Samourai Wallet Stops Showing Fiat Value of Bitcoin Balances

Privacy-focused bitcoin wallet Samourai is dropping fiat balances from its platform, the company announced Friday.

The Samourai Wallet’s latest release includes a number of changes, including the fact that it is now available in 12 different languages, according to a blog post. However, the most significant change will see the three-year-old platform change from showing stored bitcoin amounts in a U.S. dollar equivalent to showing them only in either bitcoin or satoshis.

According to the post, the company made the move to force users into transacting with bitcoins, saying “we believe it is fundamental that our existing and future users understand that when they transact within the Bitcoin network, when they participate in the Bitcoin economy, they are transacting with the token native to the Bitcoin network, BTC, and nothing else.”

The post explained that when Samourai first began, its founders included a dollar conversion for users’ convenience.

However, it added:

“We are now nearing the end of 2018 and realize that users will never be ready. Thinking in fiat currency terms is familiar, you likely interact with it all the time. This is precisely the reason that within the context of a Bitcoin wallet it is a crutch. We have made the decision that as of version 0.98.87 to remove that crutch.”

While the move may inconvenience some users, the post said, the company still believes it is necessary.

That being said, the post noted, “we have decided to keep fiat currency conversion within the Sentinel Watch Only app, as independent merchants who frequently use the app and other use cases require the use of a currency conversion function.”

The wallet remains in a test phase at the moment, the post noted. Users can build it from the source code on Github or download it through the Google Play store.

Bitcoin image via Shutterstock

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