Key facts:
Bitcoin Core and Wasabi start the campaign under the #BitcoinIsSafe #WasabiIsSafe tags.
Most antivirus identifies Wasabi and Bitcoin Core as "system infections."
Recently, users of the Wasabi portfolio have reported multiple instances in which antivirus programs identify both Wasabi and Bitcoin Core as "system infections." More specifically, computer security algorithms for Avira, Bitdefender, Kaspersky, and F-Secure, and many other antivirus programs, confuse full Bitcoin nodes with unwanted cryptocurrency mining programs that run at the bottom of computers and steal power processing, a type of malicious attack whose popularity peaked during the bull market of 2017.
In response to this phenomenon, Wasabi wallet developers initiated a social media campaign, distinguished by the hashtags #BitcoinIsSafe (Bitcoin is secure) and #WasabiIsSafe (Wasabi is secure), as a way to encourage community members to Write to the providers of your antivirus software and demand that Bitcoin and Wasabi be labeled "false positives."
On the
Wasabi wallet website,
bitcoiners who want to join the movement can obtain an email template, a list of online forms and email addresses to send false positive label requests and some tutorials that are designed to offer a graphic guide, step by step, throughout the process.
While Wasabi is clearly encouraged to release its product from the system infection designations, the campaign is also pushing to ensure that Bitcoin Core extends as widely as possible. Wasabi contributor Riccardo Masutti explained:
Bitcoin Core is considered as the reference implementation of Bitcoin. A malware warning confuses users, and can prevent them from running a complete node, and complete nodes are among the most important parts of the entire Bitcoin ecosystem.
The Wasabi and Bitcoin Core wallet
In December 2019, the Wasabi portfolio launched its version 1.1.10, the first to include a partial integration of Bitcoin Core for users who want to connect with their full nodes. This addition effectively maximized user sovereignty, while minimizing the need to rely on Wasabi and the use of Neutrino as an alternative to complete nodes.
The Wasabi wallet is an open source, non-custodial and privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet for desktop computers. We decided to integrate Bitcoin Core to offer the user a better experience and allow users to install a complete node in the simplest way possible.
Historically, the Wasabi portfolio has never had problems with antivirus programs. However, developers have managed to identify a previous problem with Bitcoin Core on Windows, which they are trying to solve through the awareness and information campaign. On this, Massuti explained:
It was after the integration of Bitcoin Core in Wasabi that I discovered that all antivirus programs mark the software as malware, a potentially unwanted program. In the past, nobody was really interested since very few people used Bitcoin over Windows or other “commercial” operating systems. Most people installed Bitcoin Core on Linux.
GitHub reports on the antivirus software that blocks Bitcoin Core on Windows since 2014 and has been a recurring theme in 2017, 2018 and 2019. As Bitcoin adoption accelerated, the number of reports and complaints also increased. With adoption growing more and more, this trend could continue.
The problem does not only concern Windows. «To confirm the detection of false positives, I ran Bitfender Total Security 2020 on MacOS Catalina. The result was similar: antivirus software labeled Bitcoin files as malicious mining software, ”adds Massuti. Although the separation between complete nodes and mining clients has existed in Bitcoin since 2013, software security companies have not updated their policies, in fact, they have hardened their detection systems due to the emergence of background miners and navigators for altcoins as monero .
The responses of the developers
As mentioned earlier,
the Wasabi social media campaign invites users to send reports about their antivirus and recommend the removal of Bitcoin Core from the list of malicious mining software to solve this problem. In that regard, Massuti explained the following :
I remembered all the previous campaigns carried out by the Bitcoin community, for example #ProofOfKeys, and I thought: Why not ask the whole community for help? After a few hours the #BitcoinIsSafe initiative, #WasabiIsSafe was born. My idea is that the best and most effective solution is to start a campaign to report false positives and tell users to report to their antivirus that Bitcoin and Wasabi are a false positive.
The plan was also described in Bitcointalk by Wasabi's main developer, Adam Fiscor, and high-profile responses ran quickly. Experienced Bitcoin Core developer Gregory Maxwell suggested that Core binaries be renamed as a way to bypass the keyword detection system of antivirus programs. This solution is presented as a complement to the reports, which would solve the problem until antivirus companies finally decide to take action.
Soon after, Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr explained that voluntary mining is not malware and should be reported as a false positive. His proposal involves the creation of a more extensive list of affected projects that do not have malicious components, unlike backdoor miners, sometimes mistakenly associated with Bitcoin Core and BFGMiner.
