How does ChipMixer make money?

[BlackHatCoiner]

The famous and most well-paid signature campaign, ChipMixer, is giving away approximately 1 bitcoin every week, which means ~$12k to the participants that advertise it. At least this is what I see from the spreadsheet.

The question is, how does this website survive? I mean, I've seen that they don't ask for money if you want to mix your bitcoins. They only accept donations from your chip purchase. I can't imagine that they're making more than 1BTC every week, except if there's a huge number of people that want to support it by donating, but this seems too promising. In order to pay 0.00075BTC for each post, it means that they're earning a lot more.

So what really happens behind ChipMixer? Am I missing anything?

[suchmoon]

The question is, how does this website survive? I mean, I've seen that they don't ask for money if you want to mix your bitcoins. They only accept donations from your chip purchase. I can't imagine that they're making more than 1BTC every week, except if there's a huge number of people that want to support it by donating, but this seems too promising. In order to pay 0.00075BTC for each post, it means that they're earning a lot more.

The chips are available only in certain denominations and the minimum is 0.001. For privacy reasons it's advisable to send an amount that doesn't match a chip size exactly and is not rounded to 3 decimal spots so in theory everyone should donate at least something since privacy would seem to be kind of important if you're mixing... obviously not everyone really does but I guess there's enough for them to sustain the business and the promotion.

[bL4nkcode]

I have a feeling that only chipmixer can answer this, else anyone trying to guess their daily stat of donations or earning, and you don't need to create a new thread regarding this, they have their own ann thread and op is actively answering relevant questions. As for the business, surely there's enough funds for them to sustain their signature campaign.

[Lucius]

So what really happens behind ChipMixer? Am I missing anything?

We all know that money does not grow on trees, and also those who are a little better informed know that CM has the highest reputation among such services, and is therefore the most used - which ultimately means that it profits the most, and therefore can pay promotion fixed 0.00075 BTC per post regardless of the price that BTC has on the market. I can’t speculate how much BTC goes through CM per week - but I’m sure it’s not about small numbers.

Nothing happens except that you do not understand the size of this service - and that there are millions of BTC on the market whose owners use CM and leave very generous donations as a token of gratitude. For someone who mixes 1000 BTC it’s no wonder to leave 1 BTC as a donation, and that donation can pay for a campaign for an entire week or even more.

[TryNinja]

Chips also have a weird format. For example, if you send 1.024 BTC but don't want such uncommon amount in a chip, you can donate the .024 and withdrawal an 1 BTC chip. That's an 2% fee/donation that goes to ChipMixer.

I bet a lot of people do that since 2% is less than the maximum percentage that most mixers charge. You can use a reputable service and pay no fee at all and maybe leave an optional small amount (a small 0.001 chip, a bigger one or just the 2% difference), or you can try your luck at a random less known mixer that charges an obligatory fee.

I have received big tips just for helping people on the forum and I haven't even done much. Now imagine what a whale guy leaves as a "thank you" gift for a service he likes that charges no direct fee...

But anyways, why do you care about how they make money? Posting how much they make or mix doesn't sound like a good idea. There are no scam accusations, so they aren't stealing anyone. This probably means that if they are still alive, they must be profitable.

[PrimeNumber7]

If someone deposits 0.512 btc and withdraws exactly 0.512 in one or more chips, there would be a limited number of output transactions that are associated with their withdrawal. However, if someone were to deposit 0.512 and withdraws 0.511 btc, the number of possible withdrawal transactions goes up. The bigger the difference between the deposit amount and withdrawal amount, the more difficult it will be for an outside observer to make the connection between the deposit and withdrawal transactions.

The reason why someone would use a mixer is that they want privacy and the larger the donationfee they choose to pay, the more privacy they will have.

[o_e_l_e_o]

For privacy reasons it's advisable to send an amount that doesn't match a chip size exactly and is not rounded to 3 decimal spots

Genuine question: Does this matter if I make a donation, though? Let's say I deposit exactly 0.128 BTC. I then decide to donate 0.002 BTC and withdraw a 0.064, a 0.032, a 0.016, a 0.08, a 0.04, and a 0.02 chip in a couple of different transactions over the space of a few days. Does it make any difference to my privacy that I've deposited 0.128 BTC as opposed to 0.12745902 BTC?

I have a feeling that only chipmixer can answer this

I'd be quite happy if they didn't. The less they reveal about the amount of money they handle and the amount of profit they take, then the better the privacy for all their users.

[PrimeNumber7]

For privacy reasons it's advisable to send an amount that doesn't match a chip size exactly and is not rounded to 3 decimal spots

Genuine question: Does this matter if I make a donation, though? Let's say I deposit exactly 0.128 BTC. I then decide to donate 0.002 BTC and withdraw a 0.064, a 0.032, a 0.016, a 0.08, a 0.04, and a 0.02 chip in a couple of different transactions over the space of a few days. Does it make any difference to my privacy that I've deposited 0.128 BTC as opposed to 0.12745902 BTC?

Depositing 0.128 is the same as depositing 0.12845902 BTC for someone trying to find your withdrawal transaction. Anyone looking at the blockchain will be looking at the same subset of transactions because you cannot withdraw the remaining 0.00045902 btc, and it would be ignored.

To maximize privacy, you should donate at least one chip from your deposit. The more chips you donate, the greater your privacy.

[suchmoon]

Genuine question: Does this matter if I make a donation, though? Let's say I deposit exactly 0.128 BTC. I then decide to donate 0.002 BTC and withdraw a 0.064, a 0.032, a 0.016, a 0.08, a 0.04, and a 0.02 chip in a couple of different transactions over the space of a few days. Does it make any difference to my privacy that I've deposited 0.128 BTC as opposed to 0.12745902 BTC?

If you can afford to wait a few days (or more accurately - until a large number of other chips of same or smaller size has been redeemed) does it matter at all if you donate? It would seem that you can achieve any anonymity set size just by waiting long enough.

I've always (possibly mistakenly) assumed that most people use mixed funds immediately and that's a higher privacy risk... that can be reduced by donations.

[ChipMixer]

I've seen that they don't ask for money if you want to mix your bitcoins. They only accept donations from your chip purchase.

We use "Pay what you want" as pricing strategy. It mean you set how much value our service is to you. Many bitcoin owners value privacy and trust we give them.

To maximize privacy, you should donate at least one chip from your deposit. The more chips you donate, the greater your privacy.

Donations are better for privacy as nobody knows how much you will withdraw. But choice how much and when is even better. Today donate less, tomorrow donate more and in between you can keep voucher to alter withdrawal amounts.

[BayAreaCoins]

Chip Mixer has a 6% house edge game too right?

It's the highest house edge of any Bitcoin gaming I can think of off the top of my head... even higher than FreeBitco.in's dice game.

[Yogee]

......But anyways, why do you care about how they make money? Posting how much they make or mix doesn't sound like a good idea.

Another member asked a general question about signature campaigns few days ago https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5283463.msg55422065#msg55422065 BlackHatCoiner could have taken the idea from there.

[TryNinja]

Chip Mixer has a 6% house edge game too right?

You are two years late. They disabled their "casino" a long time ago.

Betting function has been disabled and will be removed soon.

[BayAreaCoins]

Chip Mixer has a 6% house edge game too right?

You are two years late. They disabld their "casino" a long time ago.

Betting function has been disabled and will be removed soon.

Better late than never!

It's still on their homepage and FAQ.

[ultrloa]

I'm also curious about this before but never tried to ask since I think it's awkward to ask a company revenue since this is I think private matters. But since Chipmixer already answer the question by OP better to lock this thread to avoid any unnecessary post from the other users here.
 
Check the quoted messaged which is the answer of CM if you miss to read it OP.

I've seen that they don't ask for money if you want to mix your bitcoins. They only accept donations from your chip purchase.

We use "Pay what you want" as pricing strategy. It mean you set how much value our service is to you. Many bitcoin owners value privacy and trust we give them.

To maximize privacy, you should donate at least one chip from your deposit. The more chips you donate, the greater your privacy.

Donations are better for privacy as nobody knows how much you will withdraw. But choice how much and when is even better. Today donate less, tomorrow donate more and in between you can keep voucher to alter withdrawal amounts.

[MuffinMaster]

I don't understand what you don't understand
If, in a result of the advertising campaign, new customers come to the company, and those who have already started using it earlier remain because they like the service, it means that everything is fine.
If the number of customers and profits they generate for the company allow Chipmixer to pay for such a campaign on Bitcointalk, then participants should be happy.
They invest money in advertising -> advertising attracts customers -> customers generate profit -> profit is greater than costs.
This is how business works.

[mk4]

I can't imagine that they're making more than 1BTC every week, except if there's a huge number of people that want to support it by donating, but this seems too promising. In order to pay 0.00075BTC for each post, it means that they're earning a lot more.

Well, yea. If their signature campaign didn't actually help their website gain more visitors and users, they would've closed the campaign already. There's a reason why 3 years later the campaign is still up— because they're making more than they're paying their participants.

[dkbit98]

Bitcointalk is obviously number one cryptocurrency forum, and maybe some of the owners of Chipmixer are one of the first bitcoiners and forum members also.
Even if they don't earn so much today, they are helping and increasing privacy for everyone, and I am sure they earned enough btc so far.
Noble mission for sure, and nearly impossible to reach for any other mixer competition.
That is just my wild theory, and I can be totally wrong

[Lordhermes]

I kept wondering in this scenario about how this chipmixer pays this huge sum of money to participants weekly, so I definitely think they somehow generates excess money every week, however, I have a feeling that bitcoin mixing services gets more revenue or income than gambling services, I'm open for correction if I'm wrong.
But here is my simple question, so many campaigns claiming to be mixing bitcoin have been launched on the forum, why can't they pay as much as chipmixer does,? also their campaign duration isn't lasted than chipmixer, what's the strategy used by chipmixer over other mixing services?

[stadus]

They are making money from fees, no business would operate without making money and no business would spend a huge amount for advertising if they are not making more than they spend, but in terms of figure, it's only chipmixer can answer that, but only one thing is certain, they are not giving free money though they are very generous with their signature campaign.