The Samourai was wounded
What happens?
On 07/01/2019 the android's bitcoin wallet Samourai posted on their blog a note claiming that were threaten to have their app removed from Google Play [here] unless they disabled some security and privacy resources.
According to themselves, the reason was that Google's policies updates are become way more restrictive, and thus it results in the lose of 3 primal features of Samourai's Wallet, a differential among the concurrency.
They've also tweeted an outburst on the situation:
Sad but true, @GooglePlay is forcing us to remove Stealth Mode, SMS Commands, and SIM Switch Defense features as they transition to becoming more of a "Walled Garden" - despite the fact these features have proven record of helping users transact safely. https://t.co/kLRQT9PWvh
— Samourai Wallet (@SamouraiWallet) 8 de janeiro de 2019
Disabled features, and what they did.
Stealth Mode - Protects you against an uninvited person to find Samourai Wallet on your installed app list. - Stealth Mode removes Samourai from the launcher and home screen of your Android device. To reveal the wallet just dial a secret code.
SIM Switch Defense - Protects you against any anomaly with your SIM card - When SIM Switch Defense is enabled your Trusted Number will be sent an SMS when the SIM card details of your Samourai Wallet device are modified in any way. This allows you to send remote commands to your wallet even if someone has changed or spoofed your SIM card.
Remote SMS Commands - Samourai Wallet can accept remote commands via SMS . This feature is disabled by default but it can easily be enabled from the Settings screen.
All this feature are disabled by default, and depends only on you to enabled them.
And now? Is it?
According to the Samourai itself, even though Google Play had took those inflexible demand, all features are already available to download on github and soon will also be available by alternatives android apps websites, like F-Droid.
We've made version 0.99.03 with full Stealth Mode, SIM Switch defense, and SMS remote commands available via direct download APK on GitHub - please install only from this source and double check the SHA-256 hash. https://t.co/4nuegUlAiX
— Samourai Wallet (@SamouraiWallet) 8 de janeiro de 2019
My Thoughts
Personally, I’ve been getting disappointed with lots of Google’s decisions and attitudes, this is only one more, but honestly, I don’t understand what is in fact happening inside the company and what was them reasons to perform this movement, but is definitely an undesired one, cryptocurrency and it’s malleability to avoid censorship helps lots of organizations, like Wikileaks, so as people under dictatorial governs that keeps constantly fighting in favor their freedom.
That features certainly helps and those loss aren't gonna be a good impression.
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