Trezor, a cryptocurrency hardware wallet company, has partnered with Wasabi Wallet to enhance the privacy and security of Bitcoin (BTC) transactions through its CoinJoin feature. The CoinJoin protocol enables users to anonymize their BTC transactions by joining their transaction with other users’ transactions, making it harder to track individual transactions. This feature is already live on Trezor’s Model T wallet, with plans to enable it on its first hardware wallet, the Model One, in the near future.
The CoinJoin option is available alongside other account types, such as Segregated Witness (SegWit) and Bitcoin Taproot accounts. To enable maximum privacy, the CoinJoin feature on Trezor prompts users to allow the anonymous communication protocol, Tor.
Josef Tetek, Bitcoin analyst at Trezor, noted that while the CoinJoin protocol enables more privacy, coinjoined transactions are somewhat more costly as they require users to pay a coordinator fee. Moreover, users must pay a mining fee for each round for CoinJoin. The coordinator fee and mining fee are charged with any other Bitcoin transaction.
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.
Despite the additional cost and longer transaction times, Trezor CEO Matěj Žák emphasized that Trezor values privacy as the most important asset of individuals, making it worth the investment of time and money. Consequently, the company is delighted that it has found a way for the community to keep their Bitcoin history private.
According to the firm, Trezor is the first hardware wallet to implement CoinJoin, following in the footsteps of software wallets like Wasabi. The collaboration with Wasabi Wallet enables the CoinJoin option on Trezor’s wallets, allowing users to hide their transactions and balances while purchasing, donating and making other transactions with Bitcoin.
In summary, by enabling the CoinJoin feature on its hardware wallets, Trezor is expanding the privacy and security of Bitcoin transactions. The partnership with Wasabi Wallet enables users to anonymize their BTC transactions, making it harder to track individual transactions. Despite the additional cost and longer transaction times, the privacy feature is in line with Trezor’s values, making it a worthwhile investment. Moreover, Trezor is the first hardware wallet to implement CoinJoin, setting an example for other hardware wallet companies to follow.
