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Update: mobile wallet v1.1.0

— Ashigaru Open Source Project

Overview

The Ashigaru Open Source Project is pleased to announce the update of Ashigaru mobile to v1.1.0. Thank you to those who have used the wallet and provided valuable feedback, some of which has been addressed within this update.

For those who are currently using the previous version of Ashigaru mobile, after entering your app PIN you will now observe an in-app update notification serving as a reminder to update to the latest version.

After the team experienced a continued DDoS attack on this website last month, our focus has shifted to eliminating any need for users to connect to a clearnet domain and ensuring that there is widespread redundancy of available Tor onion services which we can bring back online. This allows us to operate in the future, if necessary, with a minimal server footprint and with as little impact to our users as possible.

Release Highlights

Overhaul of Settings screen user interface

This change brings modernization to the Settings menu making for a more intuitive navigation experience when tapping through the following screens:

    • Security
    • Wallet
    • Transactions
    • Backups
    • About

Automatic updates of Tor onion services

Introduced in the previous version of Ashigaru mobile (v1.0.0) was a feature allowing the Ashigaru Open Source Project to notify users in-app when a new app update is available. This process is carried out automatically in the background after entering your app's PIN, and uses Tor together with PGP verification to check and validate if a new Ashigaru mobile version is available.

In the v1.1.0 Ashigaru mobile release we have extended this functionality to automatically update the Tor URLs used in the application. As Ashigaru mobile makes use of our PayNym directory and Soroban server, we understand that these services can be important tools for users to more easily send and receive BIP47 payments, as well as participate in online peer-to-peer collaborative transactions. We now have the ability to update your app's PayNym and Soroban Tor URL on the fly without requiring the need to release an app update. We have nicknamed this approach our "Hanzaki" strategy, after the Japanese giant salamander, who were believed to be able to survive even after being cut in half due to their regenerative powers.

Redundancy in practice

As an example of the importance of this approach, consider a situation where our Soroban server is unavailable due to a degraded network, hardware failure or other unexpected event. This server has a Tor .onion URL which is saved in your app and is used to pass encrypted messages back and forth between you and another peer when sending or participating in an online collaborative Cahoots transaction (such as STONEWALLx2 or Stowaway). If our server is unavailable, you would not be able to continue to carry out these types of transactions in an automated manner.

After the Ashigaru Open Source Project spins up a new server, we will then update our PGP signed message to include a new Soroban Tor .onion URL. Then, after you unlock your Ashigaru mobile app with your PIN, the app automatically downloads over Tor and verifies this new PGP message. Once validated, this new Soroban Tor .onion URL is then added to your app, and going forward this new URL will be used by you when participating in online collaborative Cahoots transactions. Hence, minimum downtime for you! And we hope a maintained reputation for us! Win-win!

Once the app detects and verifies that any new Tor URLs are available, your app updates these locally and they may be viewed in the following location:
Settings > About > App functionality URLs

Download Source Code URLs

The same method is also used to serve to you the latest Tor .onion URLs that can be used to download a full copy of Ashigaru mobile's source code. This aims to give you the ability to easily take a copy of our codebase on demand and encourages the decentralization of the code's availability. These direct download Tor URLs can be found in the following area of the app:
Settings > About > Download source code

New transaction alerts

When we released the first version of Ashigaru mobile (v1.0.0) this included features from Samourai Wallet's /development code branch which were not formally released in an app release by them (as explained in our news post here). One of these features was "Transaction Alerts".

Transaction Alerts, when triggered, provide informative feedback to users when spending. Prior to sending a transaction these alerts are displayed on the transaction review screen and strike a good balance of being informative, help you stop and think about what you are doing, highlight how and why the transaction you are constructed may degrade your privacy, but are not intrusive nor prevent you from doing what you want if ignored.

In this v1.1.0 Ashigaru mobile release we have added two new transaction alerts:

    • Consolidation heuristic
    • Consolidation heuristic / Wallet sweep

One of these will be triggered if you attempt to create a transaction which has more than one input with no change output, as this type of transaction construction may reliably be used by blockchain surveillance firms to correctly assume all inputs belong to a common owner, and proceeding to broadcast such a transaction may degrade your privacy.

This means there is now a total of nine possible Transaction Alerts which may be triggered, helping you to make informed decisions about your spends. The others are as follows:

    • Reused sending address
    • Address seen on blockchain
    • Unnecessary inputs
    • Rounded sending amount heuristic
    • Script type heuristic
    • Spending dust outputs
    • Spending from Postmix to Deposit account

Release Notes

New:

  • Overhaul of Settings menu user interface.
  • Wallet accounts recovery information: Settings -> Wallet -> View extended public keys -> Show wallet account technical info.
  • Ability to automatically update over Tor the app's functionality URLs (with PGP verification) to ensure continuous PayNym directory and Soroban network availability.
  • Tor direct download .onion URLs now shown in menu: Settings -> About -> Download source code. These may be used for obtaining a copy of the Ashigaru mobile source code. URLs automatically updated over Tor (with PGP verification).
  • Ashigaru Tor website URL displayed in Settings -> About menu. URL automatically updated over Tor (with PGP verification).
  • Ability to hide balance by tapping on available balance.
  • Consolidation and Wallet Sweep transaction alerts.

Updates:

  • All PayNym API calls now made to Tor .onion URL (rather than to clearnet domain over Tor network). All dependencies and reliance on DNS now removed from app.
  • PayNym address calculator moved from Settings to Tools menu.
  • Ability to tap full UTXO balance to populate spend amount from Postmix when constructing a transaction.
  • Minor user interface tweaks.
  • Text strings for clarity.

Fixes:

  • Boosting transaction with child-pays-for-parent.
  • Transaction/UTXO label not showing immediately on Deposit or Postmix transaction screen.
  • Wallet Syncing screen getting stuck.
  • Share button on receive screen not working.
  • Restoring from automatically detected Encrypted Wallet Backup File via snack bar button skipping the Wallet Server Configuration screen and Wallet Syncing screen.
  • Scanning BIP47 reusable payment code QR from Deposit or Postmix screen does not open the associated PayNym profile in-app.
  • Tapping "Open in wallet" on PayNym website directory (in external mobile browser app) not navigating correctly to the associated PayNym profile in-app.

Other:

  • Source code reproducibility improvements including; removing dependencies, integrating modules, removing pre-packaged files.

Download

The Ashigaru mobile application for Android can be downloaded from here using the Tor mobile or desktop browser.

Reminder

This website is the home of the Ashigaru Open Source Project. We do not hold a social media presence, nor have any other method of letting you know about the latest news related to this project. You should always verify information, or second-hand information, with what is stated on this website.

If you would like to get in contact with us, please do so via encrypted email following the steps here.

Thank you

We extend our sincere thanks to all who have downloaded, tried, and used Ashigaru mobile, provided valuable feedback and code reviews, as well as those who have graciously made donations to the Ashigaru Open Source Project. Your support is very much appreciated.