.Govs Now Want to Come After the BTC Mixers

[OROBTC]

...

A global conference in Qatar (there's some irony) on "misuse" of digital currencies is looking to shut down the BTC mixers:

http://bravenewcoin.com/news/wgvc-focuses-on-the-misuse-of-digital-currencies-by-criminals-and-terrorist-financiers/

The BTC mixers are an important part of financial privacy IMO.



(You see, it's always about the terrorists and criminals...)

[JeffBrad12]

The BTC mixers are an important part of financial privacy IMO.
(You see, it's always about the terrorists and criminals...)

The government will be seeing it about the criminals or terrorist tools. 
Nothing is good for the government about the unregulated things.

[Hazir]

They only mentioned mixing services on the deep web, which require TOR browser to access. They didn't say anything about standard mixing services.
But I agree - destroying all kind of mixing services (TOR based or not) is the ultimate goal of authorities. I wonder what they will do against anonymous coins then... banish them completely?

[Cereberus]

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A global conference in Qatar (there's some irony) on "misuse" of digital currencies is looking to shut down the BTC mixers:

http://bravenewcoin.com/news/wgvc-focuses-on-the-misuse-of-digital-currencies-by-criminals-and-terrorist-financiers/

The BTC mixers are an important part of financial privacy IMO.



(You see, it's always about the terrorists and criminals...)

TOR is on the eye of governments since long time, if I recall well since it first was released to the public. They are still fighting TOR in the first place so mixers like BitBlender should be the first target (although I don't think it will be easy to shut down anonymous mixers). I think it's a fight against windmills this one and it will not be successful.

TOR is still the best tool we have about privacy and mixers are a very important tool regarding bitcoin anonymity and very few times TOR was break by the government attacks or agencies, so I think there is nothing to worry for the time being.

[OmegaStarScream]

Darknet marketplaces like DreamMarket and AlphaBay are now considered as less important then Bitcoin mixers now ? It's definitely possible to try but I doubt they will succeed at the end of the day. If TumbleBit takes place in the upcoming months then they could totally forgot about the mixers as they would be the least of their problems.

[OROBTC]

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"Terrorists and Criminals"

The always-convenient excuse by the governments to clamp down on our freedoms.  Look here for what the European Commission is proposing re cash there in Europe:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-27/europe-proposes-restrictions-payments-cash

Yep, terrorism is just an excuse for their idea...  TAXATION and SOCIETAL CONTROL are the real reasons.  Plan accordingly.

[the rise]

The government will strive to regulate all things they can't touch, is true meaning of civilization.

I still can't believe the terrorists (especially in countries of Middle East) using bitcoin as a means of transaction, there was no accurate evidence that leads to it. And I still doubt institutions like Interpol and Europol can't sabotage the Criminals transactions. information technology in middle east region not as advanced as United States and Europe.

I don't believe they use bitcoin (terrorists), especially using BTC mixer.

[xuan87]

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"Terrorists and Criminals"

The always-convenient excuse by the governments to clamp down on our freedoms.  Look here for what the European Commission is proposing re cash there in Europe:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-27/europe-proposes-restrictions-payments-cash

Yep, terrorism is just an excuse for their idea...  TAXATION and SOCIETAL CONTROL are the real reasons.  Plan accordingly.

I agree, the real intention of the government is to control bitcoin and crypto currencies and to taxed the transaction, by using the reason of terrorism the government is trying to regulate bitcoin, and I think the percentage of terrorist using bitcoin maybe is only 1%, most of the time I think they used dollar or gold

[mobnepal]

But BTC mixers don't have to be registered or regulated services so they can't track the owner of those mixing services. I think there is nothing to worry about and even some non-regulated gambling platform can also be used to mix bitcoin.

Accessing mixing services over TOR network will be enough for anyone to hide their identity.

[Gotottack]

I hope they don't push through with it, like you said, it is indeed a necessary financial tool for people to remain anonymous regardless of whether we are using it for illegal or legal activities. But, I don't think they can stop it. There would be a service if there is a demand for it. They'll just hide in the darknet away from prying eyes.

[thepo1m]

I hope they don't push through with it, like you said, it is indeed a necessary financial tool for people to remain anonymous regardless of whether we are using it for illegal or legal activities. But, I don't think they can stop it. There would be a service if there is a demand for it. They'll just hide in the darknet away from prying eyes.

I also don't think they can stop this, as long as their is demand for a service, there will be someone providing such service. Okay, what would they now do with tokens like Monero, Zcash and co. ban all of them or what

[coolcoinz]

I hope they don't push through with it, like you said, it is indeed a necessary financial tool for people to remain anonymous regardless of whether we are using it for illegal or legal activities. But, I don't think they can stop it. There would be a service if there is a demand for it. They'll just hide in the darknet away from prying eyes.

They can do whatever they want and still won't achieve much. Fighting windmills is all they'll be doing, just like their fight against torrent sites. It's been ongoing for years and still if I want to download something from a torrent site it will take me minutes to find and less than an hour to download (couple GB file).

“Their use is expected to increase exponentially in the coming years. And understandably so, since they improve payment efficiency, reduce transaction and fund transfer costs, while facilitating international remittances.”

At least they confirmed it  It's time to buy!

[ivanst776]

A global conference in Qatar (there's some irony) on "misuse" of digital currencies is looking to shut down the BTC mixers:

http://bravenewcoin.com/news/wgvc-focuses-on-the-misuse-of-digital-currencies-by-criminals-and-terrorist-financiers/

The BTC mixers are an important part of financial privacy IMO.

There are many things before they close or shut down the btc mixers, I think that deep and dark market places are more important to investigate rather than bitcoin mixers.

There aren't much bitcoin mixers but these mixers are also good for privacy and not only for an easier way to use bitcoin by criminals.

[OROBTC]

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One of the things the .govs may try to stop (or slow down) BTC is by controlling the "entrance and exit ramps".  Perhaps by banning BTC ATMs for example.  Banning banks & merchants from exchanging BTC for cash is another avenue of attack...

While it would be extremely hard for .gov to KILL Bitcoin, they might be able to make it less private (they hope anyway) and inconvenient to use.  That might accomplish their goal.

The mixers, again IMO, are a key to BTC freedom.

[shield132]

It's different what they want and what will happen. They have no chanse to close bitcoin mixers, every govermant wants to close torrents but as we see there are still many torrents and also there are many leaks but everything continues normally.
Well, bitcoin mixers highly protect privacy, they have tor linked websites and also I believe their servers are in offshore or in poor and alone country.

[ethereumhunter]

sounds interesting to see if the .govs can reach every bitcoin that in the btc mixers and i wonder how they do to pursuit the amount. i think its a good news for bitcoin and bitcoin user because .govs can help bitcoin to clean the illegal activity and .govs can convinced to other people that bitcoin is a safe new investment.

[BitFinnese]

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"Terrorists and Criminals"

The always-convenient excuse by the governments to clamp down on our freedoms.  Look here for what the European Commission is proposing re cash there in Europe:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-27/europe-proposes-restrictions-payments-cash

Yep, terrorism is just an excuse for their idea...  TAXATION and SOCIETAL CONTROL are the real reasons.  Plan accordingly.

It can be both .  But well I guess it is more on taxation and societal control, but giving the benefit of the doubt, it is still hard for them to track down criminal and terrorist  even if mixers were shutdown, it had been their battle ever since and yet they failed miserably again and again.  This is just an excuse to their failure, pointing blame to things that were just recently created to hide their incompetence.

[Zadicar]

Now this is really a bad news for those mixers  out there its either anonymous or not but i believe those non-anonymous mixers should be ready on this in my own view.Government is already making steps on shutting them down because they saw that those mixers could help the anonymity of transferred coins even more,therefore they cant track if someone uses mixers.

[Carmen_Sandiego]

Even if governments compromise the operation of BTC Mixers, users may find other alternatives. I think in the future there will be the possibility that solutions will be developed in Bitcoin sidechains to make transactions more anonymous. From the information I have, through sidechains, many of these features that are seen in anonymous cryptocurrencies may be possible in the Bitcoin network.

[Dmitry.Vastov]

Can they make all bitcoin mixers disappear? I dont think even they can kill all mixers on internet. Theres still available mixers on deepweb. Terrorists can still use it to stay anonimous. Maybe they should go to cryptocurrency. If they ban all cryptocurrencies. Problem solved. But its another fight thats very tough to win. Its government against the world.