 Frame from release video published by Defense Distributed | |
| Developer(s) | unSYSTEM, Defense Distributed |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 1 May 2014 |
| Final release | 0.8.0
/ 23 January 2015 |
| Repository | github |
| Written in | JavaScript |
| Platform | Google Chrome, Firefox |
| License | GNU AGPL |
TODO
edit- Wikilink this article on Cryptocurrency tumbler
- Dark Wallet Alpha on YouTube is the Alpha release video by Defense Distributed and is license CC-BY-SA, i.e. can be used on Wikipedia -> Dark Wallet on YouTube
- See Talk:Amir Taaki for some relevant Wikiprojects
- Redirect unSYSTEM to this article?
- https://web.archive.org/web/20131103175741/http://www.indie<TODO whitelist?>gogo.com:80/projects/bitcoin-dark-wallet
Dark Wallet is a software application designed to enhance the anonymity of Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. It was developed by unSYSTEM, a group of activist developers including Amir Taaki and Vitalik Buterin. The alpha release came on <date> and the last version release came on <date>
In 2013, Wilson, along with Amir Taaki, began work on a wallet for the cryptocurrency Bitcoin called Dark Wallet, a project by which he planned to help anonymize financial transactions.[1][2][3][4] He appeared on behalf of the Dark Wallet project at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas in 2014.[5]
24 Sept 2013 https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/dark-wallet-a-radical-way-to-bitcoin
Discussion between Taaki and Wilson began in Berlin in July of 2013 with their intention to have the same political influence as Wilson's previous project, The Liberator pistol quote "use technology to remove government intervention from his life, and from the lives of like-minded people."
Dark Wallet should be free to use
Dark wallet makes it easier for non-tech people
Made for Windows, Mac, and Linux computers, the software is a browser extension for either Firefox or Chrome
Wilson handles crowdfunding and project management.
unSYSTEM is a group of developers based in Calafou, an anarchist compound outside of Barcelona. Taaki writes most of the code, and the internationally based development teams also includes Vitalik Buterin
1 Nov 2013 https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/shedding-light-on-the-dark-wallet-1383357523
Dark Wallet has a third developer: CoinPunk
Buterin also spells it as unSYSTEM
"built-in trustless mixing" -> No public information is strictly required to send transactions using the Bitcoin blockchain, but everything is available in perpetuity
Blockchain.info also ran a centralized mixing service during the development of Dark Wallet,
Gregory Martin developed CoinJoin, Taaki and Pablo Martin created the "first truly practical implementation" of the protocol
Dark Wallet also intends to allow an authentication scheme where websites or vendors can optionally verify repeated transaction by the same wallet, with the purpose of consumer protection
14 Dec 2013 https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/sunday-review/the-bitcoin-ideology.html?_r=0
“We see this as part of the total sublation of the state,” said Cody Wilson, Dark Wallet’s director, who gained fame earlier this year when he published online the blueprints to a pistol that could be manufactured with a 3-D printer. “I know I sound like some kind of weird Jehovah’s Witness, but we’ve only just begun. We admit that we are ideologues.”
18 April 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5fhBBipU3w "Happiness is a 3D-printed gun"
Cody Wilson interview with Reason, see 19:50
24 April 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VFopiRaXwQ
Release date of 1 May 2014
29 April 2014 https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-DGB-34740
Total of $100,000 raised in Bitcoin and fiat, but that had decreased to $65,000 to $75,000 after the price of Bitcoin went down
29 April 2014 https://www.wired.com/2014/04/dark-wallet/
The project was announced in October of 2013 with a campaign on IndieGoGo, which raised $50,000 in USD and tens of thousands in Bitcoin
In March of 2014, Wilson described it at a MOMA debate: "It's just money laundering software."
The software as described is not illegal per say.
Wilson stated he intends the software to be used for illegal purchases
Dark Wallet "integrates laundering by default" by having every transaction (incoming or outgoing) use CoinJoin
- Outgoing transactions are always sent in pairs
- Incoming transactions are facilitated with stealth addresses - hashes of the intended address
The name is in reference to "going dark" - Something the FBI has warned about in reference to their inability to listen in on communication that is encrypted -> See also Crypto Wars
30 April 2014 https://www.vice.com/en/article/ypwpdk/dark-wallet-is-here-to-return-bitcoin-to-its-radical-cypherpunk-roots
Wilson "explained that Dark Wallet is a way to fight back against “what Bitcoin has been allowed to become.""
Drawn comparison to Satoshi Nakamoto's original sentiment with Bitcoin, albeit less extreme
"Liberty is a dangerous thing"
A similar technology called Shared Coin was implemented last November in the Bitcoin wallet on Blockchain.info. The site says the feature allows users to "route transactions through a shared wallet breaking the chain of transactions." However, Dark Wallet offers anonymous transactions by default.
6 May 2014 https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2014/05/06/bitcoin-dark-money-dark-wallet
On point interview with Wilson, Greenberg, and a DHS guy
22 May 2014 https://www.csoonline.com/article/2157426/dark-wallet-threat-or-no-threat.html
Paywalled
26 May 2014 https://coinjoint.info/report-frontlines-dark-wallet-alpha-testing/
11 July 2014 https://www.wired.com/2014/07/inside-dark-wallet/
Software released on "May Day, every anarchist’s favorite holiday," Specifies that the software was released early in the morning on May 1st
"Dark Wallet isn’t necessarily illegal."
Dark Wallet userbase already in the thousands during development
unSystem is group of around a dozen designers and coders including a guy identified as Pablo Martinez in the article, but I think Greenberg made a mistake. He meant Pablo Martin
Dark Wallet also has a menacing name because it is trying to reclaim the word as something good
Peter Todd -> "Chief scientist of the Dark Wallet project"
https://alkhilafaharidat.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/btcedit-21.pdf -> The ISIS blog
19 Sept 2014 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29283124
Amir Taaki is "one of the key programmers"
The Islamic State put out a blog post specifically mentioning the software as useful for laundering money.
20 Sep 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_9o63E_wjk BBC Click
Calls Dark Wallet a "bitcoin storage technology"
Dark Wallet was in alpha at the time of writing
2 June 2015 https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Dark_Net/MGw5BgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
Pablo was responsible for front end work on the site, and he worked on it while at Calafou (pg 87)
Make bitcoin "more anonymous and more trustworthy" pg 95
Taaki left Calafou in 2014 pg 109
6 Oct 2015 https://www.acfeinsights.com/acfe-insights/tag/bitcoin+fog
Includes a sample scenario where the software would be used
6 Aug 2016 https://github.com/darkwallet/darkwallet
Release info
5 Dec 2017 https://www.amazon.com/New-Radical-Cody-Wilson/dp/B077W1PTJH
<time stamp> The Islamic State put out a blog post specifically mentioning the software as useful for laundering money.
Gregory Martin created CoinJoin
The project had over 1,000 unique donors
"Bitcoin Magazine’s founder and then-editor-in-chief Mihai Alisie" was a member of unSYSTEM
Pablo Martin disappeared for a bit but has since reunited with Taaki to work on a school in London
The second funding round was not as successful.
24 June 2021 https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dark-wallet.asp See WP:RSP#Investopedia
23 July 2021 https://www.newstatesman.com/spotlight/2021/04/bitcoin-future-money-or-speculative-bubble
Mentions how Dark Wallet was praised by Islamic terror groups
Undated https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52016SC0223&from=GA
This document is a primary source, but it was mentioned in the new radical between -20 and -13 minutes.
Undated https://krypt3ia.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/btcedit-21.pdf
https://archive.ph/AaaLd
This is the document published by someone associated with terrorists that mentions Dark Wallet as being super great for terrorist financing.
https://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/reports/Emerging-Terrorist-Financing-Risks.pdf
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Exclusive: How Dark Wallet's Cody Wilson hopes to use democracy to undo the Bitcoin Foundation". Upstart Business Journal. 4 November 2014. Archived from the original on 12 November 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
- ^ Greenberg, Andy (31 October 2013). "Dark Wallet Aims To Be The Anarchist's Bitcoin App Of Choice". Forbes. Archived from the original on 1 January 2014. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
- ^ Feuer, Alan (14 December 2013). "The Bitcoin Ideology". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 15 December 2013. Retrieved 31 December 2012.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
New Yorker: Dark Walletwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Cody Wilson: Happiness is a 3-D Printed Gun". ReasonTV. 18 April 2014. Archived from the original on 9 May 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2014 – via Youtube.com.
Cite error: A list-defined reference named "forbes-greenberg" is not used in the content (see the help page).
Cite error: A list-defined reference named "nyt-feuer" is not used in the content (see the help page).
Cite error: A list-defined reference named "wired-greenberg" is not used in the content (see the help page).
External links
edithttps://archive.ph/20140607201618/http://darkwallet.unsystem.net/
- Bitcoin mixer