between cryptocurrency hardware wallet firm Trezor and privacy-focused Wasabi Wallet. Trezor has rolled out the CoinJoin feature on its hardware wallets, which allows users to anonymize their Bitcoin transactions by sending their BTC as part of a large collaborative transfer and obfuscating transaction history. The new feature is immediately available on the company’s Trezor Model T wallet, with plans to enable the CoinJoin option for its first hardware wallet, the Model One, in the near future.
CoinJoin was introduced by former Bitcoin core developer Gregory Maxwell in August 2013, providing an option to send BTC transactions more privately. Trezor’s new collaboration with Wasabi enables the CoinJoin option on its wallets and allows users to hide their transactions and balances while purchasing, donating and making other transactions with Bitcoin. To enable maximum privacy, the CoinJoin feature on Trezor prompts users to allow the anonymous communication protocol, Tor.
Users need to open a new CoinJoin account on the main Trezor menu to enable the feature. The selection of the new CoinJoin feature is available alongside other account types, including Segregated Witness (SegWit) and Bitcoin Taproot accounts. CoinJoin in Trezor is optional, and users must first send their coins to a specific CoinJoin account if they wish to use this function. If users choose not to use CoinJoin, nothing changes for them.
As CoinJoin enables more privacy, coinjoined transactions are somewhat more costly, as they require users to pay a coordinator fee. When entering a CoinJoin, users also pay a 0.3% coordinator fee and the mining fee. Remixes, or further CoinJoin rounds, have no coordinator fee. There is no additional fee when spending coinjoined outputs. Unlike the coordinator fee, mining fees are charged with any other Bitcoin transactions. As such, users must pay a mining fee for each round for CoinJoin.
Apart from fees, the CoinJoin function is also associated with longer transaction times. Setting up a conjoin account discovery alone may take significantly longer than regular account discovery due to downloading whole blocks and using a slower connection on Tor. The CoinJoin process itself can take up to several hours. Afterward, the outputs can be spent in the same fashion as any other Bitcoin outputs.
Trezor CEO Matěj Žák emphasized that Trezor values privacy as the most important asset of individuals. “Consequently, we’re delighted that we’ve found a way for our community to keep their Bitcoin history private,” he noted. According to the firm, Trezor is the first hardware wallet to implement CoinJoin, following in the footsteps of software wallets like Wasabi.
