Are Bitcoin mixing sevices safe?

[prestoriatia]

Hey guys.
I have a question regarding BItcoin mixing services.

Simplified they work kinda like this: I send them my BTCs and they send me someone elses BTCs to destroy the blockchain connection.

My question is this:

Even if they destroy the blockchain connection and i get my coins split to 2 wallets and everything is safe, isn't there a high chance that i just get someone elses "dirty" coins and he gets mine?
Someone washes his crime coins in the mixer and gets the crime coins from someone else or something like that. I hope you get what i mean and someone can clear this up for me.

Thanks

[lukew]

If you put 100 inputs and 100 outputs into a single transaction, there is no way to link one side to the other. I believe this is how a mixer would work, not really needed to look into it though.

[prestoriatia]

thats right but i am more concerned to get tangled up in someone elses crimes

[lukew]

Kind of like tracing cash and finding it was deposited in a bank, then suspecting every customer that ever used that branch in case they had that cash now.

You don't get sent specific coins, at a network level there is no such thing as coins, just values that get moved from private key to private key.

Unless you are doing something dodgy with Bitcoin, there's nothing to worry about.

[HabBear]

How would you get tangled up in someone elses crimes?

Here's how Bitmixer.io does it: https://bitmixer.io/how.html. Bitmixer has been around for years, they're the best and very well established!

You're funneling your coins through a third party so there isn't traceability from your source of coins to your destination.

[shield132]

Bitcoin mixers are for you to feel yourself safe, so that automatically means that you avoid to receive coins used for criminal. A user sends mixers their BTC and we cap it onto the end of our reserve chain. This method of mixing means that you do not have to wait for other customers – coins already mixed are instantly available. That is the main idea of mixers but it's better to see what every mixer offers to you, that was quoted from bitmixer.

[prestoriatia]

Oh okay thanks a lot guys!

[ivanst776]

My question is this:

Even if they destroy the blockchain connection and i get my coins split to 2 wallets and everything is safe, isn't there a high chance that i just get someone elses "dirty" coins and he gets mine?
Someone washes his crime coins in the mixer and gets the crime coins from someone else or something like that. I hope you get what i mean and someone can clear this up for me.

I understand your question, you are afraid that you will receive dirty bitcoins from someone else that have used the bitcoin mixer in the past before you.

This is possible but we don't know how much is the probability because we don't know how much and who is going to mix the bitcoins.

Not all people use bitcoin mixers to mix their dirty coins, but they use also for privacy, but the reserve of these bitcoin mixers is very large and I hope you will receive clean coins.

[dothebeats]

So you're worried about these tainted coins that might be sent to you due to the mixing process eh? That's not how it works afaik. Mixing services already has their own reserve coins in their arsenal ready to be sent to the user if in case the user of the service decided to mix their coins. As simple as that, no need to worry about receiving tainted coins since mixing services got you covered and they already figured that out before you made the question into your head.

[Babayega31]

I would gladly say that bitcoin mixing services is safe because its the same coins being mixed and even though there were dirty coins together, but important is they passed the mixing process yet it is safe already to be use in the system. So we have to worry of anything, and I know that the incharge of the mixing services has the very most trusted softwares to do the process smoothly for us who let have coins being mixed.

[DomainMagnate]

thats right but i am more concerned to get tangled up in someone elses crimes

No.You will get fraction of various peoples bitcoin and not any considerable amount from one single account.Therefore even if you get some evil coin,chances are you will get very little of it

[South Park]

You will not receive the coins of just another user, you will receive your coins from many addresses so even if some of those coins could be traced to some shady business you will only get a small fraction of it, so there is no point worrying about it.

[cpfreeplz]

The thing is, when you're using a mixer even if you receive tainted coins everyone knows it came from a mixer so they aren't really tainted coins. It sort of puts a break in the blockchain because you'll have to do some guesswork to see who was actually making a transaction at any given time.

[Yakamoto]

<snip>

Most of the time mixers will just mix it up with a lot of other coins, it rarely comes from a single source and it is incredibly doubtful that anyone would end up getting the entirety of someone else's "dirty" coins or anything.

Plus, like mentioned above, a majority of places have other coins available and will send those, and you'll just end up with a mix of old coins or something else. There are rarely instances where a mixer has to wait for another transaction to come in specifically.

[JL421]

Yeah as far as I remember they are safe as I suppose they mix your coins with other coins or something. I don't know much as I only used them once what I did was use two mixing sites to make sure no traces are left.

[20kevin20]

The thing is, when you're using a mixer even if you receive tainted coins everyone knows it came from a mixer so they aren't really tainted coins. It sort of puts a break in the blockchain because you'll have to do some guesswork to see who was actually making a transaction at any given time.

It's an extra security and privacy measure. I don't use my Bitcoins because I don't want to for now, but I love for example how you can do this with Monero. You don't need to do a crime to need privacy. I just don't like being tracked or so... Mixing the transactions up makes it harder for the amount of money to be tracked. The more transactions there are mixed, the better your privacy stays protected.

[crairezx20]

I think they are not destroying the blockchain connection they are just use the serve bitcoin that already in their wallet and send to your target wallet address.. you are just send your amount you want to send and it will be preserve and then the reserve bitcoin they will send it in the target wallet address.
Its safe and i think you will never get crime address or what you are thinking ..

[pooya87]

a mixer literary mixes the coins, you never get coins directly from other person's deposit. when you deposit it goes to the mixer's wallet (reserve) and the link is broken multiple times and you get the end another coin that is from a mixture (not possible to track) of coins and it is no longer possible to go back to the source if you check the coins you received in the end.

[chennan]

So you're worried about these tainted coins that might be sent to you due to the mixing process eh? That's not how it works afaik. Mixing services already has their own reserve coins in their arsenal ready to be sent to the user if in case the user of the service decided to mix their coins. As simple as that, no need to worry about receiving tainted coins since mixing services got you covered and they already figured that out before you made the question into your head.

The thing about mixing is that technically, it should be considered to be an objective fact that the coins were mixed well or not... but in all reality it comes down to the fact that it's actually very subjective.

The mere fact that with bitcoin it is technically possible for people to see that coins came from wallet A to wallet B presents a massive problem, whether you want to see it that way or not.  Coinbase, or any other exchange, are technically able to shut down your account on the mere assumption that you received coins from a wallet they deem as "sketchy"... that is a major problem in the fundamentals of bitcoin, or any decentralized currency system.  Blockchain analysis will only get worse as time goes by, and if we rely on centralized sources as exchange sites, then we will see major issues with the on/off ramp to bitcoin<->fiat.  Having/holding bitcoin as a store of wealth out of the fiat system is one thing, but to say that it can be used as a fungible currency is nonsense.

[ImHash]

So you're worried about these tainted coins that might be sent to you due to the mixing process eh? That's not how it works afaik. Mixing services already has their own reserve coins in their arsenal ready to be sent to the user if in case the user of the service decided to mix their coins. As simple as that, no need to worry about receiving tainted coins since mixing services got you covered and they already figured that out before you made the question into your head.

The thing about mixing is that technically, it should be considered to be an objective fact that the coins were mixed well or not... but in all reality it comes down to the fact that it's actually very subjective.

The mere fact that with bitcoin it is technically possible for people to see that coins came from wallet A to wallet B presents a massive problem, whether you want to see it that way or not.  Coinbase, or any other exchange, are technically able to shut down your account on the mere assumption that you received coins from a wallet they deem as "sketchy"... that is a major problem in the fundamentals of bitcoin, or any decentralized currency system.  Blockchain analysis will only get worse as time goes by, and if we rely on centralized sources as exchange sites, then we will see major issues with the on/off ramp to bitcoin<->fiat.  Having/holding bitcoin as a store of wealth out of the fiat system is one thing, but to say that it can be used as a fungible currency is nonsense.

Sorry but your logic is down with cold or something if you feel they can shut down your wallet because of sketchy activities then don't use their services and stop blaming bitcoin.
On topic now, what happens if I get some coins and then someone comes at my door and shoots me in the head thinking that I was the one involved in a theft or any other imaginary criminal activity?
you are probably receiving some newly generated coins because mixers like BitMixer.io are constantly renewing their reserves, yes you'll no longer find any 2 years old bitcoin in their reserve since they are not idle with their coins you know I believe they are very active trading and manipulating inputs and outputs to completely wash their vault clean.