What is Sparrow wallet?

Sparrow is a bitcoin wallet for desktop computers aimed at people who want to see and control the details of their transactions. Its website says Sparrow does not hide information from the user, and instead tries to show as much detail as possible about transactions and UTXOs, the individual coins a wallet holds, in a way that stays manageable. Most people pair it with a hardware wallet, so the keys stay on a separate device.

What can Sparrow wallet do?

Sparrow lists full support for single-signature and multisig wallets on common script types, standards-based design with full PSBT support, coin and fee control with detailed coin selection, and labels for every transaction, input and output. It also supports sending and receiving with PayNyms, testnet and other test networks, and built-in Tor.

Its most distinctive feature, according to the site, is a full transaction editor that also works as a blockchain explorer, letting users edit every field of a transaction and inspect its raw bytes before broadcasting.

Does Sparrow wallet work with hardware wallets?

Yes. Sparrow says it supports all common hardware wallets in both USB and air-gapped modes. In air-gapped use, Sparrow builds an unsigned transaction and hands it to an offline signer as a PSBT, a format that BIP 174 designed so the signer can work without a network connection. The workflow is explained in what an air-gapped wallet is. In this setup Sparrow acts much like a watch-only wallet, tracking balances without holding keys.

How does Sparrow connect to the bitcoin network?

Sparrow offers a range of connection options, including public servers, a Bitcoin Core node and private Electrum servers. Public servers are the easiest to start with but, as Electrum's own documentation notes for its similar design, a server can learn which addresses belong to one wallet. Connecting to your own node keeps that information private, and Sparrow says it aims to take users on a privacy journey from public servers toward running their own. Privacy tools such as CoinJoin are a separate topic.

How is Sparrow different from Electrum?

Both are bitcoin-only desktop wallets that can use Electrum-style servers, as described in what Electrum wallet is. Electrum's stated focus is speed and simplicity, while Sparrow puts more emphasis on showing transaction detail and on privacy features. Which fits a person depends on what they want to see and control.

This guide explains features as the developers describe them and does not rate the software.