Bitcoin Forum

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A global conference in Qatar (there's some irony) on "misuse" of digital currencies is looking to shut down the BTC mixers:

http://bravenewcoin.com/news/wgvc-focuses-on-the-misuse-of-digital-currencies-by-criminals-and-terrorist-financiers/

The BTC mixers are an important part of financial privacy IMO.



(You see, it's always about the terrorists and criminals...)

The government will be seeing it about the criminals or terrorist tools.  ::)
Nothing is good for the government about the unregulated things.

They only mentioned mixing services on the deep web, which require TOR browser to access. They didn't say anything about standard mixing services.
But I agree - destroying all kind of mixing services (TOR based or not) is the ultimate goal of authorities. I wonder what they will do against anonymous coins then... banish them completely?

TOR is on the eye of governments since long time, if I recall well since it first was released to the public. They are still fighting TOR in the first place so mixers like BitBlender should be the first target (although I don't think it will be easy to shut down anonymous mixers). I think it's a fight against windmills this one and it will not be successful.

TOR is still the best tool we have about privacy and mixers are a very important tool regarding bitcoin anonymity and very few times TOR was break by the government attacks or agencies, so I think there is nothing to worry for the time being.

Darknet marketplaces like DreamMarket and AlphaBay are now considered as less important then Bitcoin mixers now ? It's definitely possible to try but I doubt they will succeed at the end of the day. If TumbleBit takes place in the upcoming months then they could totally forgot about the mixers as they would be the least of their problems.

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"Terrorists and Criminals"

The always-convenient excuse by the governments to clamp down on our freedoms.  Look here for what the European Commission is proposing re cash there in Europe:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-27/europe-proposes-restrictions-payments-cash

Yep, terrorism is just an excuse for their idea...  TAXATION and SOCIETAL CONTROL are the real reasons.  Plan accordingly.

The government will strive to regulate all things they can't touch, is true meaning of civilization.

I still can't believe the terrorists (especially in countries of Middle East) using bitcoin as a means of transaction, there was no accurate evidence that leads to it. And I still doubt institutions like Interpol and Europol can't sabotage the Criminals transactions. information technology in middle east region not as advanced as United States and Europe.

I don't believe they use bitcoin (terrorists), especially using BTC mixer.

I agree, the real intention of the government is to control bitcoin and crypto currencies and to taxed the transaction, by using the reason of terrorism the government is trying to regulate bitcoin, and I think the percentage of terrorist using bitcoin maybe is only 1%, most of the time I think they used dollar or gold

But BTC mixers don't have to be registered or regulated services so they can't track the owner of those mixing services. I think there is nothing to worry about and even some non-regulated gambling platform can also be used to mix bitcoin.

Accessing mixing services over TOR network will be enough for anyone to hide their identity.

I hope they don't push through with it, like you said, it is indeed a necessary financial tool for people to remain anonymous regardless of whether we are using it for illegal or legal activities. But, I don't think they can stop it. There would be a service if there is a demand for it. They'll just hide in the darknet away from prying eyes.

I also don't think they can stop this, as long as their is demand for a service, there will be someone providing such service. Okay, what would they now do with tokens like Monero, Zcash and co. ban all of them or what

They can do whatever they want and still won't achieve much. Fighting windmills is all they'll be doing, just like their fight against torrent sites. It's been ongoing for years and still if I want to download something from a torrent site it will take me minutes to find and less than an hour to download (couple GB file).

“Their use is expected to increase exponentially in the coming years. And understandably so, since they improve payment efficiency, reduce transaction and fund transfer costs, while facilitating international remittances.”

At least they confirmed it  ;D It's time to buy!

There are many things before they close or shut down the btc mixers, I think that deep and dark market places are more important to investigate rather than bitcoin mixers.

There aren't much bitcoin mixers but these mixers are also good for privacy and not only for an easier way to use bitcoin by criminals.

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One of the things the .govs may try to stop (or slow down) BTC is by controlling the "entrance and exit ramps".  Perhaps by banning BTC ATMs for example.  Banning banks & merchants from exchanging BTC for cash is another avenue of attack...

While it would be extremely hard for .gov to KILL Bitcoin, they might be able to make it less private (they hope anyway) and inconvenient to use.  That might accomplish their goal.

The mixers, again IMO, are a key to BTC freedom.

It's different what they want and what will happen. They have no chanse to close bitcoin mixers, every govermant wants to close torrents but as we see there are still many torrents and also there are many leaks but everything continues normally.
Well, bitcoin mixers highly protect privacy, they have tor linked websites and also I believe their servers are in offshore or in poor and alone country.

sounds interesting to see if the .govs can reach every bitcoin that in the btc mixers and i wonder how they do to pursuit the amount. i think its a good news for bitcoin and bitcoin user because .govs can help bitcoin to clean the illegal activity and .govs can convinced to other people that bitcoin is a safe new investment.

It can be both :).  But well I guess it is more on taxation and societal control, but giving the benefit of the doubt, it is still hard for them to track down criminal and terrorist  even if mixers were shutdown, it had been their battle ever since and yet they failed miserably again and again.  This is just an excuse to their failure, pointing blame to things that were just recently created to hide their incompetence.

Now this is really a bad news for those mixers  out there its either anonymous or not but i believe those non-anonymous mixers should be ready on this in my own view.Government is already making steps on shutting them down because they saw that those mixers could help the anonymity of transferred coins even more,therefore they cant track if someone uses mixers.

Even if governments compromise the operation of BTC Mixers, users may find other alternatives. I think in the future there will be the possibility that solutions will be developed in Bitcoin sidechains to make transactions more anonymous. From the information I have, through sidechains, many of these features that are seen in anonymous cryptocurrencies may be possible in the Bitcoin network.

Can they make all bitcoin mixers disappear? I dont think even they can kill all mixers on internet. Theres still available mixers on deepweb. Terrorists can still use it to stay anonimous. Maybe they should go to cryptocurrency. If they ban all cryptocurrencies. Problem solved. But its another fight thats very tough to win. Its government against the world.

It was pretty obvious that because the world spends billions and billions on anti money laundering anti terrorism anti whatever that they would want to shut down the most obvious bitcoin mixer which the only use is to launder your money.

This is true. I just wish they'd finally step in and ban fiat (dollar bills). I've seen people buy things with it in the past (passing cash from one to another) so it needs to be banned IMMEDIATELY.

Yes and it is mean bitcoin is not good too because of unregulated
so I think there are not good for government about bitcoin and related it
especially bitcoin mixing service,
 if everything are bad i think digital coins is not suitable for government although blockchain technology is not suitable for government too. :D

I doubt that they can make all bitcoin mixers disappear. Maybe on clearnet. But on deepweb, thats a different story. But this is serious problem. Terrorist can make bitcoin their bridge to funds their arsenals to use against us. I dont think it can be stopped. The only way is to ban bitcoin.

Only priority for governments is indeed that people pay their tax, plus that they know what level of wealth you have. All other things are just sloppy excuses.

It's well know that the far majority of the Bitcoiners aren't willing to declare their holdings to their local tax agencies, and rightfully so. But the results are more severe sanctions in the coming years.

If we don't bring the money we "owe" the governments to them, then they will come and get it by force. Every potential Bitcoin related services will be subject to this barbaric practice where they just look to nurse their hunger for control.

So yes, mixers are a crucial part of achieving freedom. And exactly that is what governments don't want you to have. They just want everything to happen within their system so we can continue being a slave of the governments.

That is true, for a long time bitcoin has been related to deep web since drug dealers and hackers use it to accomplish their businesses without being tracked down, but if you look closely you see that fiat is also being used for these things and nobody is taking about it, everything has its bad and positive thing it just depends on the person that is using it and the reason he is using it for.

When the govs shut mixers down,we shall use XMR to mix the coins!Privacy ftw!

Honestly they won't! Their issue with Bitcoin goes beyond their claim it is used for illegal activities. They are simply afraid, Bitcoin if allowed to flourish, would spell doom to fiat currencies and that happens to be the main source of their controlling power, albeit enslaving people. They simply cannot Bitcoin, therefore it must be criminals that uses it ???  ???  ???

Shut down? How? Mixers can make new deposit addresses every week and they'd have to keep track of them. I could be mixing coins in casinos for people and I wouldn't need my own server room or registered domain to do it.