On September 20, an unknown group of developers announced that they had performed a hard fork of the Samourai Wallet code and released the first version of a mobile wallet based on the work of the Samourai team as part of the new “Open Source Project Ashigaru.” The new Ashigaru project utilizes CoinJoin and other mechanisms to protect users from analytical heuristics and tracking.
The project’s website states that Ashigaru “develops, releases, and maintains free open-source software” and promises to create solutions with a low technical barrier to entry, ensuring user security, protecting them from third-party risks, and maximizing censorship resistance.
The Ashigaru developers noted that the project “widely utilizes” code from the public domain and other crypto projects. In their mission statement, the developers said: “We believe everyone should be able to engage in peaceful, voluntary, and private trade online without tracking, surveillance, or censorship.”
The Ashigaru project is exciting because little is known about the developer’s team. They identified themselves as “former users of Samourai Wallet” but explained that they have no connection to the core group of Samourai Wallet developers.
Arrest of Samourai Wallet Developers
In April 2024, Keonn Rodriguez and William Hill, the founders of Samourai Wallet — a privacy-enhancing Bitcoin wallet — were arrested on money laundering charges as part of a case initiated by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
According to the DOJ, the founders “conducted over $2 billion in illegal transactions and facilitated more than $100 million in money laundering operations.” The pair faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison if convicted of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transfer business.
As part of the investigation, the FBI seized the website and servers of Samourai Wallet. The law enforcement officials also forced the App Store to remove the Samourai Wallet app.
Rodriguez later pleaded not guilty and was released on a $1 million bail by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, but he must remain within certain geographical boundaries until his case is resolved.
