Bitcoin Forum

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=436467.msg51242960#msg51242960


It looks like another bitcoin mixing services is going to close its service. I assume they are not now under pressure from authorities that's why they decided to close down.

There were no explanation from them so I do not think assuming something will be wise. It's not a very good news for the mixing industry.

Indeed, it's really very bad news to the mixing industry and those who love anonymity. What next is going to be a target by these authorities... Perhaps privacy coins, decentralized P2P exchanges like Bisq?

When Bestmixer was shut down, i could help but notice  statement by FOID


https://www.fiod.nl/blog/2019/05/22/the-fiod-and-the-public-prosecution-service-take-money-laundering-machine-for-cryptocurrencies-offline/

It clearly shows that the remaining old Mixer services are also being targeted.
When you talk about the three largest mixing services right now then obviously Chipmixer and Bitblender can't miss out being among them.

The future of mixing, and indeed many other services, is in proper decentralisation. I think it's pretty safe to say that in this area centralisation has largely proven to be a liability, not an asset.

It'll be interesting to see if centralised exchanges will identify and reject coins put through decentralised services. And privacy coins could go either way.

Fincen released a statement that wasn't completely derogatory about privacy coins. I think they recognise that it's not an automatic evil. There will be a need for such thing in future. Fincen also made the distinction between hosted services like Bitblender and those who develop mixing software.

https://coincenter.org/entry/fincen-s-new-cryptocurrency-guidance-matches-coin-center-recommendations

So I guess this means Chipmixer is going to be the last major (and reputable) mixing service left on this forum? Quite odd that the service is shutting down so abruptly, hopefully people get their money out and are alerted by this shutdown. I remember using Bitblender back in 2017 and being part of their signature campaign, sad that it seems to be affected by the recent happenings with mixers. Hopefully Chipmixer isn't too adversely affected as well.

with what happened to bestmixer.io recently, I would assume the opposite
they (bitblender) might feel being targeted and insecure, so they close down before getting seized by authorities
though I'm pretty sure they will respawn with different name, location and mixing technique

Bitmixer.io never made another appearance. Why would you risk it? Anyone running one of these must've done OK. I'd leave with the money and never return. As a concept centralised mixing may be coming to a permanent end.

It's the only other one that I know of, but I'm no expert about the mixing business and don't know how many services are around.  Aside from the fact that I'd hate to not be in their campaign anymore, I would hate to see another coin mixing service bite the dust because I think they serve a good function (and yes, I'm well aware that a lot of criminals probably use them too). 

Well that's sort of reassuring.  I'm not quite sure which coins qualify as strict "privacy coins", but I know some are far more anonymous than others, and I do hope governments don't go after them eventually.  I plan on holding my PIVX for some time (I think that one could be considered a privacy coin, right?).  And as to the bolded part above, I picture the US government using privacy coins to mask their financially deviant behavior, e.g., funneling funds to rebels overseas and all sorts of other shit.  Of course there's going to be a need for crypto with a very high anonymity factor built into it.

OMG... another mixer down.

Does anyone know what is the reason why also this mixer shutdown is it the same as bestmixer that seized by FIOD?

It seems that all mixer are targeted and they seize them one by one.

Bestmixer was seized/shutdown.
BitBlender voluntarily closed down.

Huge diference there.

Maybe because they got the message from the law enforcement agencies and they got “scared”, or the owner just decided to move on with his life, or maybe it was a completely different reason. We can only speculate.

I think based on the timing, it would not be unreasonable to say the operator was afraid of the government, and the related consequences.

With BestMixer being shut down by the government, other mixing services should see an uptick in business as BestMixer's former users start to re-mix their coins the Dutch government now says can be traced via the BestMixer database. I would say if Bitblender was being shut down for any reason other than FUD caused by the BestMixer situation, they would have stayed open a few additional weeks so they can see the added revenue the BestMixer situation would have caused.

*clears throat* Check my signature m8. 8)

There's a two option right now if you want clean coins or to mix your coins like the suggested above chipmixer is another option but this is not the only one you can also use a mixer called coin join in wasabi wallet which is good as another option.

It is really unfortunate to see that one of the longest and trusted mixing service has to shut its doors, i assume that it is not about the pressure from the authorities, if he wants to have a peaceful life, it is better for him to shut it down as it is not worth to challenge the authorities and run something he started simply because of his passion, the charges the authorities are going to come up with are money laundering and if you are convicted it will take a long time even to have a normal life and half of your life will be spent going to court.

Even if it do happens on my side as a bitcoin mixer owner i would definitely do the same thing where i would tend to close doors if i do see that they are currently seizing
similar business as mine.So as an owner you can already presume that you would really be the next in line.So,to be wise you would simply do these steps rather
than trying hard to oppose with the authorities because once they do make such step it would really be hard to counter it down.This is is why i do see this voluntarily closing of doors
is  just a wise move to be done for me.

Is an unfortunate information coming in to the forum, I'm just reading this thread now. I hope people got their coin back?. I think chipmixer is the one currently available for anonymous services.

Yes, looks like people have still time to withdraw their funds, BitBlender isn't seized like BestMixer, BitBlender has most likely decided to stop their operations based on their own decision. There are several other mixers, you'll find a list here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2827109.0, but ChipMixer is the largest and most trusted on the list.

It is likely the same as bitmixer.io which is one of the reputable mixers before and they decided to stop their operations because they receive a message from government or law enforcement If I remember correctly they closed last 2017 around June or July.

And I noticed that every price is going to burst increase mixers are shut down or decided to close but not all mixers.

Just to remind everyone,


Looks like what Bitmixer.IO said in 2017 is coming into fruition now, it's a bit scary to hear this from Bitmixer.IO himself that time and everyone is questioning him since they are one of the biggest if not the biggest mixing services you can find in this community.

Chipmixer is the last man standing.  ;D. Although it still considered a fairly new exchange, if I'm not mistaken.

I seem to recall everyone thinking Bitmixer's words on this were so weird that they were either under duress or trying to make themselves look good to the authorities as they exited. You'd have to be very strange to think total openness is great for everyone, even more so when enabling the opposite was your living for several years.

You're right, that's what I remember as well. All respect due to the guy, he made a business decision, not so much a personal one, and there was, even in his openness, enough to hint that the call was a matter of wisdom and pragmatism as much as it was an exit on a high.

Strange dualities are common in crypto. We've got big bankers and corporates claiming to champion Bitcoin, an invention born in the midst of a global economic crisis caused by the very same bankers and corporates. We've got self-professed proponents of democracy and decentralisation (insert other buzz word) who use #cypherpunk, keen to get approval of the big boys in suits in the same breath.

I hope Chipmixer will not stop their operation so we can still have enjoy mixing our coins and will retain our anonymity in the space.
Chipmixer is one of the trusted mixer here and I can vouch this based on my experience.

2 mixers are down so far, but I'm not expecting there will be new big mixer that will or be shut down.
We know the reason for bestmixer's shut down, but bitblender is just the decision of the owner to stop and until now we are only seeing speculation on the reasons why they shut down.

Is there any word at all from Chipmixer regarding all of this?
I wouldn't even know what jurisdiction they are in, so I hope they don't have their servers in any European countries.

Might be the end of public Bitcoin mixers...

Nope. The head of the sig campaign said the payout address has been refilled and that's the only statement, subliminal or otherwise, made about the whole thing.

How can you tell if the next new mixer isn't created by the same person/team
if he starts over completely with no resemblance to the old mixer, you can't really tell, can you?
new bct username, new hosting, new domain, different mix technique, etc to show no connection
we, people, humans, tend to be greedy by nature ;D we want more than what we already have

If he was greed, he would keep going under BitMixer’s name. It was probably the most trusted and most famous mixer in the market. He spent millions in advertisement, which made him only start profiting in after several years of operation. Who spends millions and years to get big, just to close up and start operating under a different name? That doesn’t make any sense.

Maybe because Bitmixer was operating in let's say Estonia, and the operators were known/could be tied to the hosting of the service (through payment data for hosting, or logged ip's, domain who.is info, god knows what), whereas a new service could've been hosted somewhere offshore with this in mind, making no connection at all with the real operators.

I think this is also the reason why bitblender is shutting down, he probably didn't cover his tracks properly. I don't think it's odd at all to think he'll rehost a service under a different brand name that has no ties to him (or ties that could be made to him), since the profit v risk would then be enormous.

If the previous service owns by someone make do profits but didnt cover up his tracks with having a potential on facing up legal issues later on,he would
really have that kind of voluntary stopping of its service.They know that they are sacrificing their business but having problems between the government
is really pain in the a**.

Either ways,if they tend to make a new mixer then its dumb for them to connect their identity to newer mixing site since they do know the risk when the older
ones faced up some previous issues. Mixing sites is quite on demand, so creating one is still good business but this time you should know on how to get yourself safe on
governments eyes.

BitMixer shutdown after Btc-e sized.   -----> Bitblender shutdown after Bestmixer sized  :D (There seems to be a similarity between the two stories.)

I thought Chipmixer was an extension of Bitmixer (because of the similarity between them). But what happens may be an indication that I'm wrong. Perhaps Bitblender team/developer is one of the members involved with Bitmixer.

Generally, no one can prove more but it is really unfortunate to see them leave.

I am sure that sooner than later the pressure will be on Chipmixer as it is the remaining operating service provider on the business. Indeed, what Bitmixer said in 2017 is now coming true. When regulatory bodies of many countries can start using their powers, there is nothing we can do but comply or we can go to court to reverse any harm done (but this is quite self-defeating to say the least). Let's hope that Chipmixer is doing all it can to stay away from the crouching power of the state.

There are still a lot of mixing services around, like https://[banned mixer]/, although they don't have any signature campaign, they're older than Chipmixer as they are built around 2016. But yeah, Bitmixer could have seen this in 2017 hence, everyone was quite surprised to see his statement that time. I'm sure that Chipmixer is all aware of what is going on and could be working from behind to be one step ahead of the game.

They're clearly serious about staying in the business so I presume they foresaw this and planned accordingly. All the same we've no idea what might trigger them. The people who popped up on here with long term money left on Bitblender is a tad alarming. Users need to readjust their behaviour. Things can happen quickly.

Storing bitcoins on an exchange or other website longer than reasonably necessary isn't the smartest thing to do, but if a site works reliably without issues for years, almost 5.5 years in bitblender's case, people start assuming the business can be trusted. In the case of a mixer there are also privacy benefits towards not spending all mixed coins as soon as possible.

It cant really be avoided on not to trust up such service which people been using for 5years.Trust cant be build up overnight and this mixer do get that confidence into its users which for them to trust and store up
their coins but sadly this thing do suddenly happen to them which is really very unexpected.

They are not shutting anytime I guess and I am just hoping they will stay long in the business for long.
I don't read any statement from them, but they should be good.

I convince myself that in every mixer that will shutdown, there will be a new one that will open its business, this industry would not die.

You got that right. The darknet markets are booming. That money needs to be mixed somewhere. Just like when Bitmixer left, others stepped in to fill the vacuum. In fact, Bitmixer shutting down is probably what allowed Chipmixer to get so big.

Well, that's how the market works, chipmixer is now the leading mixer in the market but bestmixer was also big and one of its competitors but I'm sure a new mixer will become popular again and until they will find a way not to get shut down by any government agency.

For most mixers -- if they're run correctly -- the only thing that should be at risk is the clearnet domain. A .com or similar domain can be easily seized, but servers and funds should be another matter. Bestmixer's mistake was operating from Europe from easily surveillable jurisdictions. It would be much more difficult for authorities to seize servers elsewhere in the world outside of the US or Europe.

Definitely, Chipmixer should have plan a, b and c in place something like this come up. And remember it is very different on how they operate, the method is first of it's kind so it's hard to 'break' it.

As for people who gets their money trap on Bitblender, I guess majority of their users didn't see it coming. Bad timing for them if you're mixing during the moment they shut it down.

Hello,
does somebody know if bitcoin blender is online again? If its online again, do we have the same balance on out account like before?

Nope. Unfortunately, they already closed their website long time ago and they only gave a couple of days for people to take their coins out. If you didn't, chances of you recovering them are pretty slim. I have tried to talk with them or help other users in the same situation as yours and they never replied back.

You might wanna just give up on that lost money and move on. It's now almost over a year since they decided to shut down their business abruptly. It was something that happened on short notice, and they gave people who have their balances in their site to withdraw it within a week. After that, the owners wiped up their servers and went dark never to be seen again.

Its been a year already and you just showed up and asking about getting back online? Where in the world you've been lurking after all this time?   :D(Joke!)

Just like on what being said above where they do give some time to let their users able to withdraw the funds out and yes it was short but at least they do give out chances rather than shutting their doors instantly.

Better to move on and forget to those coins you do had into their site and thats why its always been important to read up updates actively
or whats happening on crypto space so that you would really be aware and able to react or do action in case of some emergencies
like closure etc.

---

Topic  should be locked.....

Unfortunately it's hard to recover it by now since as other member said bitblender doesn't respond to any pm's at this point so provably you will struggle for this since no one can help you out if the owner will decide to shut up forever, it's best to forget to move on since it's close to impossible to get what you wanted here.


I can relate with him here since he just trying he's to recover his stock funds from that site but unfortunately this is impossible right now so best suggestion for this is to move on.

This topic should be lock since there are so many valid answer given already.