Bitcoin Forum

Hey,

As a side project, I always wanted to develop a mixing services and explore this sector.
I have yet a problem of where I should start, since I do not fully grasp the idea of mixing and would love if anyone provided me with some research papers or documentations on how to implement mixing.

Mucho gracias

Look, I get why you asked, but this stuff is pretty sensitive in terms of privacy and security.  If I didnt know squat about locks, I shouldnt be telling folks how to secure their doors and  that make sense? Put yourself in their shoes.  If you used some privacy service and found out later the person behind it was clueless how would you feel? These coin mixing things are trying to hide trails.  I couldnt forgive myself if my newbie clumsiness undid all that for someone. 

Friendly advice;  if you want to develop something, why not try something you are actually familiar with?

Better still to develop his time to learn and make more research before trying to go into such services, I believe those who launches such mixing services has took more years to make findings on how they could executes their plans.
But sad news for OP did he read the message posted by theymos about mixers? If yes then I don't think here is the best place to further talks about his mixing service since from 1 January 2024 no mixers discussion (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5476162.0) or even post link that directly link to mixing website and whatsoever is allowed here anymore.

If you want to develop something that is actually useful for Bitcoin (not for your personal profit) then look into the concept of CoinJoin (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/CoinJoin) and the existing implementation of it and see if you have any idea that could improve upon the existing ones, maybe even introduce a new more decentralized one!

Otherwise if you want to create yet another centralized mixer, you'll probably get shut down and possibly arrested soon after your "service" picks up a certain amount of traffic.

Start with something open-source. Because closed-source software easily raises suspicion in this sector. Furthermore, you can prove that there are no backdoors by using publicly available code.

Also if you make use of IoC such as Ansible for starting up the web server and the other services, then it also eases suspicions that there may be logs kept.

If that side project involve real Bitcoin (Bitcoin mainnet), please seek different kind of side project. Without proper skill and experience, you might fail to protect privacy of people who use your service.


Mixing service usually doesn't reveal how their service works, so such paper/documentation almost nonexistent. However, there are some research about CoinJoin and breaking privacy offered by mixing service.

To expand previous answers,  a little more information about coinjoin here, by gmaxwell

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=279249.0

I think coinjoin is a good alternative to mixers now, as many are getting shutting down and some addresses blacklisted.l by authorities

Well these are going to be banned here soon so it's best to read up and ask questions now before Jan 1st.
However seems conjoins going to be the new thing.

Joinmarket, decentralized, open source, peer-to-peer, non-custodian, since 2015 : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=919116.0;all

JoinMarket is a really good start (and it definitely won't be banned).

Actually now that I've read about it, I would like to contribute to it myself. It seems like the perfect promise for making the blockchain full of coinjoin transactions.

I heard the inventor (chris belcher) is not doing well with COVID-19 though, so hope he feels better.

post order on atomic swap exchange, it allow partial fulfillments

Nice initiative, IMO


According to figure below the perspective and at the same time not exploited niche  would be TumbleBit.


Readings:
TumbleBit: An Untrusted Bitcoin-Compatible Anonymous Payment Hub (https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/575.pdf)

How old are you? If you are 17 years old and choosing computer science degree, then many things will change when you get your BA in CS and over time, you'll find a job, get experience and will understand how to create a mixer. But if you are not a teen anymore and you are an adult with different career, don't waste your time on bitcoin mixer. To be honest, my advice for you is to not start a mixer because you have no idea what you want to start. Almost everyone ends up seized or arrested and blockchain analysis companies are getting smarter and smarter every day. In order to compete, you have to be smarter than the Chipmixer owner.

By the way, have a look at [banned mixer] and their github page: https://github.com/jambler-io/bitcoin-mixer

My apologies,
Actually I have been a web developer for the past 8 years, and developed some Crypto related payment features in the past,
I just couldn't find a nice documentation that explains bitcoin mixers and how they work exactly, so I was initially hoping for a documentation link haha.

I sincerely apologize for that, I generally was not aware of that rule frankly.

Hey,

Got it, will check it out! much appreciated.

Looks nice tbh, will check it out!

No big deal bro, it's just a matter of time not yet ban so I can say you are free to talk about it till the due date that was mentioned by theymos. Though the update is being pinned at the top below your username and is noticeable visibly for everyone to see the update. Since it's associated with ban I know people are too funny most at times with the way they behave when they are ban.

Based on the admin's recent updates, seems we can still chat about mixer services and such, just not openly promote any specific ones.  So if someone wants to have a discussion around the progress of mixer development or other privacy tools in general, that should be fine from what I gather. 

Just trying to clarify because I want folks to feel comfortable talking broadly about technology while also respecting the rules against endorsements.

Thank you I never got this recent update, my bad..
Maybe those who keeps promoting mixers will limit or remove their code to be at the safer side. Yeah it's good even though mixers are ban but yet should be given privilege to talk about but not by referencing someone to the site or even having to share any content that directly related to the site hope this won't have any bad effect to user?