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Managing Wallets

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Will Binns edited this page May 23, 2018 · 1 revision

Wallets

The wallet list is based on the personal evaluation of the maintainer(s) and regular contributors of this site, according to the criteria detailed below.

These requirements are meant to be updated and strengthened over time. Innovative wallets are exciting and encouraged, so if your wallet has a good reason for not following some of the rules below, please submit it anyway and we'll consider updating the rules.

Basic requirements:

  • Sufficient users and/or developers feedback can be found without concerning issues, or independent security audit(s) is available
  • No indication that users have been harmed considerably by any issue in relation to the wallet
  • No indication that security issues have been concealed, ignored, or not addressed correctly in order to prevent new or similar issues from happening in the future
  • No indication that the wallet uses unstable or unsecure libraries
  • No indication that changes to the code are not properly tested
  • Wallet was publicly announced and released since at least 3 months
  • No concerning bug is found when testing the wallet
  • Website supports HTTPS and 301 redirects HTTP requests
  • SSL certificate passes Qualys SSL Labs SSL test
  • Website serving executable code or requiring authentication uses HSTS with a max-age of at least 180 days
  • The identity of CEOs and/or developers is public
  • Avoid address reuse by displaying a new receiving address for each transaction in the wallet UI
  • Avoid address reuse by using a new change address for each transaction
  • User has access to private keys
  • If private keys or encryption keys are stored online:
    • Refuses weak passwords (short passwords and/or common passwords) used to secure access to any funds, or provides an aggressive account lock-out feature in response to failed login attempts along with a strict account recovery process.
  • If user has exclusive access over its private keys:
    • Allows backup of the wallet
    • Restoring wallet from backup is working
    • Source code is public and kept up to date under version control system
  • If user has no access to some of the private keys in a multi-signature wallet:
    • Provides 2FA authentication feature
    • Reminds the user to enable 2FA by email or in the main UI of the wallet
    • User session is not persistent, or requires authentication for spending
    • Gives control to the user over moving their funds out of the multi-signature wallet
  • For hardware wallets:
    • Uses the push model (computer malware cannot sign a transaction without user input)
    • Protects the seed against unsigned firmware upgrades
    • Supports importing custom seeds
    • Provides source code and/or detailed specification for blackbox testing if using a closed-source Secure Element

Optional criteria (some could become requirements):

  • Received independent security audit(s)
  • Does not show "received from" Bitcoin addresses in the UI
  • Uses deterministic ECDSA nonces (RFC 6979)
  • Provides a bug reporting policy on the website
  • Website serving executable code or requiring authentication is included in the HSTS preload list
  • If user has exclusive access over its private keys:
    • Supports HD wallets (BIP32)
    • Provides users with step to print or write their wallet seed on setup
    • Uses a strong KDF and key stretching for wallet storage and backups
    • On desktop platform:
      • Encrypt the wallet by default
  • For hardware wallets:
    • Prevents downgrading the firmware

Adding a wallet

Before adding a wallet, please make sure your wallet meets all of the Basic Requirements listed above, or open a new issue to request an exemption or policy change. Feel free to email Will Binns ([email protected]) or Dave Harding ([email protected]) if you have any questions.

Wallets can be added by creating a Markdown file with a wallet name in a _wallets folder, like this: _wallets/[wallet_name].md.

For examples refer to the existing wallet files or check quality-assurance/schemas/wallets.yaml schema.

Screenshot: The png files must go in /img/screenshots, be 250 X 350 px and optimized with optipng -o7 file.png.

Icon: The png file must go in /img/wallet, be 144 X 144 px and optimized with optipng -o7 file.png. The icon must fit within 96 X 96 px inside the png, or 85 X 85 px for square icons.

Description: The text must go in _translations/en.yml alongside other wallets' descriptions.

Level: Each wallet must have a level property assigned. A value must be in a range between 1 and 4. Level represents a category of a wallet:

  • Level 1 - Full nodes
  • Level 2 - SPV, Random servers
  • Level 3 - Hybrid, Multisig wallets
  • Level 4 - Web wallets

Score

Each wallet is assigned a score for five criteria. For each of them, the appropriate text in _translations/en.yml needs to be chosen (see choose-your-wallet section).

Control - What control the user has over his bitcoins?

To get a good score, the wallet must provide the user with full exclusive control over their bitcoins.

To get a passing score, the wallet must provide the user with exclusive control over their bitcoins. Encrypted online backups are accepted so long as only the user can decrypt them. Multisig wallets are accepted so long as only the user can spend without the other party's permission.

Validation - How secure and « zero trust » is payment processing?

To get a good score, the wallet must be a full node and need no trust on other nodes.

To get a passing score, the wallet must rely on random nodes, either by using the SPV model or a pre-populated list or servers.

Transparency - How transparent and « zero trust » is the source code?

To get a good score, the wallet must deserve a passing score and be built deterministically.

To get a passing score, the wallet must be open-source, under version control and releases must be clearly identified (e.g. by tags or commits). The codebase and final releases must be public since at least 6 months and previous commits must remain unchanged.

Environment - How secure is the environment of the wallet?

To get a good score, the wallet must run from an environment where no apps can be installed.

To get a passing score, the wallet must run from an environment that provides app isolation (e.g. Android, iOS), or require two-factor authentication for spending.

Privacy: Does the wallet protect users' privacy?

To get a good score, the wallet must avoid address reuse by using a new change address for each transaction, avoid disclosing information to peers or central servers and be compatible with Tor.

To get a passing score, the wallet must avoid address reuse by using a new change address for each transaction.

Schema validation

Wallet entries are validated against the schema in quality-assurance/schemas/wallets.yaml and you will find a description of every available option in that file.

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