---
title: 'Using the Bitcoin Safe wallet'
description: 'Bitcoin Safe is a desktop wallet with a focus on great privacy and robustness. I have a special interest in sharing it, as Bitcoin Safe keeps your wal...'
canonical: 'https://rustaceanrob.com/posts/bitcoin-safe'
created: 2026-08-05T00:00:00.000Z
tags: ['bitcoin']
author: '@rustaceanrob'
rights: 'All rights reserved.'
---

[_Bitcoin Safe_](https://github.com/andreasgriffin/bitcoin-safe) is a desktop wallet with a focus on great privacy and robustness. I have a special interest in sharing it, as Bitcoin Safe keeps your wallet in sync using [compact block filters](https://bitcoinops.org/en/topics/compact-block-filters/), via my project [Kyoto](https://github.com/2140-dev/kyoto), along with _Bitcoin Dev Kit_. Because Bitcoin Safe works with [output descriptors](https://bitcoinops.org/en/topics/output-script-descriptors/), it is incredibly flexible with wallet imports and likely has some future-proofing as a result.

For those unaware, Kyoto is essentially a mini bitcoin node. It does not store anything, but it attempts to follow the chain and fetch information for your wallet. All computation is done on your laptop, achieving near perfect privacy at the cost of some increased bandwidth.

This is a short blog to highlight the great work of Andreas, creator of Bitcoin Safe, and to showcase the culmination of both our work. Indeed, when I set out to make Kyoto, my end goal was a user-facing wallet that was private by default and served all my needs. Thankfully, Andreas was already working on such a solution. Here is how to use it.

# Installing from source

Fetch the source code using `git`:

```shell
git clone https://github.com/andreasgriffin/bitcoin-safe.git && cd bitcoin-safe
```

You will need Python on your system to build Bitcoin Safe.

Install `poetry` using the recommended installer:

```shell
curl -sSL https://install.python-poetry.org | python3 -
```

Create an environment:

```shell
poetry env use "$(command -v python3.13)"
```

```shell
source .venv/bin/activate
```

Build and launch Bitcoin Safe:

```shell
python3 -m pip install poetry && python3 -m poetry install && python3 -m poetry run python3 -m bitcoin_safe
```

When you are done, you may deactivate the environment:

```shell
deactivate
```

Andreas and I also joined [Citadel Dispatch](https://fountain.fm/episode/BzOcTJkhGzPLvkF9a08N) to talk through Bitcoin Safe, Kyoto, and compact block filters in more depth:

<figure>
  <audio controls style="width:100%">
    <source src="https://serve.podhome.fm/episode/8029725b-0319-44b9-4793-08dc404e83a4/63900300705422524531ad0b9b-99a9-49f3-abf5-de39d9afd74f.mp3" type="audio/mpeg" />
  </audio>
  <figcaption>CD185: Rob and Andreas &mdash; Better Bitcoin Wallets. Listen on <a href="https://fountain.fm/episode/BzOcTJkhGzPLvkF9a08N">Fountain</a>.</figcaption>
</figure>