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Features | Verify | Set up | Single Sig | Multisig

Sparrow Wallet 101

What is Sparrow Wallet?

Sparrow is a desktop only bitcoin wallet, available on all major platforms that provides a fantastic alternative to Electrum or Specter. Sparrow provides huge amounts of detail to the user relating to their UTXO’s, transactions and balances, but does so in a very user friendly manner.

Features

Sparrow Wallet comes with everything you’d expect from a desktop based wallet, and much more…

Own node backing (via Electrum server or Bitcoin Core)
Ability to connect to pre selected public Electrum servers for those without their own node
Ability to broadcast through Tor network using an external node
Wallet imports (including Electrum)
All major hardware wallet support (including air gapped devices)
Coin selection and labelling
Multi-Sig
PSBT
Watch only wallets
Custom derivation paths

Download and verify Sparrow Wallet

Download Sparrow Wallet for your chosen operating system
Download the Manifest.txt + Manifest.asc files

Import Craig Raw’s public key

curl https://keybase.io/craigraw/pgp_keys.asc | gpg --import

Open your downloads folder in the terminal and run gpg --verify sparrow-1.4.1-manifest.txt.asc
Look for ‘Good signature from “Craig Raw craigraw@gmail.com”. This confirms the file came from the entity in control of Craig Raw’s private GPG key

Run sha256sum sparrow_1.4.1-1_amd64.deb

Open the Manifest.txt file you downloaded earlier and check that the hash provided matches the one shown in your terminal window. A match confirms the contents of the file you downloaded are an exact match to the one built by Craig when he signed these files

Initial Set up

Sparrow Wallet offers users 3 ways to get started, each with their own pro’s and con’s.

Server Type	Trade-off	Positives
Pre selected public Electrum Server	Not your own hardware and shares wallet information with the entity running the server	Easiest way to get started
Private Bitcoin Core node	Wallet imports can take a while and uses Bitcoin Core which stores it’s wallets unencrypted	Next easiest setup type (user can just download Bitcoin Core)
Private Electrum Server	Biggest barrier to entry	Most private option + provides fastest wallet queries

The Public Electrum Server’s provided have been selected due to their record of respecting users privacy. However, running your own is always be the best option.

After reading through the initial welcome screens, click ‘Configure Server’. Sparrow will default to a public Electrum Server but for the purpose of the rest of this guide, we will be connecting to a private Electrum Server. Select that option from the menu at the top.

Enter your Electrum Server onion address (or local IP address)
Set the port to 50002
Toggle Use SSL on

Click ‘Test Connection’. After a a brief wait you will see a successful connection notification.

If using local IP and connection is unsuccessful try changing the top right box to 50001.

Importing your Coldcard

The following assumes that you have already initiated your Coldcard. If you have yet to do so, you can follow this guide.

On your Coldcard go to Advanced > Micro SD > Export Wallet > Generic JSON.

This will make a copy of your wallet onto your SD card that is readable by Sparrow Wallet. You can find more detail on this here. Once complete put the SD card into your computer.

In Sparrow, go to File> Import Wallet > Import File.

Choose the coldcard-export.json on the SD card.
Select the script type and press Import.

P2PKH = ‘Legacy’ addresses starting with a 1 P2SH-P2WPKH = ‘Segwit’ compatibility addresses starting with a 3 P2WPKH = ‘Native Segwit’ addresses starting with BC1

Choose a name for your wallet.

Give your wallet an optional password. This password is specific to Sparrow and has nothing to do with the underlying seed.

That’s it! You should now see your home screen with your Cold Card transactions and balances. (This is a brand new empty wallet shown below).

Receive a transaction

Go to the receive tab to view your first receive address. You can then share the address or QR code with whoever is sending you bitcoin.

You should always verify the recieve address on your Coldcard.

Sending a transaction

Using these steps the wallet will choose which UTXO’s it spends for you.

Go to the send tab
Paste the address you are sending to
Enter the amount and adjust your fee rate
Press Create transaction

The next screen provides an incredibly detailed breakdown for the more advanced user to fine tune so more technical details where required. For most users the default settings will be fine, click Finalize transaction for signing

Click Save PSBT and select the SD card as the save location

Pass the SD card back to your Coldcard and click Ready to Sign
Choose the file name of the .psbt file you just saved from Sparrow
Review the transaction details and press sign
The Coldcard will now save a signed.psbt file to the SD card

To broadcast the transaction…

Load the SD card back into your computer
In Sparrow press Load PSBT
Choose the signed PSBT file on the SD card
You can now have a final review of the details and broadcast the transaction to the network

Spending using specific UTXO(s)

Go to the UTXO tab
Select all of the UTXO’s you want to use to create your transaction
Press send selected
Follow the steps outlined in the previous section

Creating a multisig wallet

As well as being fantastic at single sig support, it also excels at multisig! This section assumes that you have already initiated these devices, if you have not already done so, follow these steps.

Here is a brief run down of setting up a 2-of-3 quorum using Sparrow.

Click File > New Wallet, give the wallet a name then click Create new wallet
Change the Policy Type to Multi Signature
Choose your cosigner setup (we are using 2-of-3 here)

Coldcard Import

Ensure the SD card is inserted into the Coldcard then go to Settings > Multisig Wallets > Export XPUB
The Coldcard will save a file that looks like ccxp-8ff26349.json to the SD card
Pass the SD card back to your computer

In Sparrow ensure Keystore 1 is selected and press Air Gapped Hardware Wallet
Choose Import File next to Coldcard Multisig

Cobo Vault Import

Open the menu with the button in the top left of the screen then press Multisig Wallet.

Tap the three dots in the top right corner then Show/Export XPUB. This will bring up a QR on screen.

In Sparrow, select Keystore 2 > Air Gapped Hardware Wallet then Scan for the Cobo Vault Multisig option. This will open your computers camera, hold the device so that the QR code on the Cobo can be read

Specter DIY Import

In Specter DIY tap Master Public Keys > Multisig. The screen should then show a QR code

In Sparrow, select Keystore 3 > Air Gapped Hardware Wallet then Scan for the Specter DIY Multisig option. This will open your computers camera, hold the device so that the QR code on the Specter DIY can be read

Click Apply then set an optional password to secure your wallet

Notifying signers

Now that the wallet is created, we need to notify each signer of the wallet creation.

Notify Coldcard

Press Export > Export File next to Coldcard Multisig
Insert the Coldcard micro SD card into your computer and copy the generated .txt file onto it
Remove the SD card and insert back into your Coldcard

Power on your Coldcard and enter your PIN. Go to Settings > Multisig Wallets > Import from SD.

There will only be one to choose from

Check all details shown on the device match those shown in Specter and then confirm

Notify Cobo

Press Export > Show next to Cobo Vault Multisig
On the Cobo open the menu then press Multisig Wallet > Import Multisig, then tap the QR scanner button in the top right

Scan the QR code being displayed by Sparrow then check the public key information shown on the device matches those displayed in Sparrow

Notify Specter DIY

This is not currently supported in Sparrow. However it is sufficient to verify receive and change addresses on the other two signing devices.

Backup

Multisig backups are more complex than their single signature counterparts. You can read an in-depth look at this here.

In Sparrow click Export > Export File next to Sparrow
If your wallet is not password protected, this will create a .json file that you can back up onto as many SD cards as you like
If the wallet is password protected this will download a copy of your encrypted wallet file which you can open in Sparrow

This file is a ‘view only’ into your multisig wallet. To spend you still need m-of-n signers or seed backups

Verify Receive Addresses

You will have already noticed that Sparrow shows you your first receive address. It is now important to verify that receive address on our trusted signing devices. Not all signing devices facilitate this, which is the reason both Coldcard and Cobo were included into this guide.

Sparrow

Click into the receive tab and your first receive address will be shown

Coldcard

Power on your Coldcard and enter your PIN. Press Address Explorer. scroll to the bottom and enter the number indicated to start
Scroll to the bottom of the next page and choose your recently imported multisig wallet
You will now have the option to save these to the SD card which could be useful if you plan on receiving often and wont have easy access to your devices
Scroll down, you will see the fingerprint of each signer, after that you should see a partially hidden version of your first receive address. Check it matches the one shown by Sparrow

Cobo Vault

Open the menu and press Multisig Wallet which will open the receive tab. Press the top address and check it matches the one shown in Sparrow

All 3 match? Send a very small amount of sats to your verified address

Spending

Create the transaction in the same way described earlier then press Create Transaction

Review the transaction details then click Finalize Transaction for Signing

Sign with Coldcard

Click Save PSBT and select the SD card as the save location
Pass the SD card back to your Coldcard and click Ready to Sign
Choose the file name of the .psbt file you just saved from Sparrow
Review the transaction details and press sign
The Coldcard will now save a signed.psbt file to the SD card
Pass the SD card back to your computer
In Sparrow, click Load PSBT, choose the part.psbt file

We now have 1 of a required 2 signatures

Sign with Cobo Vault

In Sparrow, click Show QR
On Cobo Vault, open your multisig wallet and press the QR scanner button
Scan the QR code displayed by Specter with the device
Review the transaction details, confirm and enter your password. The device will then show an animated QR code on screen
Inn Sparrow, click Scan QR, this will open your computer’s camera. Hold the Cobo device up to the camera for Sparrow to read the signed transaction

We now have 2 of a required 2 signatures

Click broadcast transaction to sned the signed multisig transaction to the network

Where can I learn more?

If you want to try Sparrow Wallet for yourself visit their website and for the more technical user that wants to look under the hood, visit their GitHub. You can also follow them on Twitter to stay up to date with the latest developments.

If you need help getting started with Sparrow, I offer private support calls for those that benefit from more personalised tuition.

Disclaimer - All views expressed in this article are my own and not those of the Sparrow team.

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