2015–2019: a focused technical lineage
The report dates Samourai development to around 2015, followed by Ricochet in 2017 and Whirlpool in 2019. Its primary wallet was an Android Bitcoin application. The differentiators included UTXO control, Tor, reusable payment codes, and privacy-oriented transaction construction.
Tools with different trade-offs
Ricochet inserted additional on-chain hops; it did not erase a transaction trail. Whirlpool coordinated equal-output CoinJoin transactions, with separate Deposit, Premix, and Postmix accounts. Dojo provided backend discovery connected to Bitcoin Core. These are historical systems, not live Samourai Crypto Wallet features.
Historical Bitcoin recovery reference
Deposit paths: m/44'/0'/0', m/49'/0'/0', m/84'/0'/0'. The historical recovery guide lists Bad Bank at m/84'/0'/2147483644', Premix at m/84'/0'/2147483645', and Postmix at m/84'/0'/2147483646'. These are documentation references, not an online recovery service.
2024–2025: closure and legal outcomes
The original infrastructure was seized in April 2024 and the service closed. The founders later pleaded guilty in 2025; the DOJ announced sentences of five and four years in November 2025. The 2024 allegations and later outcomes are distinct stages of the record.
2026: an independent multi-crypto direction
Samourai Crypto Wallet brings 18 assets into a shared product vision, with network-specific guides, recovery requirements, and planned integrations. The historical Bitcoin research informs its principles; it does not establish multichain compatibility, affiliation, inherited audits, or an operating history for Samourai Crypto Wallet.
Research & network documentation
Explore historical Bitcoin research alongside official documentation for the networks and assets in the Samourai Crypto Wallet catalogue.
Sources