A group of developers recently made a surprising announcement on September 20th. They revealed that they had successfully performed a hard fork of the Samourai Wallet code and introduced the first version of a mobile wallet as part of their new “Ashigaru Open Source Project.” The Ashigaru project aims to provide users with secure, private, and censorship-resistant solutions, while also ensuring a low technical barrier to entry. This initiative builds upon the work of the Samourai team, but the developers behind Ashigaru have no direct affiliation with them. They have, however, incorporated code from the public domain and other cryptocurrency projects into their work.
In a separate and noteworthy event, the founders of the Samourai Wallet, Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill, were arrested in April 2024 on money laundering charges. The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) accused them of executing over $2 billion in unlawful transactions and facilitating more than $100 million in money laundering activities. If convicted, they face a maximum prison sentence of five years. As part of the investigation, the FBI seized the Samourai Wallet’s website and servers, and app stores were instructed to remove the wallet application.
Keonne Rodriguez has pleaded not guilty and has been released on a $1 million bail-bond agreement. However, he is required to stay within certain geographic boundaries until his case concludes. This incident has attracted significant attention within the cryptocurrency community, highlighting the importance of privacy-enhancing measures and the potential risks involved in such transactions.
In the midst of these developments, there is a growing race among developers to create safe and legal coin mixers. Tornado Cash 2.0 is one such project that aims to provide users with a secure method of mixing their coins while complying with legal requirements. These initiatives reflect the ongoing efforts to strike a balance between privacy and compliance within the cryptocurrency space.