BCH Developers Launch Privacy-Centric Light Client Neutrino

The developer community behind the Bitcoin Cash full-node bchd has announced a light version of its wallet called Neutrino. The light client is considered to be quite fast and privacy-centric. The Neutrino’s beta version has been released for the Android users and it is based on a protocol called client-side filtering.

The light-client beta version of bchd was announced on March 16th and it is up for download, but not completely developed. Users can download it and give necessary feedback as well. The BCH community was aware of the release as the developer Chris Pacia gave a sneak review towards the end of February.

The light-client uses simplified payment verification (SPV) to allow the users to hold and store coins in a non-custodial manner. The Google Play store description claims that Neutrino is the most advanced cryptocurrency wallet to date.

Privacy Is the Key Here

The creators explain that the wallet makes use of client-side filtering which ensures that no information regarding the user’s transactions is available for any third party service or clients. Usually, a wallet has to deal with third-parties in case of any transaction which leaves the vulnerability of user’s information being leaked to third-parties, which Neutrino promises to eliminate.

SPV protocol based wallets have been around for quite some time now, but the use of it depends on the creators. BRD and Electron Cash wallets make use of specific servers to ensure user privacy. The bchd developers have announced that other clients can make use of neutrino protocol if they want to be a part of the SPV privacy protocol.

One of the developers of the bchd explained,

“The way [client-side filtering] works is full nodes create a filter for each block in the chain — You can think of a filter as an ultra-compact representation of all of the transactions in the block — The nodes store these filters on disk along with the block. SPV wallets using Neutrino sync the full chain of headers like a normal SPV wallet, but they also download the filter for each block.”

The beta version of the application is up for downloads, but as mentioned by the developers it might be unstable as the development work is still going on. However, the BCH community is quite excited over the new development and they are showing their support on various social media platforms. The developers have told the community to only use the wallet for the testing phase and must wait for a stable version to come out, before starting to make big transactions.