Bitcoin Forum

I was just reading through the news of BitMixer.io shutting down their business.
While there are other alternatives, I was wondering what stops anyone from using a dark market (such as now-defunct AlphaBay) to mix their coins?

Using such markets over other alternatives will surely provide some benefits:
- Traditional mixers such as bitmixer.io have high fees
- We can use exchanges like Poloniex to mix coins but they require KYC for high volume deposit/withdrawals. Moreover there are chances they'll blacklist any addresses associated with hack/ransom attacks and won't accept coins from such address.
- Traditional exchanges can also have cooperative relationship with governments which can expose you

Dark nets being TOR-based services, once can just deposit some BTC in their account and then withdraw after some time. Won't this be a safer way to mix coins which are associated with hacks/ransom attacks?

No opinions?!

Looks like a bad idea.
 
If the authorities take control of the market (like they did with Hansa, running it for a month), they will track the coins you're trying to mix with them and take logs.  Then there will be no point.

Also, by using the dark net market as a mixer you're automatically committing a crime, whereas using a mixer is legal (for now).

Also, you could receive some of the same coins back.

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You might get better responses in the Service Discussion board.

There are lots of scams in DarkNet. I think most of them are scams. If it is not scam, the fees will be high.

I don't advice you to use any service in DarkNet. They can easily change domain and start again.

Have you ever heard of ChipMixer? Apparently there are 0 fees with them and they are still going even though Bitmixer is now closed.

Be very, very careful about using the Darknet.
There are some crazy sites there and viruses everywhere you turn.
If you have lots of Bitcoin try using a different computer/device with VPN.
Obviously use TOR, but keep in mind even then you are not safe as the exit node can see your traffic. To avoid this use a bridge.
If you use a different PC with TOR + VPN + Bridge and be very careful, then you should be fine.

First, you should be careful with amounts of BTC you withdraw when you try to use some service like exchange or casino as your mixer. For example, if you deposit 20 BTC, and than just withdraw 20 BTC to a new address, it's easy to notice it on something like walletexplorer (https://www.walletexplorer.com/). And when you withdraw to different addresses, you should be careful to not accidentally spend-link them (or their children) in the future. Also, more and more people now rely on Monero for mixing, so you might want to take a look at that.

Its a trust issue with tumbling services.  I have never had any issues on onion.  Picture this:  you are sending "someone/some company" 20 BTC to mix for you and they will send those coins to half a dozen addresses that you provide to them.  Sounds good, but you need to have trust that you didn't just send 20 BTC that are now gone forever.  See the point here?  That example is true for clearnet mixers too.  The thing about DarkNet is that some of the absolute best folks hang out there because they value "stealth".  BUT some of the worst hang out there too, because they know when they steal your coins you can't find them without huge powerful agencies helping you.  Do your homework.  To remain private myself I won't reveal which I use but I assure you both extremes exist on the Deep Web.  If you pick correctly, or even better if you are well connected, you have little to fear.

Why should I ever use a mixer if I did not steal the coins?
And why the hell do you support this here???

Thanks for the responses here, i was not expecting these many to be frank  :)

Most people who responded here are assuming i am talking about specialised mixing services operating on onion links. What i was trying to picture was to use a market like AlphaBay where the main activity is buying/selling. I know the risks associated are more or less similar ("trust" issues). But at least if you choose a market that has been online and reputed for some months, you can trust them for a day just for a deposit and a withdrawal (unless you are very very unlucky and the market shuts down the same day  :P )

The second question: are btc ddresses associated with mixers or dark markets known and can be marked as trained? Don't they provide me address for every user and keep it private?

Are IP addresses linked to blockchain transactions? They might be, I've just never been aware of it.

TOR doesn't hurt, of course. But wouldnt that be more for log ins to accoutns and such?