Tor in Trezor Suite
Trezor Suite allows you to use Tor to protect your privacy. Tor is free and open-source software that enables anonymous communication.
If you’re privacy conscious, you should consider using Tor whenever you use Trezor Suite.
Why should I use Tor with Trezor Suite?
Tor adds an extra layer of security, especially in restricted or high-surveillance environments, ensuring you stay in control of your privacy.
Using Tor with Trezor Suite helps keep your activities private by anonymizing your internet connection. It shields your cryptocurrency transactions from tracking, leaks, and network surveillance.
For example, making a cryptocurrency transaction over a regular internet connection could expose your IP address, potentially linking the transaction to you. Tor anonymizes your connection, making it much harder to track or identify you. This added layer of privacy helps protect your identity while using Trezor Suite.
Please note that using Tor cannot protect you from data breaches including the addresses you transact with.
Your transactions will still be publicly visible on block explorers, and if your wallet addresses are linked to your identity, using Tor will not enhance your privacy beyond hiding your activity from your ISP.
Using Tor in Trezor Suite Desktop
Improving your privacy while using Trezor Suite with Tor is simple.
When in Trezor Suite, go to the bottom-left hand corner of the app and enable it by pressing this button:
Once Tor is enabled (it may take a bit), you can be certain that your transactions in Trezor Suite cannot be tied to your IP address.
Using the web version of Trezor Suite with Tor browser
When using Trezor Suite with Firefox (which is a base for Tor Browser), you cannot use WebUSB (like in Chrome), but instead need to run the Trezor Suite desktop app running in the background.
Regular URLs use HTTPS, while onion services do not use HTTPS but plain HTTP (encryption is guaranteed by the underlying Tor protocol).
External Tor connections on Tails OS
Tails OS is a security-focused operating system which automatically uses Tor to connect to the internet.
External connections are required to connect Trezor Suite to Tor when using Tails OS, because Tails OS automatically routes all internet traffic through Tor upon startup.
Enabling experimental features
In order to access this feature, you will need to enable experimental features in Trezor Suite. You can do this by heading to Settings > Application, scrolling down to the “Experimental” section and then toggling the button next to “Experimental Features.”
Once experimental features are toggled, you will see “Tor external” show up at the bottom of the screen. You can enable the feature by pressing the box here.
Enabling external Tor connection step-by-step
When using Tails OS, you can follow the following steps to connect Trezor Suite to your external instance of Tor.
Once experimental features are toggled, you will see “Tor external” show up at the bottom of the screen. You can enable the feature by pressing the box here.
- Make sure Tor is running on port 9050. Port 9050 is the default port when using Tails OS, so this should be automatic unless you changed something beforehand.
- Run Tor upon Tails startup.
- Open Trezor Suite.
- Enable the Tor external experimental feature in Trezor Suite. Open Trezor Suite, go to Settings > Experimental Features and enable the Tor External feature.
- Once you enable the Tor External feature, a new menu will appear below the Tor toggle switch. Select Tor external (9050).
- In Trezor Suite, toggle Tor on (disable and re-enable it if it’s already enabled)
Using Tor externally from the browser
If you choose, you may connect Trezor Suite to the instance an instance of Tor which runs in an open Tor browser. This is helpful if you want to use a bridge like snowflake.
To connect to your browser instance of Tor, you simply need to open your Tor browser, connect to Tor, open the Tor External feature in Trezor Suite and select Tor browser.