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Podcast: Ungovernable Misfits

— Ashigaru Open Source Project

Overview

We received an invitation via email from the Ungovernable Misfits podcast, asking if we would like to come onto their show to discuss Ashigaru Open Source Project. After accepting, a representative from the project recorded a conversation with the host, Max.

We extend our thanks to the team behind Ungovernable Misfits for their grace, professionalism, good faith, and for working with us on our requests to feel comfortable to release a recording which we believe our users and potential future users will appreciate.

How to listen

The Ungovernable Misfits podcast is available on all the ordinary listening platforms, as well as Bitcoin Lightning listening apps. You may also listen via RSS feed using an Android app such as AntennaPod or in your desktop/mobile web browser (using Tor if you so choose) by navigating here .

Key takeaways

Below are the points we wish to highlight from our discussion with Max.

Trust

We recognize trust in such a project takes time and thank those such as The Watchman Privacy podcast that have educated users to exercise caution with new software. We also thank those who have to date carried out code reviews of Ashigaru mobile and published these online for others to review.

Development

We are proud of what we have achieved so far with Ashigaru mobile and our PayNym directory. We hope the legacy of Samourai Wallet will continue to live on through Ashigaru. If you would like to contribute to the Ashigaru codebase, please send us an encrypted email to obtain a login to our Gitea. We first recommend you create an "issue" for any feature / bug you wish to implement / fix. This would be our recommended first step to be the most productive.

Guides and other software

On behalf of our users we extend our thanks to BTC Sessions and Ketan for their helpful video guides on running a Dojo node, which is a mandatory prerequisite to using Ashigaru mobile. We also thank Dojo Coder in continuing to push Dojo software updates which our users depend upon.

Custom PayNyms

Our resident artist has been crafting custom Pepehashes to pair with custom PayNyms for those that have contributed to our project with their content.

You can check their new nyms out and connect to Ketan and our Ungovernable Misfits host using any BIP47 compatible wallet. We will be releasing more custom Pepehashes and PayNyms to thank other users for their efforts.

App downloads

There has been over 3,000 downloads of the Ashigaru mobile application. Thank you to everyone who has tried it out and/or are continuing to use it.

Accrescent app store

After recording the podcast, and prior to it being released, we did receive a response from the lead developer of the Accrescent App Store. Their email server was unable to deliver mail to our address which had caused the delay.

They informed us that "... current apps largely come from known Accrescent community members or established projects which have been around for some time" and that "... we suggest reaching out again after Ashigaru has been around for a few months to establish itself as a well-maintained project or otherwise waiting until Accrescent opens up to public developer registration."

For the time being, we will most likely avoid central app stores and continue to distribute software over Tor directly to our users.

Outdated nodes

As connecting to Dojo node is a mandatory prerequisite for using Ashigaru mobile, it is important that node-in-a-box projects continue to update their built-in Dojo software to the latest version. Umbrel and MyNode are many many years/releases behind, and it would be best practice if they updated their software so the latest security and functionality updates can be applied. As we have had no email response from Umbrel or MyNode, we welcome our users to help encourage them to update. Until they do, we cannot recommend them for use by our users.

Get in touch

Should you have any questions about Ashigaru mobile, have found a bug, have constructive feedback, want to suggest a new feature, please get in contact with us via encrypted email. We promise to respond to every mail.

What others can do to to help

The Ashigaru Open Source Project can not and does not plan to release all of Samourai Wallet's software stack / functionality. This is just not possible or practicable for our project. We do hope that Ashigaru's work encourages others to help bring back and maintain applications and services that are missed. For example, creating community Dojo servers, or open sourcing the OXT project source code would be of enormous benefit to making privacy on Bitcoin more accessible.

Ashigaru brand assets

We have now released our brand assets (including logo) under the Creative Commons Public License. This can be viewed in our code repository here, or downloaded from our website (using the Tor browser) here.

We are not on social media

As a reminder, the Ashigaru Open Source Project is not on social media. Please be on the lookout for and report any impersonators. If you have an urgent query, please send us an encrypted email. Otherwise, please bookmark our website to stay up to date on our latest developments.