Sparrow Wallet announced the inclusion of silent payments in version v2.5.0, released on May 21st of this year. This update allows users to share one fixed receipt code and receive Bitcoin (BTC) without anyone, even the payer, seeing the number of payments entered into their account or linking payments to each other.
With traditional wallets, whenever someone shares their address to receive a payment, that address is publicly recorded on the blockchain. If the same person reuses it in multiple payments (which is often the case), Anyone can track the complete history of that account.
Silent payments automatically solve this problem. Users always share the same code, but The wallet internally generates a different address for each transaction it receives.. Each claim appears in the chain with a different address that cannot be linked to other claims, so the history is not made public. This mechanism eliminates address reuse. This is also an issue that could potentially expose users to quantum attacks in the future.
This new method also eliminates the following issues: gap limit (the limit on consecutive empty addresses that traditional systems can tolerate before it stops searching for transactions), an issue that can prevent wallets from “tracing” the actual funds when restoring a backup. Silent payment wallets do not have such problems.
Silent payments hardware and server support
Users with hardware wallets that operate without an internet connection and use QR codes or MicroSD cards can now sign silent payment transactions using this new version of Sparrow Wallet. Devices that connect via USB cable or directly wirelessly will receive support in future updates as manufacturers update their own systems.
Processing silent payments requires wallets to check the blockchain history more intensively than traditional schemes. That is, for each recorded transaction, we need to calculate whether any of the combined entries would produce an address corresponding to it.
Version 2.5.0 includes connections to public servers by default frigate.2140.devis specifically designed to perform that calculation remotely and speed it up. Use a server graphics card: CriptoNoticias reports that what used to take an hour now takes less than half a second.
To use its servers, you must share your wallet scan key during your session, a privacy concession on par with traditional Electrum servers that most lightweight Bitcoin wallets already use.
Address reuse remains a standard practice in most wallets available today. Incorporating this protocol into Sparrow, one of the most used desktop programs in the Bitcoin ecosystem, is an important step towards ensuring that silent payments are no longer a highly technical option. Available to all users without any additional configuration.
