Bitcoin Exchanges , a "Free" alternative to mixers ?

[deisik]

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.

But exchanges keep your record which defeats the purpose of mixing.What do you mix your coins for? to keep them anonymous obviously but do you think your identity keeps anonymous when you use exchanges?

It all depends on whom you are trying to hide your transactions from. It is quite possible that using an exchange outside of the US jurisdiction (say, in China) may be a safer way to mix (hide) your coins than using a US based mixing service if you aim, for example, at tax evasion in the US...

Anyone who ain't paranoid simply ain't paying attention

[useless4]

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.

But exchanges keep your record which defeats the purpose of mixing.What do you mix your coins for? to keep them anonymous obviously but do you think your identity keeps anonymous when you use exchanges?

you are right, i never use exchanges as mixers because i know that it is impossible to be completely anonymous with it to be honest

[alisus]

I also have used the exchange as an alternative mixer!
 with the exchange and with VIP Bitcoin accounts that exist in Indonesia
I do not need bitcoin system mixer
I think with that we do not need to exchange services other mixer.

[Senor.Bla]

There are more things to consider. Why do you want your Bitcoins mixed? Just to hide it from your Mother, so she does not see what you buy? This would seem safe to me, at least regarding the privacy. But Exchanges will keep book of your addresses and if the right authority (or for some other reason someone else) comes into possession of those book, then your privacy is gone. But there is more to consider. It is an additional risk to have Bitcoin at exchanges. A hack might be the obvious but unlikely risk, but there are problems from time to time if you want to withdraw again from the exchange. Just be aware of that.

[ImHash]

I also have used the exchange as an alternative mixer!
 with the exchange and with VIP Bitcoin accounts that exist in Indonesia
I do not need bitcoin system mixer
I think with that we do not need to exchange services other mixer.

I don't think anybody cares whether or not you mix your coins if you have got any at all, mixers are a solution to hide the origins of your coins. If you are mining large amounts daily and don't want anyone to find your location by tracing the mined bitcoins you can use BitMixer.io so they receive the mined coins on your behalf and with different fees and timing send some other coins to as many addresses as you instruct them to send.
There is no use for average joes in mixing their few bucks worth of bitcoins.
When you send your coins to mixer they become the decoy while you already done your trades and finished those tracking you still busy thinking they are on your tail.

If you are a miner and don't want to pay tax when you decide to exchange into fiat a mixer is also your solution.

And of course a mixer is only good if they are trusted especially with large amounts.

[bob123]

Its not really anonymous mixing if you have your name associated to the deposit of your BTC.
You may get other BTC's than you deposited.. but there is still the association of your Name (or at least of your account)
and your coins.
A Mixer gives you the opportunity to get "clean" coins to your address without any association to your old ones (or to your name).

But if you got your coins without any illegal activities.. i guess you can use those exchanges as a kind of Mixer..

[OmegaStarScream]

Its not really anonymous mixing if you have your name associated to the deposit of your BTC.
You may get other BTC's than you deposited.. but there is still the association of your Name (or at least of your account)
and your coins.
A Mixer gives you the opportunity to get "clean" coins to your address without any association to your old ones (or to your name).

But if you got your coins without any illegal activities.. i guess you can use those exchanges as a kind of Mixer..

I know mixers are probably a better way but both gambling sites and exchanges usually don't require any names unless you want to use fiat for trading etc... It's never needed to provide your personal info when you trade between crypto only. CoinsBank , Poloniex are both an example for that.

[deisik]

Its not really anonymous mixing if you have your name associated to the deposit of your BTC.
You may get other BTC's than you deposited.. but there is still the association of your Name (or at least of your account)
and your coins.
A Mixer gives you the opportunity to get "clean" coins to your address without any association to your old ones (or to your name).

But if you got your coins without any illegal activities.. i guess you can use those exchanges as a kind of Mixer..

I know mixers are probably a better way but both gambling sites and exchanges usually don't require any names unless you want to use fiat for trading etc... It's never needed to provide your personal info when you trade between crypto only. CoinsBank , Poloniex are both an example for that

This is only if you are going withdraw amounts below some fixed limit (per day)

I'm not sure about CoinsBank (and they may in fact have stricter rules in this regard), but I well remember the day when Poloniex set such limits. I don't know about right now (I don't actively trade there nowadays), but back then it was about 1k worth of dollars allowed to withdraw daily without proper identification of yourself

[splitups]

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)?

in a way, yes it's mixing for a small fee for withdrawing however, there are few issues with that:

- most exchanges (I know bitstamp and btc-e) do not welcome you doing that at all, no rigid rules but a possibility to be asked for ID, address particularly for large amount, altcoin exchanges don't mostly though.

- There are records of everything, the main thing about mixers is not keeping any records for the exchange, but here there are records for the incoming and the outgoing tx's accessible for the website, as well as even potential identity information, Therefore people doing mixing for large orders would mostly prefer using mixers and paying rather than exchanging websites.

[deisik]

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)?

in a way, yes it's mixing for a small fee for withdrawing however, there are few issues with that:

- most exchanges (I know bitstamp and btc-e) do not welcome you doing that at all, no rigid rules but a possibility to be asked for ID, address particularly for large amount, altcoin exchanges don't mostly though.

- There are records of everything, the main thing about mixers is not keeping any records for the exchange, but here there are records for the incoming and the outgoing tx's accessible for the website, as well as even potential identity information, Therefore people doing mixing for large orders would mostly prefer using mixers and paying rather than exchanging websites

I wouldn't harbor much hope on this

I remember when some dude involved with mixer services admitted here that mixers do keep logs (at least, for some time) of all transactions that they have processed. This is required if a dispute should arise between the service and their clients. Other than that, if a mixer is taken over by some government security agency (or even created by them), they will keep all logs of all activity. If you are in a money-laundering business and that's for real, you might not want to have any delusions on this account, I mean that they don't keep records (but that you would know yourself)