JoinMarket NG

July 15, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

JoinMarket NG Logo

JoinMarket NG

JoinMarket NG is a modern implementation of the JoinMarket CoinJoin protocol for Bitcoin privacy.

Bitcoin's public ledger makes every transaction visible. Without careful privacy practices, payments can expose a user's transaction history, balance, and financial relationships. CoinJoin improves privacy by combining inputs from several users into one transaction with equal-value outputs. An observer can see the transaction, but cannot reliably determine which participant owns which equal-value output.

Why JoinMarket

JoinMarket organizes CoinJoins as an open market instead of relying on a central coordinator:

  • Makers offer bitcoin liquidity and earn fees for participating in CoinJoins.
  • Takers choose offers, build a CoinJoin, and pay the makers they select.

Participants discover each other through redundant directory servers, then exchange sensitive transaction data through end-to-end encrypted messages, either over direct peer-to-peer connections or directory relays. Each taker coordinates its own CoinJoin, and every participant keeps control of their keys. There is no single service that schedules every round, selects every participant, or holds users' funds.

The market gives makers an economic reason to keep liquidity available. Takers can initiate a CoinJoin when they need one instead of waiting for rounds run by a central service. This combination of decentralization and persistent, incentivized liquidity is what makes JoinMarket an important part of Bitcoin's privacy infrastructure.

Why JoinMarket NG

JoinMarket NG is an independent implementation built for maintainability, auditability, and modern Bitcoin infrastructure. Its modular, strictly typed Python codebase supports Bitcoin Core and a lightweight Neutrino backend, with Tor integrated throughout the network architecture.

Most importantly, JoinMarket NG is wire-compatible with the reference JoinMarket implementation. Makers and takers from both implementations participate in the same market, so a new codebase does not fragment existing liquidity. Independent implementations reduce reliance on any one codebase, make protocol assumptions easier to test, and help the JoinMarket network remain adaptable over time.

Start Here

Quick Start

  1. Install (Linux/macOS):

The installer needs curl to fetch itself and uses sudo to install system packages on Debian/Ubuntu (so on a fresh minimal image you'll want curl, sudo, and your user added to the sudo group; on macOS you'll want Homebrew). Everything else (gnupg, git, build tools) is installed for you on first run.

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/joinmarket-ng/joinmarket-ng/main/install.sh | bash
source ~/.joinmarket-ng/activate.sh
  1. Edit ~/.joinmarket-ng/config.toml and set your backend (descriptor_wallet for Bitcoin Core, or neutrino):
[bitcoin]
backend_type = "descriptor_wallet"
rpc_url = "http://127.0.0.1:8332"
rpc_user = "your_rpc_user"
rpc_password = "your_rpc_password"
  1. Create wallet and get deposit addresses:
jm-wallet generate
jm-wallet info
  1. Run CoinJoin as a taker, or start earning fees as a maker:
jm-taker coinjoin --amount 1000000 --destination INTERNAL
# or
jm-maker start

Module Docs

Community

License

MIT: https://joinmarket-ng.github.io/joinmarket-ng/license/

Acknowledgements

JoinMarket NG builds on the work of the original JoinMarket project. Special thanks to Adam Gibson (@AdamISZ) and all past and present JoinMarket contributors.

Thanks to @1440000bytes (Floppy) for the ongoing external audit, and to @L3ftBlank for beta testing and contributions. And to everyone who has opened an issue, submitted a PR, or joined a discussion. You're part of this too!

Sustained by grants from OpenSats and the HRF Bitcoin Development Fund. Keeping this project free, open, and independent.

Donations

JoinMarket NG accepts Bitcoin onchain donations through Silent Payments. Many wallets can send to Silent Payment addresses; see the current wallet support list. Sparrow Wallet is a good option.

sp1qqt3jvfalrvtjksvmul943cpt3vvx0aydg0fegz4kzagu2dw9zp2x2qjyydsrdzmcf5ltr973zsadcktyqdfzrzkmml2guta6p664fu8e4uvmvmq4

For Lightning Network donations, uset his BOLT12 invoice:

lno1pgx55mmfdexkzuntv46zqnj8zcssyy55ll6edeyh455s9n2lr9nnaypqj57eqcjadrpzayd4rfzuqvkn