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Economy => Service Discussion => Topic started by: Stedsm on November 15, 2020, 10:13:46 PM



Title: Should I use mixers?
Post by: Stedsm on November 15, 2020, 10:13:46 PM
I hope everyone here knows what mixing services are, and for those who don't:

BTC mixers work as a medium, a medium that works like an escrow, gives you back your own coins but on your desired addresses and that too, from different places so for you to become non-traceable at your end. Now, these mixers don't know where these coins will be going to, so it's only you who knows about your coins, your addresses and your transactions.

So, what's the reason behind this thread?

Actually, most exchanges are reluctant to providing their users the authority of using mixers while depositing on their platform and I have heard so many news about exchanges stopping and freezing the account and some didn't even release the account as of today. I'm a privacy conscious person and would like to ask you whether I should still use mixers when depositing on an exchange or not.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: figmentofmyass on November 15, 2020, 10:28:58 PM
Actually, most exchanges are reluctant to providing their users the authority of using mixers while depositing on their platform and I have heard so many news about exchanges stopping and freezing the account and some didn't even release the account as of today.

that has happened several times publicly with coinjoins......any examples of it happening with centralized mixers?

I'm a privacy conscious person and would like to ask you whether I should still use mixers when depositing on an exchange or not.

exchanges routinely track your blockchain activity several hops out, for both deposits and withdrawals. with that in mind, should you use mixers? you tell me. ;)

if you're holding coins withdrawn from a DNM or gambling site and need to cash out through an exchange, mixing them first is a no brainer. if your coins are clean, it's a question of privacy.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: anonymixer on November 15, 2020, 10:32:37 PM
At ]Anonymixer (https://[banned mixer), we provide the service of Mixing coins where no-one knows that you used a Mixer in the first place.

It is most important to us that no-one is able to identify any of our wallets, or our transactions through common input ownership heuristics and/or peel chains, our Wallet implementation has been written from scratch, for this very purpose.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: Bitcoin_Arena on November 15, 2020, 10:56:15 PM
I don't use mixers if I am sending coins to a centralized exchange. One of the reasons is bitcoins from a suspicious source like stolen funds could be included as an input in our receiving transaction and this could cause an exchange to block your bitcoins if they have been analyzing and following the money trail.

Maybe the best way right now is either us Monero or send mixed coins strictly to decentralized exchanges like bisq or localcryptos. There you won't have any much worry of having your funds blocked due to suspicious transactions.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: anonymixer on November 15, 2020, 11:00:19 PM
I don't use mixers if I am sending coins to a centralized exchange. One of the reasons is bitcoins from a suspicious source like stolen funds could be included as an input in our receiving transaction and this could cause an exchange to block your bitcoins if they have been analyzing and following the money trail.

Maybe the best way right now is either us Monero or send mixed coins strictly to decentralized exchanges like bisq or localcryptos. There you won't have any much worry of having your funds blocked due to suspicious transactions.

Monero is fantastic, it really is, but just one thing to note from a "Flagging" perspective. When you receive or send Bitcoin coins from a service such as xmr.to or MorphToken, this is known. It is most definitely known which coins are emitted from these services.

It is so known about coins emitted from these services, that you frequently subsequently receive Transactions to outgoing addresses advertising stuff from other services, with the advertised services themselves being encoded in Bitcoin Eater Addresses at the very top of the Outgoing UTXO list. The rest of the Outputs include loads of other users of the mixing service - and you're all grouped together.

I guess as all the service users get a few satoshis each, every cloud has a silver lining.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: mk4 on November 16, 2020, 03:33:42 AM
Personally, while I do mix/coinjoin some of my coins, I don't send the mixed/coinjoined coins to exchanges due to the slight risks of account locks(though I almost barely used custodial exchanges anyway).

Regardless though, don't just solely rely on mixing and coinjoins. Practice things like coin control[1] as well.


[1] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=144331


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: cryptoaddictchie on November 16, 2020, 05:54:06 AM
I'm a privacy conscious person and would like to ask you whether I should still use mixers when depositing on an exchange or not.
Never tried yet mixer, so I am indeed interested with this. Is it gonna work on centralized exchanges too? I mean the deposited address on an exchange will be used but you are sending from your non custodial wallet. Ive heard that mixers usually do a none to none custodial wallets only or it depends on the services?

Aside from the benefit of securing your privacy, these service might be turn down in the future due to scammers using it to hide their traces.



Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: anonymixer on November 16, 2020, 09:51:33 AM
Not deposit, but here's an example: https://twitter.com/PaxosGlobal/status/1222237095009320960 (https://twitter.com/PaxosGlobal/status/1222237095009320960)

Yes. In this case, Ronald McHodled (https://twitter.com/RonaldMcHodled) stated that he sent coins from an Exchange to a Wallet that had an older address format (https://twitter.com/RonaldMcHodled/status/1222181343922049025) (e.g. P2PKH), from there he sent the coins to a separate Wasabi Wallet [1], presumably when he sent those coins, he would've sent them entirely (without change) which for all intents and purposes is considered to be an "internal transfer" of funds (from Wallet to Wallet).

From the Wasabi Wallet, he then performed and participated in a CoinJoin [2] which is very easy to flag - so it is known, with very basic chain-analysis that it's likely he is participating in CoinJoins with coins sent from the Exchange.

[1] https://twitter.com/RonaldMcHodled/status/1222207563854274561
[2] https://twitter.com/RonaldMcHodled/status/1222195787112673281


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: shield132 on November 16, 2020, 11:37:56 AM
You know, blockchain is an open book of transactions. Do you have something to hide from anyone? If no, then there is no reason to use mixers. If there are certain things where others know your address but you don't want to know them where did you send your money or you don't want to anyone know it in overall, then you should use mixers. It will work unless someone preys on you. Even if someone preys, then do it smartly and mustn't depend only on mixers, there are also better altcoins for this. That's my answer :)


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: AB de Royse777 on November 16, 2020, 12:20:34 PM
I am sharing my personal experience of handing my coins. Till now, I never had any bad experience with any exchange or gambling site, so I do not know how it tastes. In my case if I need to sell any coin then I do p2p, I am not a trading guy by the way.

However, having that complication in mind - after mixing my coins I take them in my wallet and do whatever I want to do. I am still not sure if this is an issue with them (exchanges). Do they create issue when you directly deposit something from the mixer or take them to a mixing address? Even if they do then how do they confirm that the fund is connected to mixer?


If no, then there is no reason to use mixers.
The reason for mixing is not hiding but to protect your privacy. There is a difference.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: anonymixer on November 16, 2020, 12:39:18 PM
Even if they do then how do they confirm that the fund is connected to mixer?

By looking at coin history/lineage for deposits, as well as tracking where coins go once they've been sent from the exchanges to users, i.e. do the coins ultimately go through a CoinJoin mechanism further down the line?

Binance in Singapore, for instance (https://twitter.com/bittlecat/status/1207894540322926593/) froze a user's funds after they were connected with a Wasabi CoinJoin.

Companies like Chainalysis have perfected the art of tracking Bitcoin and Bitcoin users and employ a host of techniques of identifying (Wallets / Entities / Clusters) through all sorts of analysis, which includes co-spending of inputs, change address analysis, amount analysis and unique finger-print style analysis of wallets. This means they are able to identify Gambling website entities and who is who.

CoinJoin transactions, by their very nature, are very easy to identify, even including which type of CoinJoin service you even used.

When exchanges use and integrate these Chain Analysis services into their systems, user's simply get flagged and the exchange is then capable of becoming a bully asking for further KYC checks.

So far, this flagging and policing hasn't been massively prevalent on a wide-scale. But it's possible that it may increase in the future.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: o_e_l_e_o on November 16, 2020, 02:24:59 PM
I'm a privacy conscious person and would like to ask you whether I should still use mixers
The real question here is whether you should still use centralized exchanges. Being interested in maintaining your privacy and using centralized exchanges are pretty much mutually exclusive these days. Centralized exchanges, particularly the most popular ones, work tirelessly to track their customers' deposits and withdrawals and de-anonymize everything that they can.

Do you have something to hide from anyone? If no, then there is no reason to use mixers.
Disagree. If you have nothing to hide from anyone, then I'm sure you'll have no problem sharing PDFs of your bank statements in this thread? Or perhaps you could share your internet browsing history? Or maybe the contents of your email accounts? You don't need to have something specific that you "want to hide" to be interested in maintaining a basic standard of privacy.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: Stedsm on November 16, 2020, 05:48:32 PM
Do you have something to hide from anyone? If no, then there is no reason to use mixers.
--snip--

That's not true, those who are concerned about their privacy or get concerned at some point of time, would definitely go for mixers.



--snip--   
Do they create issue when you directly deposit something from the mixer or take them to a mixing address? Even if they do then how do they confirm that the fund is connected to mixer?

If they manage to know about our transaction coming from a mixing service, they'll definitely do something to stop us withdrawing it or just block our account right away. I'm scared of this.



Companies like Chainalysis have perfected the art of tracking Bitcoin and Bitcoin users and employ a host of techniques of identifying (Wallets / Entities / Clusters) through all sorts of analysis, which includes co-spending of inputs, change address analysis, amount analysis and unique finger-print style analysis of wallets. This means they are able to identify Gambling website entities and who is who.

--snip--

They're doing good, but only for these exchanges and it's totally against the protocol IMHO. I mean, what's the meaning of dealing in crypto when your transactions will be traced by these companies? It can be useful in hack cases but this is literally centralization when they are able to be the place where every single address can be traced and categorized. I mean, I see it as something negative but your views may be different on this.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: coupable on November 16, 2020, 05:54:12 PM
CoinJoin transactions, by their very nature, are very easy to identify, even including which type of CoinJoin service you even used.
This brings to mind the question about using Chipmixer. We all know that most chain analysis failed to identify transactions from/to Chipmixer wallets. And with the system of Chipmixer where the user receive chips of private keys/addresses containing the desired amount which has been previously sent to that keys. In this case, isn't evident to send those funds to a personal address then to any centralised exchange ?


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: Husires on November 16, 2020, 06:40:36 PM
these mixers don't know where these coins will be going to, so it's only you who knows about your coins, your addresses and your transactions.
It is inaccurate, but the source who carried out the mixing process may know the potential of these currencies and may store and sell them to analytics companies, which will find your personal data if you use any central platform.

Do not trust mixers, nor the way they claim to scramble coins perfectly. Most of these mixers can be tracked and many of them sell personal data.

After mixing currencies, your coins may be tracked if you use explorers or if the network and devices you work with are unprotected.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: Stedsm on November 16, 2020, 06:53:39 PM
Most of these mixers can be tracked and many of them sell personal data.

You may be correct but there was a thread "Breaking Mixing Services (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5117328.msg50036053#msg50036053)" where a user named Felix Maduakor stated that he was able to crack the details of transactions taking place in most of the mixers except Chipmixer. He claimed that he was unable to find the sources and said that he tried his best but couldn't crack any of the Chipmixer transactions till the date he was active here.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: o_e_l_e_o on November 16, 2020, 07:08:38 PM
I mean, I see it as something negative but your views may be different on this.
It is categorically negative, and is against the very idea of bitcoin. Even if you ignore the massive privacy invasion and the attempt to de-anonymize every user of bitcoin, they track addresses and transactions so that the third parties they work for, mainly governments and centralized exchanges, can attempt to blacklist addresses or censor transactions. One of the main tenants of bitcoin is to be censorship resistant. This is what happens when you use and trust third parties such as centralized exchanges though. You no longer play by the network rules or consensus rules - you play by their rules. Your coins are theirs, and they can do anything they like with them.

We all know that most chain analysis failed to identify transactions from/to Chipmixer wallets.
I don't think it was that they failed to identify transactions coming from or to ChipMixer, but rather, when a transaction was identified as coming from ChipMixer they were unable to link it to any specific transaction being deposited to ChipMixer. This is contrast to most other mixers, which as Stedsm points out above, can have their deposit and withdrawal transactions linked fairly robustly.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: AB de Royse777 on November 16, 2020, 08:05:50 PM
If they manage to know about our transaction coming from a mixing service, they'll definitely do something to stop us withdrawing it or just block our account right away. I'm scared of this.
And just like that they will keep the coins? This is stealing imo.

The real question here is whether you should still use centralized exchanges. Being interested in maintaining your privacy and using centralized exchanges are pretty much mutually exclusive these days. Centralized exchanges, particularly the most popular ones, work tirelessly to track their customers' deposits and withdrawals and de-anonymize everything that they can.
I am not into trading but the people who are into trading they do not have many options but to use all those centralized exchanges. This seems a big problem for cryptocurrency users.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: shield132 on November 16, 2020, 08:22:00 PM
The reason for mixing is not hiding but to protect your privacy. There is a difference.
When you hide your transactions, it means you are protecting your privacy, i.e. hide traces = protecting privacy. What's the difference between them?

Do you have something to hide from anyone? If no, then there is no reason to use mixers.
Disagree. If you have nothing to hide from anyone, then I'm sure you'll have no problem sharing PDFs of your bank statements in this thread? Or perhaps you could share your internet browsing history? Or maybe the contents of your email accounts? You don't need to have something specific that you "want to hide" to be interested in maintaining a basic standard of privacy.

From your statement, it looks like on bitcoin transactions there is my full name written across it and there is a full and detailed explanation about my transactions. I'll give you my wallet and tell me when and what I bought via it.  I understand what you want to say but it's not really how you describe it. I have made a lot of bitcoin transactions via different wallets, everything is okay, have never had privacy problems, bitcoin alone seems enough for basic covers. That's why I think using of mixers is a waste of time and money if you don't really need an extra layer of protection.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: AB de Royse777 on November 16, 2020, 08:30:12 PM
When you hide your transactions, it means you are protecting your privacy, i.e. hide traces = protecting privacy. What's the difference between them?
I have not stolen anything or have not done anything illegal however I do not want to let others know that this is my coin, I want to keep everything unknown from others.

Are you saying this is wrong? Protecting my privacy is my basic right.

In your context you sound like something is wrong this is why nothing to hide.
You know, blockchain is an open book of transactions. Do you have something to hide from anyone? If no, then there is no reason to use mixers.
And clearly this is not the case.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: coupable on November 16, 2020, 08:37:02 PM

We all know that most chain analysis failed to identify transactions from/to Chipmixer wallets.
I don't think it was that they failed to identify transactions coming from or to ChipMixer, but rather, when a transaction was identified as coming from ChipMixer they were unable to link it to any specific transaction being deposited to ChipMixer. This is contrast to most other mixers, which as Stedsm points out above, can have their deposit and withdrawal transactions linked fairly robustly.
Sorry o-e-l-e-o, somehow i didn't understand you well. So briefly, is it safer to send coins from chipmixer chips to centralised exchanges ?
And if someone just looking for some privacy when making small trades, is it evident to get in trouble just because of using mixing methods? Knowing that there other options to hide traces .


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: o_e_l_e_o on November 16, 2020, 08:45:15 PM
I am not into trading but the people who are into trading they do not have many options but to use all those centralized exchanges. This seems a big problem for cryptocurrency users.
I am also not a trader, but I think a possible work around is to buy bitcoin in a peer-to-peer manner, and then deposit it to a non-KYC non-privacy invading exchange and trade it against stable coins (although I am also not a particular fan of stable coins, but that's a whole different topic).

From your statement, it looks like on bitcoin transactions there is my full name written across it and there is a full and detailed explanation about my transactions.
If you are using bitcoin which has just been withdrawn from a centralized exchange, then there might as well be. That centralized exchange knows your name, addresses, social security number, and whatever else you told them, and will use blockchain analysis software or third parties to track your bitcoin movements and where else you deposit it or spend it, and more than likely hand that information over to various governments and their agencies.

So briefly, is it safer to send coins from chipmixer chips to centralised exchanges ?
I can't answer that I'm afraid. I pass all the coins I use through either ChipMixer or coinjoins, but I also don't use and have never used a centralized exchange. Different exchanges have different levels of draconian measures regarding where deposits come from and how likely they are to lock your coins/account.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: Stedsm on November 16, 2020, 08:57:01 PM
@everyone,
Tbh, if the exchanges are stopping us from using mixers (I mean, by blocking deposits and even our accounts to frighten us), then I believe oeleo said it the right way that we should ask ourselves whether to use these "centralized exchange" services at all or not. Everything, from a custodial wallet to a centralized exchange has all the information of our coins going from our wallet to the other one which is literally not good. I mean, if someone uses a mixer to save themselves from getting traced, what's wrong with it? Why are these companies interested in fetching our personal data including crypto? Will they sell it to government and the officials will raid us and start asking for taxes while there's still no regulation for crypto in our country at all?

@shield132, let me give you an example to make you understand why "we" need to use mixers. Let's say you're a gambler and gambling is completely banned in your country but you still do it for your entertainment. Now, if you're too concerned that some day, your transactions will get traced somehow if you're making too much money through gambling and catch the eyes of your tax officials, you'll need to look for options to "hide" this activity from your officials. Obviously, gambling is not a crime and neither a monry-laundering activity, but if it's not allowed, then you may be put behind the bars with several charges on your name. So after thinking for your future, you decide to go for mixers and move your coins first to some wallets which have nothing to do with gambling industry, right? So that will save you at least, even if you are seen receiving too much money, your gambling activities are still under the hood.

@oeleo, Is it true that if we use mixing services and receive coins through them on our desired addresses, will those coins be categorized as tainted? I read this somewhere but don't remember exactly where.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: o_e_l_e_o on November 16, 2020, 09:12:31 PM
Why are these companies interested in fetching our personal data including crypto?
Partly because governments are putting pressure on them to regulate and control bitcoin in the same way they can regulate and control fiat, and partly because there are third parties (including government agencies) who are very willing to pay good money for these blockchain analysis services. Have a look at some of the payments being made to various blockchain analysis services from various US government agencies:

Here are a few examples you can examine for yourself:

Chainalysis - https://www.fpds.gov/ezsearch/fpdsportal?indexName=awardfull&templateName=1.5.1&s=FPDS.GOV&q=VENDOR_FULL_NAME%3A%22CHAINALYSIS+INC.%22
Elliptic - https://www.fpds.gov/ezsearch/fpdsportal?indexName=awardfull&templateName=1.5.1&s=FPDS.GOV&q=VENDOR_FULL_NAME%3A%22ELLIPTIC+INC.%22
CipherTrace - https://www.fpds.gov/ezsearch/fpdsportal?indexName=awardfull&templateName=1.5.1&s=FPDS.GOV&q=VENDOR_FULL_NAME%3A%22CIPHERTRACE%2C+INC.%22
Coinbase - https://www.fpds.gov/ezsearch/fpdsportal?indexName=awardfull&templateName=1.5.1&s=FPDS.GOV&q=VENDOR_FULL_NAME%3A%22COINBASE%2C+INC.%22

Is it true that if we use mixing services and receive coins through them on our desired addresses, will those coins be categorized as tainted?
I will preface my answer by saying that I would argue such a category is completely meaningless. Whatever metric you use for classifying a coin as tainted, then if you go back far enough then almost every bitcoin in active circulation will be tainted. How do you combine tainted and non-tainted coins? What if Coinbase accepts the deposit of a tainted coin and transfers it to their hot wallet? Is every withdrawal from Coinbase now classed as tainted? Or perhaps they are only 0.1% tainted? If a tainted coin is used in a coinjoin with 49 other inputs, are all the outputs 2% tainted? What if a coin is moved 5 times? Is it still tainted? What about 10 times? 100? 1,000? It is completely arbitrary.

Having said all that, that's not to say these tainted metrics don't exist. However, you need to consider who is categorizing these coins as tainted. Yes, there are numerous centralized exchanges out there who are deciding coins which have been mixed or coinjoined are "tainted", and will then freeze accounts which deposit such coins. However, there is no such thing as "tainted" coins to nodes, to miners, to the network, to the protocol. "Tainted coins" are a creation of centralized third parties.

As I said above, I either ChipMix or coinjoin all my bitcoin. I have never once ran in to a problem spending, using, transacting, or trading my bitcoin, but I also do not use a single centralized exchange. You have to balance what is right for you. If you can't live without a specific centralized exchange which classifies coins as tainted, then you just have to accept a complete invasion of your privacy as the price to use that exchange. I would argue that the better option, both for you individually and for bitcoin as a whole, would be to stop giving custom to exchanges who behave like this and instead seek out exchanges which respect your privacy and do not use such meaningless algorithms.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: AB de Royse777 on November 16, 2020, 09:36:14 PM
I am also not a trader, but I think a possible work around is to buy bitcoin in a peer-to-peer manner, and then deposit it to a non-KYC non-privacy invading exchange and trade it against stable coins (although I am also not a particular fan of stable coins, but that's a whole different topic).
This reminds me about a topic I was thinking about from the last few weeks to create. I will come up with it in a day or two or maybe later today. They way BTC price is raising, at some point we may need some stable coins if anyone wants to get benefit from it.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: Joel_Jantsen on November 16, 2020, 11:57:26 PM
Could someone elaborate on how exchanges find out if the source of the coins coming in is through a mixer? Because of the popular mixers like ChipMixer etc? What if I have my own set-up to mix coins? Like I toss them around various sources, convert them to the original source without using any third party mixers, will the centralized exchanges still find out if they're mixed?

As far as the topic goes, if I've done KYC on a centralized exchange, mixing coins would hardly make a difference because a very big portion of my anonymity is already compromised.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: figmentofmyass on November 17, 2020, 12:10:41 AM
Actually, most exchanges are reluctant to providing their users the authority of using mixers while depositing on their platform and I have heard so many news about exchanges stopping and freezing the account and some didn't even release the account as of today.
that has happened several times publicly with coinjoins......any examples of it happening with centralized mixers?
Not deposit, but here's an example: https://twitter.com/PaxosGlobal/status/1222237095009320960 (https://twitter.com/PaxosGlobal/status/1222237095009320960)

that was one of the public examples i was talking about. i know paxos' tweet lumps mixers and coinjoins together, but if you look into the details, the transaction(s) they flagged @RonaldMcHodled for were actually wasabi wallet coinjoins.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: o_e_l_e_o on November 17, 2020, 09:36:43 AM
Could someone elaborate on how exchanges find out if the source of the coins coming in is through a mixer?
If I deposit coins to a mixer, I can watch what happens to those coins for the next couple of transactions. If I withdraw coins from a mixer, I can look back to see where those coins came from for the last couple of transactions. Although I cannot link inputs and outputs, I can be reasonably certain of a few addresses which belong to the mixer, and I can look for other coins passing through those addresses.

What if I have my own set-up to mix coins? Like I toss them around various sources, convert them to the original source without using any third party mixers, will the centralized exchanges still find out if they're mixed?
Depends on what you mean by "various sources". If you are talking about other exchanges, then you are making your privacy worse by doing that, not better.

As far as the topic goes, if I've done KYC on a centralized exchange, mixing coins would hardly make a difference because a very big portion of my anonymity is already compromised.
That's the whole point. Any coins you withdraw from a centralized exchange are linked to your real identity and therefore the exchange knows exactly who you are and what you are spending your coins on. If you mix them after you withdraw them, then your activities can no longer be tracked.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: shield132 on November 17, 2020, 06:43:29 PM
I have not stolen anything or have not done anything illegal however I do not want to let others know that this is my coin, I want to keep everything unknown from others.

Are you saying this is wrong? Protecting my privacy is my basic right.

In your context you sound like something is wrong this is why nothing to hide.
If you want to hide everything, then it's up to you. I don't say that you should never touch the mixer, I say that it's just not so necessary for overall anonymity. Not so necessary because it has it's fees and especially right now, when tx fees are very high, it would cost you a lot.
It's like when people advice: You should use steroids if you want to compete in professional bodybuilding, otherwise - don't touch.
Hope you understand the point.

You know, blockchain is an open book of transactions. Do you have something to hide from anyone? If no, then there is no reason to use mixers.
And clearly this is not the case.
If you want to feel extra secure and have resources and willpower for that, then use mixers! I talk here about average Joe with simple wishes.



From your statement, it looks like on bitcoin transactions there is my full name written across it and there is a full and detailed explanation about my transactions.
If you are using bitcoin which has just been withdrawn from a centralized exchange, then there might as well be. That centralized exchange knows your name, addresses, social security number, and whatever else you told them, and will use blockchain analysis software or third parties to track your bitcoin movements and where else you deposit it or spend it, and more than likely hand that information over to various governments and their agencies.
That's another case, that way you may use the mixer, it's up to you. But if I get freshly mined coins, then what? It's a very personal task in overall and depends on some factors too. For example, current high transaction fees and mixing fees make it hard for some people to use them.
I don't tell you not to use mixer, I just personally think that average Joe doesn't use Tails, VPN, Tor and mixer.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: FinneysTrueVision on November 17, 2020, 07:21:37 PM
It all depends on your circumstances. Doing a lot of common sense things can prevent people from tracking you if you break up the trail among your transactions. Not using KYC services, avoiding creating change, and using new addresses for every transaction can be very helpful.

This brings to mind the question about using Chipmixer. We all know that most chain analysis failed to identify transactions from/to Chipmixer wallets. And with the system of Chipmixer where the user receive chips of private keys/addresses containing the desired amount which has been previously sent to that keys. In this case, isn't evident to send those funds to a personal address then to any centralised exchange ?

Elliptic was able to trace funds from the KuCoin hack as being sent to ChipMixer. As of today we have not heard whether they were able to trace the hackers after that point.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: o_e_l_e_o on November 17, 2020, 07:36:27 PM
But if I get freshly mined coins, then what?
Sure, if you have just mined a block and picked up the block reward anonymously, then there is no need to mix those coins. But the majority of coins people are receiving have gone directly from an exchange, gambling site, or other service at which they have completed KYC, and therefore whatever they do with those coins can and will be linked to their real identity and passed on to countless third parties. If you don't fancy a bunch of unknown third parties sticking their noses in to your financial transactions and activities, then mixing is a good idea.

For example, current high transaction fees and mixing fees make it hard for some people to use them.
I don't want to seem like I'm shilling for ChipMixer (although they are the only mixer I use), but they have a pay-what-you-want model, so it is entirely possible to mix your coins with only one additional transaction fee (so a few cents up to maybe a dollar or two at peak times) than if you did not mix them at all.

I just personally think that average Joe doesn't use Tails, VPN, Tor and mixer.
Agreed, but I am of the opinion that the average Joe should do all these things. Everyone should be taking steps to protect their privacy at all times, especially with so many parties constantly trying to invade and infringe on it. Without privacy there is no freedom.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: aizzaku on November 17, 2020, 07:49:20 PM
I hope everyone here knows what mixing services are, and for those who don't:

BTC mixers work as a medium, a medium that works like an escrow, gives you back your own coins but on your desired addresses and that too, from different places so for you to become non-traceable at your end. Now, these mixers don't know where these coins will be going to, so it's only you who knows about your coins, your addresses and your transactions.

So, what's the reason behind this thread?

Actually, most exchanges are reluctant to providing their users the authority of using mixers while depositing on their platform and I have heard so many news about exchanges stopping and freezing the account and some didn't even release the account as of today. I'm a privacy conscious person and would like to ask you whether I should still use mixers when depositing on an exchange or not.

That is a good question and I have also heard accounts getting flagged after coming from some mixing pools.

Did you check out Samourai? They apparently claim to have tested sending amounts to multiple exchanges and keep it operational without getting flagged.

I believe you might find the podcast talk by them quite interesting. Search for 'SLP209 SAMOURAI WALLET – BITCOIN CULTURE & NEW PRIVACY FEATURES'

Curious to know what do you think as I am also a privacy-conscious person.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: DoublerHunter on November 18, 2020, 07:00:56 AM
~snip~
That is a good question and I have also heard accounts getting flagged after coming from some mixing pools.
^ This what I am afraid for. I have not used a mixer service as well since I have no issue on my previous exchanges and on my gambling activities so it can only be a waste of time and another risk that you will take if you use one. In fact, many investors still didn't use it or have just tried it for once but for convenience and security I prefer not to use it anymore. Nevertheless, if you think it will make you more comfortable and secure you may still use a mixer it always depends on our preferences.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: aizzaku on November 19, 2020, 09:35:17 AM
~snip~
That is a good question and I have also heard accounts getting flagged after coming from some mixing pools.
^ This what I am afraid for. I have not used a mixer service as well since I have no issue on my previous exchanges and on my gambling activities so it can only be a waste of time and another risk that you will take if you use one. In fact, many investors still didn't use it or have just tried it for once but for convenience and security I prefer not to use it anymore. Nevertheless, if you think it will make you more comfortable and secure you may still use a mixer it always depends on our preferences.

plus it does come at a cost and the cost I think will increase over time. Eventually like you mentioned it depends on our preferences. It is also true that it isn't either 1 or 0 but can be a combination within your assets, to choose wisely.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: pugman on November 20, 2020, 11:12:11 PM
Even if they do then how do they confirm that the fund is connected to mixer?

By looking at coin history/lineage for deposits, as well as tracking where coins go once they've been sent from the exchanges to users, i.e. do the coins ultimately go through a CoinJoin mechanism further down the line?

Binance in Singapore, for instance (https://twitter.com/bittlecat/status/1207894540322926593/) froze a user's funds after they were connected with a Wasabi CoinJoin.

Companies like Chainalysis have perfected the art of tracking Bitcoin and Bitcoin users and employ a host of techniques of identifying (Wallets / Entities / Clusters) through all sorts of analysis, which includes co-spending of inputs, change address analysis, amount analysis and unique finger-print style analysis of wallets. This means they are able to identify Gambling website entities and who is who.

CoinJoin transactions, by their very nature, are very easy to identify, even including which type of CoinJoin service you even used.

When exchanges use and integrate these Chain Analysis services into their systems, user's simply get flagged and the exchange is then capable of becoming a bully asking for further KYC checks.

So far, this flagging and policing hasn't been massively prevalent on a wide-scale. But it's possible that it may increase in the future.
This is massively fucked up.

Since I am a noob in this case, I would like to ask you fellow comrades, can y'all give me a few examples of a decent enough decentralized exchange where I can mix my coins? I am a simp for chipmixer, pls help.

Also, very interesting thread, its intriguing and the replies are scaring me off a bit, I won't lie.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: tippytoes on November 20, 2020, 11:17:51 PM
~snip~
That is a good question and I have also heard accounts getting flagged after coming from some mixing pools.
^ This what I am afraid for. I have not used a mixer service as well since I have no issue on my previous exchanges and on my gambling activities so it can only be a waste of time and another risk that you will take if you use one. In fact, many investors still didn't use it or have just tried it for once but for convenience and security I prefer not to use it anymore. Nevertheless, if you think it will make you more comfortable and secure you may still use a mixer it always depends on our preferences.

If you really have no strong reason why you want to use mixer, better not to. Because somewhere along the way, you won't know if the exchange site you will be using in your future transactions will flag down your tx owed to being tied up with mixer. So avoid potential problem, why not avoid it in the first place? If you are worried about your privacy, there are exchanges that have no KYC like BNB or Kucoin, if you are dealing with lower amt of btc daily. Why not take advantage of those top exchanges that don't require KYC instead of using mixers?


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: o_e_l_e_o on November 21, 2020, 08:52:39 AM
can y'all give me a few examples of a decent enough decentralized exchange where I can mix my coins?
I'm not sure I follow what you mean here. You want to use a decentralized exchange to mix your coins? Why would you not just use a tried and tested mixer such as ChipMixer instead? Or do you mean a decentralized exchange which will not discriminate against you for trading mixed coins or mixing your withdrawals?

So avoid potential problem, why not avoid it in the first place? If you are worried about your privacy, there are exchanges that have no KYC like BNB or Kucoin, if you are dealing with lower amt of btc daily. Why not take advantage of those top exchanges that don't require KYC instead of using mixers?
Why not avoid potential problems by avoiding privacy invading exchanges instead? If you are worried about your privacy (which you should be), there are decentralized exchanges like Bisq and Hodl Hodl. The problem with using centralized exchanges like Binance or Kucoin which allow some users to not complete KYC, is that they can and do spring unannounced KYC on their users frequently, freezing your account and seizing your coins in the meantime. Your choice is then to either surrender your privacy or surrender you coins. Why not use mixers and decentralized exchanges, keep your privacy, and completely avoid the risk of some centralized exchange scamming you out of your coins.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: JohnBitCo on November 21, 2020, 11:37:20 AM
I hope everyone here knows what mixing services are, and for those who don't:

BTC mixers work as a medium, a medium that works like an escrow, gives you back your own coins but on your desired addresses and that too, from different places so for you to become non-traceable at your end. Now, these mixers don't know where these coins will be going to, so it's only you who knows about your coins, your addresses and your transactions.

So, what's the reason behind this thread?

Actually, most exchanges are reluctant to providing their users the authority of using mixers while depositing on their platform and I have heard so many news about exchanges stopping and freezing the account and some didn't even release the account as of today. I'm a privacy conscious person and would like to ask you whether I should still use mixers when depositing on an exchange or not.

Lets think of a scenario, You have bitcoins in Wallet A and you create another wallet B. Now you mix the coins and transfer them to the wallet B directly from the mixing service. Now you have got the coins in your wallet B, you can transfer them to any exchanges without any issue. This is the safest way to avoid any complexities at the exchanges.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: imstillthebest on November 21, 2020, 11:58:35 AM
i didnt knew that it can work as an escrow but i remember than an escrow held both funds before releasing them . mixers cant do that afaik but there are mixers that you can set a delay or on what time for your coins to arrive  but using a trusted escrow is what i will still prefer  . for depositing coins to exchange , there is no need to use for mixers . i never hear a hacker that steal coins from someone then depo it to an exchange but they will mostly depo it on the wallet or they will use mixers first .  the reason could be the restriction of exchange is because they think the funds are stolen .


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: MFahad on November 21, 2020, 12:20:22 PM
i didnt knew that it can work as an escrow but i remember than an escrow held both funds before releasing them . mixers cant do that afaik but there are mixers that you can set a delay or on what time for your coins to arrive  but using a trusted escrow is what i will still prefer  . for depositing coins to exchange , there is no need to use for mixers . i never hear a hacker that steal coins from someone then depo it to an exchange but they will mostly depo it on the wallet or they will use mixers first .  the reason could be the restriction of exchange is because they think the funds are stolen .

Bitcoin mixers should not be confused with the escrows. Both are different things with different purposes.
Also you should use mixers if its absolutely necessary to mix your coins to avoid the trace, because in normal circumstances we don't require mixers at all.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: pugman on November 21, 2020, 05:23:44 PM
I'm not sure I follow what you mean here. You want to use a decentralized exchange to mix your coins? Why would you not just use a tried and tested mixer such as ChipMixer instead? Or do you mean a decentralized exchange which will not discriminate against you for trading mixed coins or mixing your withdrawals?

I'm confused, are you looking for:
1. decentralized exchange,
2. decentralized mixer or
3. decentralized exchange which also have mixing protocol (such as PayJoin (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/PayJoin)) ?
I seem to have caused a bit of confusion, let me rephrase:

I am looking for exchanges that won't block my account/amount if I withdraw or deposit the funds using a mixer. That is what I meant. I don't care all that much if I use a centralized exchange but I do care if my funds get blocked by the exchange. Do I make sense to you guys, or am I playing the lead role from Dumb and Dumber?


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: o_e_l_e_o on November 21, 2020, 05:33:07 PM
I am looking for exchanges that won't block my account/amount if I withdraw or deposit the funds using a mixer.
That makes perfect sense. The safest option is to use decentralized, peer to peer exchanges in which the only place you deposit bitcoin to is a multisig escrow address where you share the keys with the party you are trading with. That way, there is no way to freeze your coins if the exchange doesn't like your use of mixers (although true decentralized exchanges obviously don't care what you do with your coins, as it should be).

For trading between fiat and bitcoin or a select few major altcoins, then I would suggest Bisq, Hodl Hodl, or LocalCryptos.

I don't trade shitcoins, so I can't offer a suggestion for a good DEX for them. Be aware that many places which advertise themselves as a DEX are nothing of the sort, though, and simply use it as a marketing tactic.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: pugman on November 23, 2020, 09:13:50 PM
I am looking for exchanges that won't block my account/amount if I withdraw or deposit the funds using a mixer.
That makes perfect sense. The safest option is to use decentralized, peer to peer exchanges in which the only place you deposit bitcoin to is a multisig escrow address where you share the keys with the party you are trading with. That way, there is no way to freeze your coins if the exchange doesn't like your use of mixers (although true decentralized exchanges obviously don't care what you do with your coins, as it should be).

For trading between fiat and bitcoin or a select few major altcoins, then I would suggest Bisq, Hodl Hodl, or LocalCryptos.

I don't trade shitcoins, so I can't offer a suggestion for a good DEX for them. Be aware that many places which advertise themselves as a DEX are nothing of the sort, though, and simply use it as a marketing tactic.
I have recommended LocalCryptos to multiple people because I know its P2P, but is it actually actually good?

Is there at least a decent enough shitcoin hosting decentralized exchange yet?

Also, does binance prohibit its users from using mixers and such??


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: o_e_l_e_o on November 24, 2020, 12:57:14 PM
I have recommended LocalCryptos to multiple people because I know its P2P, but is it actually actually good?
Depends what criteria you are judging it by. If you judge it by how quick it is to make a trade on a centralized exchange such as Binance, then no DEX will ever be better. However, I do like LocalCryptos and would certainly call it a good DEX. They have a nice escrow system in place, which rather than using multi-sig uses a smart-contract like script which allows parties to share secret codes which each other offline or online to be able to sign the release transaction. You can read more about it here: https://blog.localcryptos.com/how-bitcoin-escrow-works/. It has end to end encrypted messaging by default. It's not quite as good as Bisq from a privacy point of view for obvious reasons, but it is still a good exchange.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: figmentofmyass on November 25, 2020, 04:46:16 AM
Also, does binance prohibit its users from using mixers and such??

we need to make a distinction between binance.com and its more tightly regulated fiat exchanges. there was a highly publicized case in late 2019 where a binance.sg (singapore) user had his account frozen for sending coins to wasabi wallet and engaging in coinjoins. in response to all the drama, CZ published a blog. (https://www.binance.com/en/blog/414733786553217024/CZ-on-Regulations-Exchanges--Privacy) if you read between the lines, he is saying binance.com is unregulated and as such, doesn't engage in the same practices:

Quote
As a user, you have choices:

-Use a regulated exchange knowing there will be AML checks running in the background, similar to banks. Please make sure that you're following the laws wherever you reside when it comes to crypto trading. It will save yourself and the exchange a lot of trouble. Moving from one exchange to the next won’t help.

-Use a non-regulated exchange, knowing that there are risks here too. Choose your exchange wisely.

if you look in binance.com's terms, they don't mention mixers or coinjoins. i'm not aware of any issues there yet.

I have recommended LocalCryptos to multiple people because I know its P2P, but is it actually actually good?

in terms of liquidity, it's definitely not like LBC was back in the days, but i've had nothing but good experiences on localcryptos. it's the only place i've been able to find p2p cash trades for the last year or so.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: o_e_l_e_o on November 25, 2020, 09:55:37 AM
if you look in binance.com's terms, they don't mention mixers or coinjoins. i'm not aware of any issues there yet.
Do other centralized exchanges, or even the "regulated" arms of Binance, specifically mention mixers or coinjoins in their terms?

You have highlighted the main issue with using "non-regulated" centralized exchanges: Things can change, and when they do, they often do without warning. Any country in the world could suddenly decide to start clamping down on all exchanges, and the exchanges would respond by either refusing access/locking accounts/freezing coins, or demanding KYC, and give the user no warning whatsoever. This has happened many times before and will happen many times again. Whenever you use any centralized exchange, even ones advertised as no KYC, you take a risk with both your coins and your personal info.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: figmentofmyass on November 25, 2020, 08:35:13 PM
if you look in binance.com's terms, they don't mention mixers or coinjoins. i'm not aware of any issues there yet.
Do other centralized exchanges, or even the "regulated" arms of Binance, specifically mention mixers or coinjoins in their terms?

gemini does define these activities in their user agreement as "conduct violations":

Quote
use on any dark market, ransomware, mixing service (i.e., a mixer or tumbler used to obscure the source of funds), or illegal activity that would violate, or assist in violation of, any Applicable Laws and Regulations (as defined in the ‘Applicable Laws and Regulations’ section), or which would involve proceeds of any unlawful activity.

they're smart enough never to tell customers why their accounts are being closed though, so there are no publicized cases of related account suspensions or terminations.

you're probably correct that explicit mention in the terms doesn't actually matter. some sites probably just lump it under stuff about general BSA compliance or risk mitigation. this clause probably applies in coinbase's case:

Quote
By opening a Coinbase Account, you confirm that you will not use Coinbase Services in connection with any of following businesses, activities, practices, or items:
-High risk businesses: any businesses that we believe poses elevated financial risk, legal liability, or violates card network or bank policies

You have highlighted the main issue with using "non-regulated" centralized exchanges: Things can change, and when they do, they often do without warning. Any country in the world could suddenly decide to start clamping down on all exchanges, and the exchanges would respond by either refusing access/locking accounts/freezing coins, or demanding KYC, and give the user no warning whatsoever.

binance has gotten by for years by constantly jumping jurisdictions (china, japan, hong kong, malta, the seychelles, the caymans, etc) and operating very opaquely, but i do wonder how long the game of cat and mouse can continue. there are only so many tax and money laundering havens in the world.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: pugman on November 27, 2020, 10:45:58 PM
Also, does binance prohibit its users from using mixers and such??

we need to make a distinction between binance.com and its more tightly regulated fiat exchanges. there was a highly publicized case in late 2019 where a binance.sg (singapore) user had his account frozen for sending coins to wasabi wallet and engaging in coinjoins. in response to all the drama, CZ published a blog. (https://www.binance.com/en/blog/414733786553217024/CZ-on-Regulations-Exchanges--Privacy) if you read between the lines, he is saying binance.com is unregulated and as such, doesn't engage in the same practices:

Quote
As a user, you have choices:

-Use a regulated exchange knowing there will be AML checks running in the background, similar to banks. Please make sure that you're following the laws wherever you reside when it comes to crypto trading. It will save yourself and the exchange a lot of trouble. Moving from one exchange to the next won’t help.

-Use a non-regulated exchange, knowing that there are risks here too. Choose your exchange wisely.

if you look in binance.com's terms, they don't mention mixers or coinjoins. i'm not aware of any issues there yet.

I have recommended LocalCryptos to multiple people because I know its P2P, but is it actually actually good?

in terms of liquidity, it's definitely not like LBC was back in the days, but i've had nothing but good experiences on localcryptos. it's the only place i've been able to find p2p cash trades for the last year or so.
I have recommended LocalCryptos to multiple people because I know its P2P, but is it actually actually good?
Depends what criteria you are judging it by. If you judge it by how quick it is to make a trade on a centralized exchange such as Binance, then no DEX will ever be better. However, I do like LocalCryptos and would certainly call it a good DEX. They have a nice escrow system in place, which rather than using multi-sig uses a smart-contract like script which allows parties to share secret codes which each other offline or online to be able to sign the release transaction. You can read more about it here: https://blog.localcryptos.com/how-bitcoin-escrow-works/. It has end to end encrypted messaging by default. It's not quite as good as Bisq from a privacy point of view for obvious reasons, but it is still a good exchange.
Thank you both, its exactly what I wanted to hear. I am looking forward to using LocalCryptos for reals for reals.


On another note, if I withdraw money from these regulated/centralized exchanges, deposit them into a random wallet, then send those funds through a mixer and deposit them into my real wallet, then my account shouldn't be banned. Right? RIGHT? I don't want my account blocked again  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5144742.msg51114017#msg51114017) :'( :'( :'(


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: o_e_l_e_o on November 28, 2020, 12:06:45 AM
On another note, if I withdraw money from these regulated/centralized exchanges, deposit them into a random wallet, then send those funds through a mixer and deposit them into my real wallet, then my account shouldn't be banned. Right? RIGHT?
Yes, no, maybe. These centralized exchanges are neither open nor honest about how they reach the decision to lock an account, about what triggers their automatic algorithms, about how far forward or backwards they trace withdrawals or deposits, and so on. They obviously can't trace every withdrawal ad infinitum, but who knows how many transactions they do trace, and this number will vary between exchanges.

I would expect that a single hop between exchange and mixer, especially if you are just making one-input-one-output transactions, isn't going to make much if any difference to the likelihood of your account being locked. Probably best to find other people who are using the same exchange you are and ask their experiences.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: magneto on November 30, 2020, 08:54:22 PM
I hope everyone here knows what mixing services are, and for those who don't:

BTC mixers work as a medium, a medium that works like an escrow, gives you back your own coins but on your desired addresses and that too, from different places so for you to become non-traceable at your end. Now, these mixers don't know where these coins will be going to, so it's only you who knows about your coins, your addresses and your transactions.

So, what's the reason behind this thread?

Actually, most exchanges are reluctant to providing their users the authority of using mixers while depositing on their platform and I have heard so many news about exchanges stopping and freezing the account and some didn't even release the account as of today. I'm a privacy conscious person and would like to ask you whether I should still use mixers when depositing on an exchange or not.

I'd go through a checklist to ensure that you are making the optimal decision.

Check up on your particular exchange first. Do they have a historical record of suspending accounts that are suspected of using mixed coins? If yes, then consider whether or not you value privacy or the convenience of the exchange more. There is a real chance that you will never be able to use your account there again if you do get suspended. Coinbase comes to mind as one particular culprit - they love to suspend accounts on every possible suspicion.

If there is no historical record of this type of suspensions, mixers are certainly warranted to protect your privacy. Since CM and others offer their services for free anyway, it's worth using it. Just make sure that you still keep a record of all deposits and transactions for tax purposes.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: shield132 on December 01, 2020, 08:03:02 PM
I hope everyone here knows what mixing services are, and for those who don't:

BTC mixers work as a medium, a medium that works like an escrow, gives you back your own coins but on your desired addresses and that too, from different places so for you to become non-traceable at your end. Now, these mixers don't know where these coins will be going to, so it's only you who knows about your coins, your addresses and your transactions.

So, what's the reason behind this thread?

Actually, most exchanges are reluctant to providing their users the authority of using mixers while depositing on their platform and I have heard so many news about exchanges stopping and freezing the account and some didn't even release the account as of today. I'm a privacy conscious person and would like to ask you whether I should still use mixers when depositing on an exchange or not.

I'd go through a checklist to ensure that you are making the optimal decision.

Check up on your particular exchange first. Do they have a historical record of suspending accounts that are suspected of using mixed coins? If yes, then consider whether or not you value privacy or the convenience of the exchange more. There is a real chance that you will never be able to use your account there again if you do get suspended. Coinbase comes to mind as one particular culprit - they love to suspend accounts on every possible suspicion.

If there is no historical record of this type of suspensions, mixers are certainly warranted to protect your privacy. Since CM and others offer their services for free anyway, it's worth using it. Just make sure that you still keep a record of all deposits and transactions for tax purposes.
What happens if I use two wallet. My main wallet is wallet A but I withdraw money from an exchange to wallet B without any 3rd parties but once I receive money on wallet B, I send it to wallet A that has changeable address too. In case I want super extra security, I send money from wallet A to another new primary address, call it wallet "Main A" and in this transaction, I use mixer. Chipmixer gives us the possibility to have chips with different stakes and as far as I know, you can keep them as long as you wish (not right? Then correct me). And then if I receive 1 bitcoin on mixer, I 'll divide it and sometimes send 0.4 btc, or 0.375.
I ask this because as I see some exchanges block addresses that use mixers, personally I have never had such issue with the mixers that I use. That's why I ask, how do you deal with this problem?


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: ChipMixer on December 02, 2020, 12:10:22 AM
Since CM (...) offer their services for free
It is pay-what-you-want.

Check up on your particular exchange first. Do they have a historical record of suspending accounts that are suspected of using mixed coins? If yes, then consider whether or not you value privacy or the convenience of the exchange more.
Reasons to block are many. Morality, gambling, country of origin. If exchange blocks for any reason - consider changing exchange.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: o_e_l_e_o on December 02, 2020, 07:51:53 PM
What happens if I use two wallet. My main wallet is wallet A but I withdraw money from an exchange to wallet B without any 3rd parties but once I receive money on wallet B, I send it to wallet A that has changeable address too. In case I want super extra security, I send money from wallet A to another new primary address, call it wallet "Main A" and in this transaction, I use mixer.
So basically you are going:

Exchange -> Address A -> Address B -> Mixer -> Address C

It's difficult for anyone to say for sure, but as I said in my above comment, if an exchange will block your account if you mix your coins immediately after withdrawal, then I can't imagine that a single extra hop is going to make any difference to that, especially if you are moving all the coins in one without any change.

Chipmixer gives us the possibility to have chips with different stakes and as far as I know, you can keep them as long as you wish (not right? Then correct me).
This is correct. You can also combine and coins you have left on ChipMixer with future deposits to further obfuscate your withdrawals.

That's why I ask, how do you deal with this problem?
I deal with this problem by not using centralized exchanges. You can't have your coins seized if they never leave your control.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: pugman on December 02, 2020, 08:27:23 PM
Yes, no, maybe. These centralized exchanges are neither open nor honest about how they reach the decision to lock an account, about what triggers their automatic algorithms, about how far forward or backwards they trace withdrawals or deposits, and so on. They obviously can't trace every withdrawal ad infinitum, but who knows how many transactions they do trace, and this number will vary between exchanges.

I would expect that a single hop between exchange and mixer, especially if you are just making one-input-one-output transactions, isn't going to make much if any difference to the likelihood of your account being locked. Probably best to find other people who are using the same exchange you are and ask their experiences.
Yeah its extremely annoying that us users can't do anything about "corporate exchanges", but guess one has to live by "It is what it is" meme.

Anyways, thanks for your input on this, I am a teeny bit more aware of how to get things going from now, and a very interesting conversation overall, thanks mate.  :D

Really hope better decentralized exchanges come by, a decentralized version of binance would be really nice, but welp, one can dream.


Title: Re: Should I use mixers?
Post by: shield132 on December 02, 2020, 09:16:04 PM
So basically you are going:

Exchange -> Address A -> Address B -> Mixer -> Address C

It's difficult for anyone to say for sure, but as I said in my above comment, if an exchange will block your account if you mix your coins immediately after withdrawal, then I can't imagine that a single extra hop is going to make any difference to that, especially if you are moving all the coins in one without any change.
Apologize for confusing example.
What I want to say is following: Let's imagine I have dynamic addresses (all of them). Received money from an exchange to wallet A, then sent from wallet A to wallet B, from wallet b - to mixer. From mixer I sent it to my main wallet but what I do is that I split chips and sometimes send 0.3 btc, sometimes 0.7 btc. I collect bitcoins and send different stakes in order to get rid of any suspicion.
I received money on A and sent to B. I'll claim that wallet A is my primary address and I have an unpaid loan of a person that uses wallet B and it's not my job what he does with walelt B.

Also, another reason why that rule is dumb is that what if I want to send btc to my friend and he sends me mixer address? Is it my fault? How should I know whether address belongs mixer or not? Dumb rule!

Anti-money laundering politics is the worst politics ever, worse by the logic behind it. Rich people launder without any resistance :D It's very hilarious, it's a joke.