Sparrow Wallet

Sparrow is a desktop Bitcoin wallet for Windows, macOS and Linux. It is free and open source under the Apache 2 license (Free (open source) (as of Oct 28, 2026, sparrowwallet.com)), and it is built for people who want to see and control exactly what their wallet does: which coins it spends, which server it asks, which device signs. It is the Bitcoin wallet on Cole’s list for the desktop, next to Cake Wallet on the phone. This page covers what it does and a sensible, private way to set it up; Bitcoin covers why the privacy part matters. Nothing here is financial advice.

What it does

• Every wallet type. Single signature and multisig, with all the legacy and SegWit script types.
• PSBTs from the ground up. Sparrow builds Partially Signed Bitcoin Transactions, so the computer that builds a transaction never needs the keys: a hardware wallet or an offline device signs it.
• Hardware wallets. In Sparrow’s words, “all common hardware wallets are supported and can be easily imported using USB or their own file formats.”
• Coin control. You see every coin (UTXO) and can choose which ones a payment spends. Automatic selection uses the same Branch and Bound and Knapsack strategies as Bitcoin Core, and a byte-level viewer shows the finished transaction.
• Labels. Name your addresses, transactions and coins, and Sparrow carries the labels along when you send.
• PayJoin. Supported since 2020 (BIP 78): the receiver adds an input to your payment, which breaks the assumption that every input belongs to the sender.
• Silent payments. Since version 2.3.0 (October 2025) Sparrow can send to silent payment addresses, including ones found through BIP 353 human-readable names.

The current version is 2.5.5, released September 17, 2026. Sparrow is Bitcoin only; for Monero, use a wallet like Cake. And for a home miner such as a Bitaxe, Sparrow is a good place to generate the fresh receiving address the miner pays to, since the miner needs only the address, never the keys.

Three ways to connect

A wallet has to ask the blockchain which coins are yours, and whoever it asks learns your addresses. Sparrow offers three answers:

Server	How it works	Privacy
A public server	Preconfigured Electrum servers run by others, “for those starting out on their privacy journey”	The server sees every address and your balance
Your own Bitcoin Core	Sparrow connects directly to your node	Nothing leaves your machine, and you validate everything yourself
A private Electrum server	Fulcrum, ElectrumX, Electrs and others, run on your own node	Private, and faster for large wallets

Electrum servers work over SSL and over Sparrow’s built-in Tor. Sparrow’s warning about the first option is blunt: “sharing your balance with public servers may be making you a target.” The running a node section shows what a node of your own takes.

A sensible setup

Sparrow’s own best practices grow with how much you hold:

1. Get the keys off the exchange. “Take your coins off the exchange and use a hardware wallet or dedicated computer to store your private keys,” with “a backup of the seed words (the latter ideally in a different location).”
2. Run a node. “Consider running a Bitcoin Core node (or using one run by a person that you trust),” and connect Sparrow to it.
3. Go multisig for larger amounts. “Employ at least a 2-of-3 multisig setup” and “require hardware wallets from different vendors for a quorum,” so that one lost device, one compromised vendor or one stolen backup is not enough to lose or steal the coins.

For a multisig wallet, back up the wallet’s output descriptor too (Sparrow exports it). The seeds alone do not say how they combine into the wallet, and you need that to recover it.

Verify what you install

Wallet software is a target, so check the download before you run it. Sparrow publishes a signed manifest of hashes for every release. If you already have Sparrow 1.8.3 or later, drag the installer, the manifest and its signature onto Sparrow and the Verify Download dialog checks all three; the same dialog verifies Bitcoin Core downloads and hardware wallet firmware. For a first install, verify with gpg against the developer’s published key, the same way any signed release is checked (see PGP).

Gotchas

• Old guides mention Whirlpool. Sparrow removed its Whirlpool CoinJoin client in version 1.9.0 (April 2024), after the Samourai Wallet service it depended on was shut down. Guides that walk through “mixing in Sparrow” are out of date.
• A hot wallet is a choice. Sparrow can keep keys on the computer itself, which is fine for small amounts and testing. For savings, let a hardware wallet hold the keys and use Sparrow to build and broadcast.
• Coin control is only as good as your labels. Spending coins together links them forever. Label where each coin came from, especially coins withdrawn from an exchange that knows your name.
• The first connection matters. If Sparrow ever connected to a public server with your wallet loaded, that server has already seen your addresses. Set up the node first, then load the wallet.
• Keep it updated. Sparrow’s releases fix hardware wallet quirks and signing edge cases, such as checking silent payment outputs before a device signs (2.5.5).