Sparrow Wallet
Java desktop Bitcoin wallet by Craig Raw. Power-user oriented: detailed UTXO control, PSBT-first, multisig, HW wallet support.
Repo: github.com/sparrowwallet/sparrow. Current release 2.5.4
(27 August 2026).
Features
- Single-sig + multi-sig wallets.
- HW wallet support: Trezor, Ledger, Coldcard, BitBox02, Jade, Passport, Keystone, SeedSigner, Krux, Specter DIY. USB devices go through Lark, Sparrow's own Java library (initially a port of Python HWI), which replaced the bundled HWI in 2.1.0 (4 February 2025); airgapped devices go over QR/microSD instead. Newer devices added in the 2.4/2.5 line: Trezor Safe 7, Ledger Nano Gen5 and Keycard / Keycard Shell (2.4.0, February 2026), ERA (2.5.3, July 2026).
- Airgap via animated QR (BCUR), microSD.
- Multiple backends: Bitcoin Core, Electrum (electrs/Fulcrum/ ElectrumX), Bitcoin Knots.
- PSBT comprehensive editor. Internal representation is PSBTv2 (BIP370) by default since 2.4.0 (10 February 2026); exports to file, QR, clipboard and PayJoin are converted back to PSBTv0 unless the transaction carries silent-payment fields, so v0-only signers are unaffected outside Silent Payments.
- PayJoin (BIP78).
- BIP47 PayNyms support (retained).
- Silent Payments: sending in 2.3.0 (October 2025), BIP375 PSBT fields plus DLEQ proof verification for hardware signers in 2.4.0 (February 2026), receiving wallets — including airgapped signers — in 2.5.0 (May 2026).
- BIP353 human-readable names with DNSSEC proofs carried in the PSBT (2.3.0, October 2025).
- No built-in CoinJoin: the Whirlpool client was removed in 1.9.0 (25 April 2024) and has not been replaced.
- Tor via SOCKS5 proxy (internal Tor upgraded to 0.4.8.21 in 2.4.0, February 2026).
Detailed UI
- Coin control: explicit input selection per tx.
- Transaction inspector: full PSBT, scripts, witness.
- Address verification: per-device confirmation flow.
- Wallet backups: encrypted .mnemonic / descriptor exports.
Multisig
Supports cross-vendor multisig with descriptor-based config. Excellent UX for HW wallet signing rounds.
Setup
Download installer for Mac/Windows/Linux. Configure Bitcoin Core or Electrum server in settings. Optionally enable Tor.
Compared
| Aspect | Sparrow | Specter Desktop | Electrum |
|---|---|---|---|
| Language | Java | Python + Vue | Python |
| HW wallet support | best | rich | partial |
| PSBT detail | richest | rich | basic |
| Multi-sig UX | top | top | OK |
| Mobile | no | no | yes (legacy) |
| Privacy features | strong | strong | basic |
Use cases
- Power users with mixed HW wallet setups.
- Multi-sig custody.
- Privacy-conscious workflows (PayJoin, PayNyms, Silent Payments, Tor).
Common issues
- Java JVM: running or building from source requires Java 25+ as of the 2.4/2.5 line (2.4.0, February 2026, moved to Java 25.0.2; release binaries are built with Eclipse Temurin 25.0.2+10). The bundled installer remains the recommended route.
- No CoinJoin — history: Sparrow shipped a Whirlpool client until 1.9.0 (25 April 2024) removed it along with the other Soroban features and dependencies, following the Samourai shutdown. Nothing replaced it; mixing now needs an external coordinator/client. In-wallet privacy is PayJoin, PayNyms and Silent Payments.
- Tor connection: ensure Sparrow's Tor proxy port matches your Tor instance.
- HWI instructions are stale: guides that tell you to install or upgrade Python HWI for Sparrow predate 2.1.0 (4 February 2025), which replaced it with Lark; on macOS and Windows Sparrow now deletes the leftover HWI cache directory. Upstream HWI went feature-frozen / maintenance-only in August 2026 (bitcoin-core/HWI issue #850, 18 August 2026, with BHWI named as successor), which no longer affects Sparrow.