Ashigaru Developers Revive Privacy Fight With Fork of Samourai Wallet

In late April, the U.S. government announced charges against Samourai Wallet's founders, William Lonergan Hill, and Keonne Rodriguez

After the U.S. government charged the founders of Samourai Wallet with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, a group of developers forked the Samourai Wallet software to continue the fight for privacy.

The new platform, called the Ashigaru Open Source Project, is named after the foot soldiers of feudal Japan, some of whom could climb the ranks to become Samurai. The term itself means “light feet,” a nod to the stealthy, elusive nature that defines the ancient Ashigaru's approach.

“We believe anyone should be able to engage in peaceful, voluntary and private commerce on the internet without tracking, surveillance or censorship,” Ashigaru Wallet’s website states. “The Ashigaru Open Source Project develops, releases and maintains free and open source software that makes extensive use of both published code from active projects as well as those archived in the public domain.”

The site's documentation breaks down the wallet's components, provides an overview of the server, and explains how to connect to Dojo. In short, Dojo is a self-hosted backend server that empowers users to operate their own full Bitcoin node and wallet server, eliminating the need for centralized servers.

The buzz about the Ashigaru project quickly spread across social media platforms like X, with several individuals sharing the news.

“Samourai Wallet has been forked,” one X account stated. Some brave souls have picked up where Samourai Wallet left off and the fight for privacy lives on.”

The individual added:

Excellent work in reigniting this flame in the darkest hour. Running your own Dojo now required.