SatoshiLabs, the pioneering innovator behind the world’s first hardware wallet, Trezor, today introduced the Vexl Foundation at the BTC Prague conference. Backed by SatoshiLabs’ co-founders, Marek Palatinus and Pavol Rusnák, and with Lea Petrášová, CEO of Vexl.it, appointed as president. The foundation champions personal and financial freedoms, asserting that without the freedom to transact, all other rights lose their meaning, reflecting bitcoin’s original purpose as a decentralized peer-to-peer currency.

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The Vexl Foundation is committed to restoring financial power to the people, breaking free from institutional constraints and excessive regulations. It firmly believes that technology should serve as a tool for empowerment, not control, with everyone having the right to free choice, self-determination, and privacy. This stance is a critical response to KYC (Know Your Customer) practices that have introduced unwanted complexity and risk for users, occasionally leading to security breaches and unwanted exposure of precious private data.

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Alongside its launch, the Vexl Foundation has released the Financial Tyranny Index (FTI). The FTI is a comprehensive tool that measures the extent of statist interventions in the financial space. These include parameters such as the growth of the money supply, the imposition of cash limits, the advent of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), and the overall tax burden. Interestingly, the initial findings of the FTI reveal that many of the world’s Western democracies, including France, Belgium, Canada, and the Netherlands, are among the top 20 countries with the highest levels of financial state control. This innovative index is designed to challenge and highlight these escalating impositions on our financial freedom.

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At the core of the Vexl Foundation’s mission is Vexl, their mobile app. Vexl provides a simple, private, and secure platform for peer-to-peer Bitcoin transactions, operating without KYC or institutional interference.

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“Vexl isn’t just an application, it’s the embodiment of our vision for financial autonomy. We’re dedicated to a future where technology empowers, and financial freedom equates to choice, privacy, and control,”

states Lea Petrášová.

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The board of the Vexl Foundation includes Lea Petrášová, Marek Palatinus, Pavol Rusnák, Josef Tětek, and Grafton Clark. This team brings together a diverse range of experiences and perspectives, underpinning the foundation’s mission and vision.

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“As we journey further through the digital age, we’re witnessing a concerning centralization of control,”

Marek Slush Palatinus acknowledges.

“We need to revisit the principles bitcoin was founded upon to direct power back to individuals. The Vexl Foundation is our step towards that change.”

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Open to collaboration with other organizations and individuals who share the vision of a free and open financial world, the Vexl Foundation launches today. Backed by donations and guided by the strategic wisdom of the SatoshiLabs team, the foundation is poised to inspire a significant shift in our perception and interaction with digital finance, inviting everyone to step into the realm of financial autonomy.

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“Join us on this journey towards a more open financial world,”

Rusnák invites.

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For more details on this groundbreaking initiative, visit the Vexl Foundation’s website: https://www.vexl.foundation/

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New chip wrapper, produced by Trezor, improves device security and significantly shortens lead times for mass production

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Trezor, the original bitcoin hardware wallet company by SatoshiLabs Group, has taken control of its silicon chip production by facilitating the manufacture of its own key component, the chip wrapper, in its flagship product, Trezor Model T. 

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The move dramatically optimizes device production by eliminating the reliance on third parties in the highly complex chip manufacturing supply chain.    

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Prior to taking control of this process, the global chip shortage has meant that Trezor, like most electronic device manufacturers, has been exposed to fluctuations in component availability that in turn is sensitive to a variety of factors including geopolitical disruption, labor shortages due to Covid 19 and even droughts that limit the supply of the pure water required in the manufacturing process. 

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Demand planning is also highly complex.  Spikes occur in response to bear-to-bull market fluctuations.  They have also followed the consumer interest in cryptocurrency self custody, a demand that was sparked by the high profile implosion of centralized exchanges like Celsius, FTX and BlockFi in Q3 2022. During the same period Trezor saw a 300 per cent increase in sales of its hardware wallets for example.

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Whilst the same level of security is achieved by Trezor taking control of the wrapping process, the company has reduced lead times in the supply cycle from two years to several months.  This is turn eliminates delays in shipping finished products and protects the consumer from exposure to price fluctuations based on component supply and demand. 

”The twists and turns in demand for hardware wallets and the silicon supply chain disruption that we’ve seen over the past few years was a problem that we needed to solve. By unpacking the process, identifying areas where we could take control, and collaborating with our partner STMicroelectronics in new ways, we’ve managed to make the manufacturing as agile as it can be. This means we can respond quickly as the crypto currency market shows signs of recovery.  It also adds more design freedom for future products, helping us to sustain our leadership in the increasingly competitive hardware wallet space.” 

Štěpán Uherik, Chief Financial Officer at SatoshiLabs and Trezor

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Last year, Tropic Square, a company also from the SatoshiLabs stable, launched TROPIC01, a secure open source chip that provides cryptographic key generation, encryption, signing, and authenticating users through digital identification methods. 

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"The chosen business model is very unique and can be applied in exceptional cases. Firstly, as a manufacturer, we require high minimum order quantities, and secondly, the customer must have specific know-how to encapsulate semiconductor components. We are very happy that there is a company like Trezor in the Czech Republic, with which we were able to successfully implement this project."

Tomáš Pokorný, Sales Manager at STMicroelectronics.

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Users can now safely and intuitively strengthen their bitcoin privacy within the Trezor environment

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Trezor, the original bitcoin hardware wallet company, today rolled out the coinjoin feature for its devices allowing users to more easily enhance privacy and security on bitcoin transactions. Coinjoin is a process where users send their bitcoin as part of a large collaborative transaction and receive the same amount back, but with the transaction history obscured. Users’ balances and transaction history are then hard to track on the otherwise fully-transparent bitcoin blockchain. The feature is possible thanks to Trezor’s collaboration with Wasabi Wallet, the privacy-focused bitcoin wallet that specializes in coinjoin. 

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Trezor is the first and only hardware wallet to enable coinjoin transactions within a hardware wallet environment. The function is now live on Trezor Model T and Trezor plans to enable coinjoin for Model One in the near future. Coinjoin is the latest addition to a host of features found on Trezor devices for enhancing security and privacy, such as Tor, coin control, and Shamir backup.

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Matěj Žák, CEO of Trezor, explained:

“Trezor values privacy as an individual’s most important asset. Consequently, we’re delighted that we’ve found a way for our community to keep their bitcoin history private. Our coinjoin solution in Trezor Suite is intuitive and safe, making bitcoin privacy more accessible to the general public.”

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Real use-cases

The coinjoin approach tackles a number of glaring privacy issues resulting from the inherent transparency of the bitcoin blockchain. For example, when people use exchanges, it’s easy to draw a link between their real-world identity and their bitcoin addresses. Exchanges can track user transactions even after they withdraw, and can share this data with third parties. Through obscuring transaction histories, coinjoin prevents such surveillance. 

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Secondly, coinjoin offers welcome additional protection when using bitcoin for purchases. Ordinarily, merchants receiving bitcoin payments can see the total balance of an address from which the payment was sent, which some people consider an unacceptable breach of privacy. With coinjoin, users can safely break up their bitcoin balance into small amounts with no transaction history so as to obscure their total balance, like swapping a large dollar note for smaller denominations. 

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A third coinjoin benefit is in safeguarding privacy for donations made using bitcoin. By default, all bitcoin transactions can be analyzed and in some cases, real-world identities can be linked. This can put non-governmental organizations and their donors in great danger, especially under authoritarian regimes. Coinjoin protects the transactions of donors and recipients, and therefore, improves the safety of organizations and their supporters. 

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Matěj Žák further elaborated:

“People who want to make private transactions can use cash without leaving any digital footprint, and without the need for the counterparty to store our identity. No one gets to see how much money they have left in their wallet or bank accounts. Trezor with coinjoin brings a similar level of privacy to bitcoin, with one click. The security of the process and ease of use help deliver privacy to a wider audience, which is one of the core values of the bitcoin community.”

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“Making bitcoin privacy tools easy to use and secure is essential, as this is what drives people to use products, which increases the privacy for everyone. That’s why we see Trezor’s integration of coinjoin as such a major milestone. A coinjoin is inherently non-custodial, and now for the first time coinjoin transactions can be signed with the keys on a hardware wallet. This is a major security improvement,”

says Max Hillebrand, contributor to Wasabi Wallet and CEO of zkSNACKs. (zkSNACKs is the company sponsoring the development of Wasabi Wallet and operates the coinjoin coordinator)

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How does it work?

With the Model T, Trezor users can now see a new coinjoin account type in their Trezor Suite, and simply click on the “anonymize” button. Users then choose the number of coinjoin rounds — with every round increasing the level of privacy — confirm their choices on the Trezor device, and then leave the Trezor connected with the Trezor Suite running. The rest of the coinjoin process is automated and requires no active user participation. The time needed to complete the coinjoin depends on the number of rounds - one round takes approximately 10 minutes. After completing the procedure, users will receive a confirmation dialogue with the transaction details. The fees for the transaction consist of the coordinator fee of 0.3% of the coinjoined amount and a network mining fee. The coordinator fee is paid just once, and for further remixes users pay only the mining fee.

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For more information about coinjoin, please visit: https://trezor.io/learn/a/coinjoin-in-trezor-suite 

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About Trezor

Trezor is the independent Czech company behind the world's first Bitcoin hardware wallet, the Trezor One in 2014. Its flagship product, the Trezor Model T comes with a full-color touchscreen and many advanced features. Both wallets are open-source and enhanced by the free Trezor Suite app which increases privacy and makes crypto more intuitive.

About Wasabi Wallet

Reclaim your privacy with Wasabi Wallet, a free and open source bitcoin wallet with built-in coinjoin. Coinjoins are collaborative bitcoin transactions to enable cash-like privacy features for bitcoin. wasabiwallet.io

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Trezor, the first hardware wallet, was given a new desktop application in July 2021. It is now completely replacing the old Trezor Wallet interface, which will no longer be supported from the 31st of January. The new app is called Trezor Suite and it is a major improvement that helps secure users of cryptocurrencies against phishing attacks, one of the most burning problems of crypto security nowadays. SatoshiLabs recommends that all Trezor users download the Trezor Suite desktop app and start using the best tool for their long-term security.

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Trezor Suite brings significant improvements

As Bitcoin evolves and the number of users grows, different use cases are emerging. That's why security is not just about having the right hardware but also making sure the software used for managing your crypto portfolio takes advantage of all the new capabilities of Bitcoin and doesn't expose you to online threats.

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The new desktop application provides a safe and more private environment for managing cryptocurrencies that makes crypto more intuitive and easy to use - especially for those just starting out. Buying crypto from a reputable source directly from your Trezor has never been easier.

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“Trezor Suite progressed, evolved and is now fully ready to take over Trezor Wallet with many new features and a complete redesign that improves our users' security and privacy. Switching from Trezor Wallet to Trezor Suite is smooth and easy - just download the Trezor Suite desktop app and enjoy a quick and easy onboarding.”

‍Matěj Žák, CPO at Trezor

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Trezor Suite is packed with security and privacy features

Taking the wallet interface out of the browser environment eliminates the risk of phishing sites tricking users into revealing their seed or other critical information. A desktop app provides more robust protection with more powerful capabilities and reduces the number of mistakes or exploits that could result in someone losing their keys or coins.

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Some of the cool features:

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One of the first to support Taproot

The Bitcoin Taproot upgrade which was activated in November is already supported by Trezor Suite. This introduces some major changes to Bitcoin that build upon the SegWit upgrade of 2017, which enabled support for the Lightning network. Taproot is expected to have long-term effects on Bitcoin utility and adoption, and will see further advances in the coming years.

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Decentralized exchange (DEX)

Buying, exchanging, and selling cryptocurrencies directly from your Trezor hardware wallet is made easy and secure by Invity, a SatoshiLabs company that lets you compare rates across verified exchanges to find the most competitive offers. Now, there is a new way to exchange crypto without KYC, thanks to Invity's integration of 1inch, a decentralized exchange built on the Ethereum network. When using the Trade section under your Ethereum account in Trezor Suite, users can now browse offers from the 1inch decentralized exchange alongside conventional exchanges.

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Tor switch

Tor, a free and open-source network that reroutes internet traffic through many different servers, is available in Trezor Suite to prevent your ISP and others from tracking your internet activity. While Tor is quite technical, it has been made as simple as possible - at the click of a button - so all Trezor users can mask their connections.

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Discreet mode

When using a Trezor around other people, physical privacy becomes an issue. Showing off account balances — accidentally or otherwise — can lead to risk of extortion or harm. That's why there is a switch in Trezor that blurs out all sensitive data, so users can safely peek at their balances on mouse-over.

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Easy onboarding

Trezor Suite provides a quick and easy onboarding that will make sure your wallet is properly set up and secured, even if you've never used a Bitcoin wallet before. Designed as an all-in-one interface, you can safely and easily manage cryptocurrencies and improve your privacy without needing to install additional apps or learn complex networking.