Hi. First timer here. I'm a open source developer, data analyst and philosopher. I just need a place to discuss my philosophies so I just drop my load here :-)
I recently followed the traces of some bitcoins on the blockchain. Bitcoin is not anonymous by design, but it should be. So I was thinking of ways to improve it. Some altcoins come with privacy features implemented, but I'm not a fan of filling the world with altcoins. I'm more fond of the idealistic idea to replace all currencies in the world with ONE cryptocoin. Therefore improving bitcoin is better than inventing new altcoins.
The only reasonable way to anonymize bitcoins seems to be mixing/blending/etc. There are some website out there that provide mixing services. They have a few advantages and disadvantages. But most importantly: mixing can only be provided by software developers with certain skills. Comparing it to other 'technical' tasks like 'mining' I'd say mixing is pretty complicated. Considering the fact that mining is right now almost centralised (at least not decentralised in a way, that everyone can join with his computer at home), I'd conclude:
Conclusion 1: Mixing is centralised.
It is provided by very few mostly automated systems. It requires trust, it is hard to find the black sheeps, scammers, useless services (non-mixers) , honeypots and the governmentally controlled ones.
Conclusion 2: We need more mixing services.
So I started my own mixing service, to help out with that demand. But of course I can only mix up to a certain amount. That is the amount I own personally and I'm willing to invest in that service, to create the initial coins, that are needed for the deposit. So I had the idea, to program a fully automated investment platform, where everyone can deposit, the funds are used for mixing and can also be withdrawn at any time (with a surplus of course). But that has certainly been done before right?
But in my opinion that is still shit. Now, I've created just one more service for fill a market with large demand. Even if my service is awesome, and everyone will use it in future, it is even more centralised. And since it has likely been implemented before, it could almost be said:
Conclusion 3: Most mixing services do pretty much the same thing.
So do we really need more of them? I know there are variations like "p2p-mixing websites" or "chipmixing" or "altcoin exchanging". But they have other drawbacks (like sharing private keys) and most importantly are still centralised to that one specific website. So instead of letting everyone become an investor, on websites, that do the same thing, why don't we develop the whole software open source and enable everyone to run it? Are there any ideas around this topic somewhere here on the board?
Conclusion 4: Mixing can be developed as and open source tool, which can be run by everyone.
This could be anything like a windows/linux program which is similar to bitcoin mining. Or it could again be websites. Like an automatic setup for a webservice that published on a .onion-URL and everyone can launch it and invest his own coin without giving them away to other providers. I guess, some mixing providers, get anyway some freshly tumbled stock from time to time by running it through a competing mixing provider. So we could make a P2P mixing system that works by itself, but can also contact other peers to ask for assistance to mix certain funds.
Thoughts?
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