Bitcoin Exchanges , a "Free" alternative to mixers ?

[OmegaStarScream]

I was really wondering If exchanges could be considered as a free alternative for Mixers like Bitmixer ? Mixers make transactions confusing to whoever is trying to track you , and I guess It's the same thing for exchanges as you don't own your address but there are transactions coming to and going from your address.

I was looking to my address at CoinsBank (AKA bit-x) and I couldn't find much about the addresses I was withdrawing to and there is also transactions that I didn't make in the first place . So yeah , could exchanges be an alternative ? (at least a cheaper/free one)?

[mobilestrike]

I am already using exchanges as alternative of mixers, with my exchange and with my xapo account I do not need any bitcoin mixer system, I think with that service of exchange we do not need any other mixer.

[MingLee]

I was really wondering If exchanges could be considered as a free alternative for Mixers like Bitmixer ? Mixers make transactions confusing to whoever is trying to track you , and I guess It's the same thing for exchanges as you don't own your address but there are transactions coming to and going from your address.

I was looking to my address at CoinsBank (AKA bit-x) and I couldn't find much about the addresses I was withdrawing to and there is also transactions that I didn't make in the first place . So yeah , could exchanges be an alternative ? (at least a cheaper/free one)?

I guess you could argue that they do act as free mixers, however I think it kind of depends on how the exchange operates and what their set-up is for things like that. I guess it would also be considerably harder to track transactions and who owns what, especially for exchanges that have the rotating address set-ups. I personally think that exchanges could be a viable alternative for mixers and so.

[calkob]

your right and i thought that before myself, lets just hope tho that the day you send your bitcoin out that the exchange gets hacked.....lol

[franky1]

from the point of view of blockchain taint. yes exchanges can be considered mixers as you are not usually going to get the same taint you deposited in, when you withdraw.

however if you registered with an exchange using the same username/email/ip as you use for this forum. then its not really anonymous.

so if you were to talk about something illicit on this forum, where what was said here appears to relate to a real life crime.. authorities can check your post history to see if you mention any particular exchange you have talked about and get a court order for all records related to a username that matches yours on the exchange..

most exchanges have a 'order history' where you can see not only the trades but the deposits and withdrawal logs too..
they then know where you withdrew to, to "follow the money" even after you think you removed taint by syphoning it through an exchange

other scenario
you may even have done a bad trade/escrow on this forum with a employee of an exchange you use. and he decides to revenge-doxx you and reveal all bitcoin addresses linked to you.

[gentlemand]

I've been known to get up to this as well and it works fine. I certainly wouldn't do it if my anonymity was vital for whatever reason. They're not in the business of disguising you and I'm sure plenty of logs are kept.

[skylighters]

its not a mixer at all and it is possible to trace the addresses i believe

[richardsNY]

The problem with exchanges is that you get your details attached to the coins you withdraw. Especially when you have verified your account with ID and stuff. Governments forcing an exchange to release information about you is a realistic danger. Mixers such as Bitmixer removes everything related to you and doesn't save logs and stuff. That's the good thing.

[marky89]

its not a mixer at all and it is possible to trace the addresses i believe

1) Use a US IP address (VPN) to register an email address on mail.com.
2) Set up a BTC-E or 1Broker account with VPN using the anonymous email address.
3) Deposit and withdraw coins. In the case of 1broker, wait until your deposit has been sweeped (otherwise they may send the same outputs directly back to you).

Yes, there is a still a point of failure -- the VPN. Use a no-log VPN. Even then, can't be sure. Maybe Tor --> VPN.

[Backside walkaround]

Never used a mixer, never had to (yet).

I was kind of wondering the same thing.  If I send bitcoin to an exchange address, then buy an altcoin (for example)...how is anyone going to track that?  I've heard on other threads that that's how you remain anonymous.  Is that true?

[shinratensei_]

I was really wondering If exchanges could be considered as a free alternative for Mixers like Bitmixer ? Mixers make transactions confusing to whoever is trying to track you , and I guess It's the same thing for exchanges as you don't own your address but there are transactions coming to and going from your address.

I was looking to my address at CoinsBank (AKA bit-x) and I couldn't find much about the addresses I was withdrawing to and there is also transactions that I didn't make in the first place . So yeah , could exchanges be an alternative ? (at least a cheaper/free one)?

That's right because we can generate a new address if we wanna making a transaction of depositing. like we are wanna for depositing into the x site and we can generate a new address for sending them. i think exchanges is simple mixers.

[LordCoder]

its not a mixer at all and it is possible to trace the addresses i believe

1) Use a US IP address (VPN) to register an email address on mail.com.
2) Set up a BTC-E or 1Broker account with VPN using the anonymous email address.
3) Deposit and withdraw coins. In the case of 1broker, wait until your deposit has been sweeped (otherwise they may send the same outputs directly back to you).

Yes, there is a still a point of failure -- the VPN. Use a no-log VPN. Even then, can't be sure. Maybe Tor --> VPN.

Well I guess you need to have blackhat Bitcoins to do that anyways. If you definitely just need to hide from someone (not cops) you'll just use it without proxies.

[Hohenn]

its not a mixer at all and it is possible to trace the addresses i believe

1) Use a US IP address (VPN) to register an email address on mail.com.
2) Set up a BTC-E or 1Broker account with VPN using the anonymous email address.
3) Deposit and withdraw coins. In the case of 1broker, wait until your deposit has been sweeped (otherwise they may send the same outputs directly back to you).

Yes, there is a still a point of failure -- the VPN. Use a no-log VPN. Even then, can't be sure. Maybe Tor --> VPN.

Well I guess you need to have blackhat Bitcoins to do that anyways. If you definitely just need to hide from someone (not cops) you'll just use it without proxies.

Yeah you'd need rather shady sources for those btc and I'm not sure how I feel about it. But in principle using an exchange could perfectly work as a sort of mixer.

[MyBTT]

It's true that exchanges act just like mixers, because they are off-chain. the one key difference is that it's 100% that the exchange is logging your addresses and transactions, especially after the Bitfinex hack. At least with mixers, it's likely that they're legit and don't log anything.

[pooya87]

I was really wondering If exchanges could be considered as a free alternative for Mixers like Bitmixer ? Mixers make transactions confusing to whoever is trying to track you , and I guess It's the same thing for exchanges as you don't own your address but there are transactions coming to and going from your address.

I was looking to my address at CoinsBank (AKA bit-x) and I couldn't find much about the addresses I was withdrawing to and there is also transactions that I didn't make in the first place . So yeah , could exchanges be an alternative ? (at least a cheaper/free one)?

yes and no.
i don't know about bit-x (coinsbank) because they recently changed how their addresses work whereas before it wasn't like this. you deposited in your address and it remained there unlike other exchanges.

but technically it is possible to mix your coins this way and cut the connection and i have done it myself although you have to trust that exchange service to deposit your money and be able to withdraw it afterwards.

[drwtsn32]

You can consider exchanges a cheaper alternative, but not free. They charge transaction fees right?
Aside from that, using exchanges does not satisfy the need of "anonymizing" your coins. Because exchanges require you to provide your identity information.

[Golftech]

You can consider exchanges a cheaper alternative, but not free. They charge transaction fees right?
Aside from that, using exchanges does not satisfy the need of "anonymizing" your coins. Because exchanges require you to provide your identity information.

that's the saddest truth because you needed to provide private info to exchange in order for you to use their service in full and it is not really safe or use as a mixers for your bitcoin mate.

[Herbert2020]

it is not exactly free, and especially not free on coinsbank because they charge a percentage fee (if i am not mistaken it was 0.5% fee) on withdrawals unlike other exchanges where they only charge a fixed 0.0002BTC fee on withdrawals.

but you are right about the rest of it and i have said it before too, exchanges are a good way of mixing coins for the average Joe only.

[Yakamoto]

I was really wondering If exchanges could be considered as a free alternative for Mixers like Bitmixer ? Mixers make transactions confusing to whoever is trying to track you , and I guess It's the same thing for exchanges as you don't own your address but there are transactions coming to and going from your address.

I was looking to my address at CoinsBank (AKA bit-x) and I couldn't find much about the addresses I was withdrawing to and there is also transactions that I didn't make in the first place . So yeah , could exchanges be an alternative ? (at least a cheaper/free one)?

It could probably be argued as to whether or not they are decent when it comes down to being a decent alternative for a mixer, however it definitely is ok when it comes down to making it difficult to take your coins. What goes in will be very hard to find when it comes out. However anyone who has access to the website's data can find out who you are, so it isn't necessarily good unless you take steps to anonymize yourself on the exchange first.

[Backside walkaround]

You can consider exchanges a cheaper alternative, but not free. They charge transaction fees right?
Aside from that, using exchanges does not satisfy the need of "anonymizing" your coins. Because exchanges require you to provide your identity information.

that's the saddest truth because you needed to provide private info to exchange in order for you to use their service in full and it is not really safe or use as a mixers for your bitcoin mate.

What about yobit and such exchanges?   I don't think I had to provide much info at all, but I don't deposit cash.  Just bitcoin and altcoins.  And when I used cryptsy i specifically remember not having to give them anything other than an email addy.  I think the kyc requirements are much less when you don't use cash.