Tor mode

Biscuit includes Tor: there’s nothing to install. Turn on Tor mode at first launch, or later in Settings › Network › Proxy, and Biscuit hides your IP address from the nodes, servers and swap partners it talks to.

What goes through Tor

• Bitcoin and Litecoin: the Electrum servers.
• Prices, the Journal and updates, from our onion service.
• Atomic swaps.
• Monero: depends on the Node traffic setting below.

The onion at the bottom right of the window shows the mode: purple in Tor mode, grey for a direct connection. Click it to change. Exchange swaps are off in Tor mode (see why); atomic swaps work.

Monero node traffic

The Node traffic setting decides how Biscuit reaches Monero nodes in Tor mode:

Always over Tor

The default. Every connection to a Monero node goes through Tor, to .onion nodes, so no node sees your IP address. Syncing a wallet left closed for a long time is slower.

Switch to Tor after initial synchronization

For a wallet that is far behind, more than about 12 hours (360 blocks), Biscuit first catches up over a direct connection to a public node, then moves to an .onion node through Tor for everything else, sending your payments included. A wallet that is nearly up to date goes through Tor straight away. The node used to catch up sees your IP address, but not your addresses or balance (see Nodes).

Never over Tor

Monero nodes are always reached directly. Everything else still goes through Tor.

Before Biscuit 1.0.10, the default was Switch to Tor after initial synchronization, and every wallet synced outside Tor each time it was opened. Biscuit 1.0.10 moves anyone who had that setting to Always over Tor, once; you can choose it again in Settings › Network › Proxy. A node on your own network is always reached directly, whatever the setting.

Only onion services

Only allow connections to onion services keeps every connection inside the Tor network: Monero uses .onion nodes only, and prices come from our onion. Bitcoin and Litecoin stay offline unless you set your own Electrum server with an .onion address: no public onion Electrum server is built in yet.

Which Tor

• By default (Automatic: Biscuit starts and manages Tor), Biscuit starts its own Tor, and stops it when Biscuit closes, even if it closes abruptly.
• If Tor already runs on your computer, on 127.0.0.1:9050, Biscuit offers to use it instead.
• On Tails and Whonix, Tor mode is always on, and Biscuit uses the system’s Tor. See Tails and Whonix.

Show status shows Tor’s log, handy if it doesn’t connect.

Checking that Tor really works

In Tor mode, Biscuit asks biscuitwallet.com from time to time whether its connection arrives through Tor. The answer is only yes or no, and nothing is kept. If the answer is no (a wrong proxy setting, or a program on 127.0.0.1:9050 that isn’t Tor), the status bar shows Not going through Tor. Click it to open the proxy settings. The check is off when third-party data is disabled.