The lagest Bitcoin mixer is about to stop working

[coolcoinz]

Why do you think Bitmixer is closing? obvious, they're forking/messing with Bitcoin, Bitmixer no longer believes in Bitcoin.

They are probably cashing out and jumping ship before the 1st. It's a good moment because people won't be moving and mixing their coins during this unstable activation period, so it's a good moment to wrap up. Every business owner has to ask himself at some point: do I need more money? Is it worth the risk?

[ctor]

Are you planning to open source your software?

[stompix]

Well it is certainly amazing to see an old business that was doing great (according to the owners) shutting down so abruptly.
But that's the decision you made, all it is left for us is to respect it.

I have one single request, if possible, although I'm pretty sure you have already thought of it.

Can you please make sure that for at least one year or two the domain name won't be dropped also, as I doubt the renewal fee would put a financial strain on you ?
By this we can make sure that the name won't be acquired by someone with the intent to profit (scam) based on your hard earned reputation.

[classicsucks]

It is a finance revolution, but not a crime finance revolution.

Bitcoin IS a "crime finance revolution", at least according to the guys who make the banking rules. These same people call everyone else criminals when they are the ones stealing.

[VC George]

Don't worry, we didn't keep logs, we deleted all used wallets, our servers never been seized, we had very strong mixing algorithm. We never collaborated with feds. All our clients are protected. We did our work honesty as described.

About "I'm not a criminal. Why should I mix my coins?". I really believed in this years ago. But look, in 2016 we mixed about 1M bitcoins. What do you think what part of this sum was non criminal? I don't know, we provided just a tool and didn't ask from what source coins coming. But I guess not all of them was clean. I really don't want to earn helping criminals. It is not only personal. Bitcoin couldn't be accepted by general public and governments if it is a crime tool. No, no, no. Fortunately last years appeared special anonymous cryptocurrencies for this purpose. But Bitcoin has another big aims. It is a finance revolution, but not a crime finance revolution.

I've been mixing all of my earnings from Purse.io & LBC trades since day one mate and they don't come from drugs lol. Admit that you took a wrong decision. Privacy is still a thing in 2017 

[gentlemand]

A real shame but a very sensible move.

There's money to be made but who knows how irrational the legal apparatus is going to be if you're tracked down? They'll probably find you a law that's been broken somewhere.

Be thankful that they ran for so long and so successfully and bowed out with class.

[c789]

I'm bitcoin enthusiast since 2011. When we started this service I was convinced that any Bitcoin user has a natural right to privacy. I was totally wrong. Now I grasped that Bitcoin is transparent non-anonymous system by design. Blockchain is a great open book. I believe that Bitcoin will have a great future without dark market transactions. You may use Dash or Zerocoin if you want to buy some weed. Not Bitcoin.

For the reason you're closing your service, as well as for other reasons, I wouldn't recommend Dash or Zerocoin if privacy is a concern (nor would Greg Maxwell or Peter Todd): https://moneroforcash.com/monero-vs-dash-vs-zcash-vs-bitcoinmixers.php

[noise2]

Hi all!
You may use Dash or Zerocoin if you want to buy some weed.

lol. Just use Monero.

[BTCIV]

Don't worry, we didn't keep logs, we deleted all used wallets, our servers never been seized, we had very strong mixing algorithm. We never collaborated with feds. All our clients are protected. We did our work honesty as described.

About "I'm not a criminal. Why should I mix my coins?". I really believed in this years ago. But look, in 2016 we mixed about 1M bitcoins. What do you think what part of this sum was non criminal? I don't know, we provided just a tool and didn't ask from what source coins coming. But I guess not all of them was clean. I really don't want to earn helping criminals. It is not only personal. Bitcoin couldn't be accepted by general public and governments if it is a crime tool. No, no, no. Fortunately last years appeared special anonymous cryptocurrencies for this purpose. But Bitcoin has another big aims. It is a finance revolution, but not a crime finance revolution.

So sorry to see this but I don't understand you. Do you ever think that will ever be a form of payment only used for clean business? Never!

Doesn't matter how is called , cash, bitcoin , monero , or if we go back to barter people will always do illegal or shady business. So it doesn't really matter what form of payment is used , if people want to obtain something they will regardless.

Your morals are good but in the financial system nowbbody cares , soon somebody will take your place and life goes on. I personally think Bitcoin is done anyway for all DM's , big criminals and even tech/paranoid users Monero will see a big increase.

You provided a great service for many years, good luck to you!

[Iranus]

Can you please make sure that for at least one year or two the domain name won't be dropped also, as I doubt the renewal fee would put a financial strain on you ?
By this we can make sure that the name won't be acquired by someone with the intent to profit (scam) based on your hard earned reputation.

This is one of the most important things Bitmixer has to do.  Their domain expires in just a couple of months, so anyone registering it could scam masses of people on Reddit, Bitcointalk, Slack and basically everywhere.  They already do it with copied sites on slightly different domain names, so imagine what power they'd have on the real domain.

Note: I've never used BitMixer so I won't miss it's services. One of the reasons for not using it is that the coins I get back are most likely from someone who's trying to hide worse things than me

When you used Bitmixer, they would give you a "Letter of Guarantee" (mentioned here) so that you could prove that you sent funds to their site (signed message from their address + signed message from you = proof).

If the authorities came knocking, you could just prove to them that you sent your funds to Bitmixer, and therefore that the tied coins were not yours.
As for Bitmixer shutting down because they believe in transparent transactions - oh, woe is me.  I suppose I'll have to use mixers which are exactly the same as them or sometimes better.  What a shame.

[matt11235]

But we never had any government or legal pressure, it is only my own opinion.

Yeahhh. Well, time to stock up on Monero.

[primer-]

There's only one coin in existence today that provides full anonymity - Monero.

[vamos1]

i think NAV and ZENCASH are the best for anonymity 

[c789]

i think NAV and ZENCASH are the best for anonymity 

They don't have privacy by default. That means they're not as private as mandatory privacy (Monero).

[LoyceV]

Note: I've never used BitMixer so I won't miss it's services. One of the reasons for not using it is that the coins I get back are most likely from someone who's trying to hide worse things than me

When you used Bitmixer, they would give you a "Letter of Guarantee" (mentioned here) so that you could prove that you sent funds to their site (signed message from their address + signed message from you = proof).

If the authorities came knocking, you could just prove to them that you sent your funds to Bitmixer, and therefore that the tied coins were not yours.

I've seen it, but I don't think it proves anything as it still requires the authorities to believe BitMixer is honest. I doubt a judge would believe evidence created by the anonymous website that you claim laundered your money into coins wanted for something you claim you didn't do.

[Iranus]

Note: I've never used BitMixer so I won't miss it's services. One of the reasons for not using it is that the coins I get back are most likely from someone who's trying to hide worse things than me

When you used Bitmixer, they would give you a "Letter of Guarantee" (mentioned here) so that you could prove that you sent funds to their site (signed message from their address + signed message from you = proof).

If the authorities came knocking, you could just prove to them that you sent your funds to Bitmixer, and therefore that the tied coins were not yours.

I've seen it, but I don't think it proves anything as it still requires the authorities to believe BitMixer is honest.

For the deposit, it certainly doesn't require that.  The point is for them to sign a message proving that the address you're sending to is owned by Bitmixer.  So as for the funds coming back to you, you can sign a message proving that you own the address that received a transaction of the same amount you send to Bitmixer, if that makes sense.

After that, the authorities can either believe a mixture of cryptographic proof and completely obvious reasoning, believe that Bitmixer stole your money and you just mysteriously received a transaction from a criminal at that time, or believe that you own Bitmixer.  I'd say the former one is the only logical way that they could go.

I doubt a judge would believe evidence created by the anonymous website that you claim laundered your money into coins wanted for something you claim you didn't do.

I don't see why not if you provide evidence that Bitcoin's signed message system is sound and you verify Bitmixer's signature.

[1blockologist]

guys, OP can't admit it but they are under duress.

This is as obvious as it gets and this is their form of warrant canary. OP specifically mentioned those honeypot coin alternatives to simultaneously aid law enforcement create new investigations on users that don't catch on, as well as make it obvious as code words for their duress.

OP didn't say Zerocash, which has the optional opaque feature although nobody uses it properly. OP said Zerocoin.

OP didn't say Monero, which would stifle all law enforcement effort. In fact, no mention of cryptonote technology at all.

The incongruency was worded to be obvious to any body here for some time, but simply cannot say anything to reveal the state action against him. So therefore it is my turn to reveal how that works to help you all.

In response to non-disclosable actions by the government, some operators of tech services just shutter the service. This is what you saw with encrypted mail services in the past that weren't decentralized enough to simply ignore government pressure.

[gentlemand]

guys, OP can't admit it but they are under duress.

This is as obvious as it gets and this is their form of warrant canary. OP specifically mentioned those honeypot coin alternatives to simultaneously aid law enforcement create new investigations on users that don't catch on, as well as make it obvious as code words for their duress.

OP didn't say Zerocash, which has the optional opaque feature although nobody uses it properly. OP said Zerocoin.

OP didn't say Monero, which would stifle all law enforcement effort. In fact, no mention of cryptonote technology at all.

The incongruency was worded to be obvious to any body here for some time, but simply cannot say anything to reveal the state action against him. So therefore it is my turn to reveal how that works to help you all.

In response to non-disclosable actions by the government, some operators of tech services just shutter the service. This is what you saw with encrypted mail services in the past that weren't decentralized enough to simply ignore government pressure.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/6pazth/largest_bitcoin_mixer_bitmixerio_has_decided_to/dknxxfn/

You could well be on to something there.

[john2231]

I was shocked that this mixer with be shutdown because of anonymous transaction and accept the fact that its illegal..
Well i see some other ways right now to use mixing like chipmixer that i hope this one will not shutting down we still need this because gambling here in my country is illegal that i think it can ban our account if we receive bitcoin from gambling..
This is honestly wasn't expected to here from bitmixer well we respect their decision..

[c789]

I was shocked that this mixer with be shutdown because of anonymous transaction and accept the fact that its illegal..
Well i see some other ways right now to use mixing like chipmixer that i hope this one will not shutting down we still need this because gambling here in my country is illegal that i think it can ban our account if we receive bitcoin from gambling..
This is honestly wasn't expected to here from bitmixer well we respect their decision..

The OP is saying that NO bitcoin mixing service can anonymize you. This makes sense because ALL Bitcoin transactions are on a public ledger...even the mixing. It just makes it harder to trace, but they can still be traced. If you want to be anonymous, convert your BTC to XMR (Monero) use Monero, then convert back to BTC if you want.