Mixers under the threat?

[xenon131]

4

[1714233182]

1714233182

[Lorence.xD]

Mixers attract this kind of malicious activities so I guess that they should be held responsible for their actions. But I believe that they should have a lighter sentence because it's not like they have a really big involvement with the laundered money or illegal funding.

[mk4]

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Mixing services get pushed and threatened by authorities. But as for now, it seems that all the issues are in the United States (as far as I know). I really won't really be surprised if mixing services get pushed to the dark web sometime in the future.

[Jating]

Mixers have been under threat since 2017, either they are being pressured to shut down their services or government agencies criminalising them, so this is no surprise specially coming from the US.

So this has set a precedence already way back, so it's just a question on what tumbling services will be the next target. And since bitcoin is on a bull run, US government is stepping up against bitcoin mixing service again.

First Bitcoin “Mixer” Penalized by FinCEN for Violating Anti-Money Laundering Laws.

[ABCbits]

Mixers has always been under threat, there are few reputable mixers closed because they think their time is almost up or stopped by government (e.g. the operator arrested or take control over the server). This is one reason why CoinJoin gaining popularity.

[avikz]

I am sure it's not the first time crypto mixers are under threat from the authorities. In past we have seen such actions on few other crypto mixers like Helix and Coin Ninja. There could be more and I am sure such kind of actions will continue to surface every now and then.

Cryptos and privacy coins are really a great headache to the financial regulators around the world. So I don't see such actions stopping at any point of time.

[hazenyc]

Not the first time these news come to be known these days. There have been other mixers as well as far as I know that behaved maliciously recently. It's risky to use those services for as long as they aren't fully automated via smart contracts.

[arabspaceship123]

Mixer owners aren't responsible for each mix but they've facilitated anonymous mixing and it's possible criminals used it. Governments clamp down against mixers could've started years ago because they're options for criminals to launder money, it's happened with Bitcoin Fog so others could be next.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Mixing services get pushed and threatened by authorities. But as for now, it seems that all the issues are in the United States (as far as I know). I really won't really be surprised if mixing services get pushed to the dark web sometime in the future.

[bryant.coleman]

Not really surprised with this news. Those who have been around here may remember about what happened to Bestmixer.io. The operators were arrested and jailed for aiding money laundering and other criminal activity. The authorities can never be comfortable with any sort of Bitcoin mixing mechanism. It goes diametrically against their goal of tracking each and every financial transaction in this planet. Anyway, I would say that it is good that for now they are concentrating on the mixers. But I am afraid that they will go after the Dex sites, once they are done with the mixers. And the mainstream exchanges may be next.

[kryptqnick]

I think this depends on a country and its regulations. The US is known to treat BTC quite strictly, and I wouldn't be surprised if mixers are already illegal there. To be honest, I haven't seen any research on who actually users mixers and for what. I think that to make decisions like banning mixers or limiting their operations, there must first be research available that proves they're mainly used for illegal purposes. I've never used mixers because I haven't felt the need to do it, but I'm also not sure that they're mostly used to serious criminals.

[mk4]

Mixer owners aren't responsible for each mix but they've facilitated anonymous mixing and it's possible criminals used it. Governments clamp down against mixers could've started years ago because they're options for criminals to launder money, it's happened with Bitcoin Fog so others could be next.

There's a good chance that it's simply just because it's not on their radar yet, knowing that it's a safe assumption that only a very small minority use mixing services. Of course, I could be wrong.

[DdmrDdmr]

This is the document that has been filed (13 pages long):
https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.230456/gov.uscourts.dcd.230456.1.1_2.pdf

The agent behind the investigation depicts the facts that he found, that support the three charges. A few key points:
-   Bitcoin Fog has been active since 2011.

-   Even though there is a clear site for visibility, the service seems to be Tor based.

-   Over 1,2M BTCs have been mixed through the service (chain-analysis forensics data).

-   They identify as the largest senders through the service Agora, Silk Road, Evolution and AlplhaBay.

-   The site was originally announced … on Bitcointalk (see https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=50037.msg596034#msg596034). Reading through, it’s clear that the officer in charge read all the related posts on the forum (warning for others).

-   An undercover direct TX was sent to the Mixer in September 2019, and on November 2019 another controlled TX, being the latter originated from an undercover account on Apollon darknet market. They also sent a message to the admin to indicate that they were going to mix BTCs obtained through illegal activity.

-   Sterlingov used the same email on his Bitcointalk account, as that to register the mixer domain. He paid for the domain using a Liberty Reserve account (a Costa Rica currency Exchange). The document depicts how they linked that to a Mt. Gox account (multiple steps in-between), and yes, they got access to IP logs to help tie things around (Liberty Reserve and, apparently Mt.Gox). Also records from Google were used in the loop…

So information dating back nearly a decade ago, and some sweet collaboration, managed to identify Sterlingov, and tie him to the Mixer…

[Trixoempire]

There will always be mixes they will be just opened on anonymous name/onion domins if this come to this point.

[bitmover]

Mixers has always been under threat, there are few reputable mixers closed because they think their time is almost up or stopped by government (e.g. the operator arrested or take control over the server). This is one reason why CoinJoin gaining popularity.

Exactly what I was going to say.

Coinjoins are just an open source software. Authorities cannot open source software, they cannot control people coding at home.

They cannot control where I store my bitcoins, and if I use some software like coinjoin we can still have some privacy.

[mk4]

There will always be mixes they will be just opened on anonymous name/onion domins if this come to this point.

I guess, but take note that reputation isn't something that people could replicate. People wouldn't use just some random service that just popped up, just as how people probably wouldn't immediately use a newly released wallet software.

[Trixoempire]

There will always be mixes they will be just opened on anonymous name/onion domins if this come to this point.

I guess, but take note that reputation isn't something that people could replicate. People wouldn't use just some random service that just popped up, just as how people probably wouldn't immediately use a newly released wallet software.

They are plenty of reliable mixers on onion domain rn those unlikely to be shut down.

[harapan]

I knew that one day it would come to this point. Mixers were created to allow people to make their bitcoin transactions more private and anonymously but somehow bad actors took advantage of these services for their shady activities. If authorities are out to get mixing service providers then I think, this should serve as a warning to other mixing services. The first step to create an anonymous service is to be anonymous yourself. Too bad for Bitcoin fog owner. He'll be charged with multiple counts. I'm not sure how the authorities plans to sort out users of such services.

[dkbit98]

If Bitcoin is not money like United States regulations claims but Security and virtual currency, how can someone be charged for Money Laundering when no money was involved, but just mixing of coins?
Privacy is basic human right and people will always work on solutions to make Bitcoin more private.

Reading through, it’s clear that the officer in charge read all the related posts on the forum

Funny thing is that only way they could do something like this is with some undercover agents pretending to ask for help or private message communication, something we often see in bitcointalk forum.
You can see that charges are for Money Laundering - STING operation, and I don't think that Sterlingov was very smart with choosing to live in United States so that was big risk from his side when he was not a US citizen.

Coinjoins are just an open source software. Authorities cannot open source software, they cannot control people coding at home.

They cannot control where I store my bitcoins, and if I use some software like coinjoin we can still have some privacy.

I don't think that Coinjoins are much better solution for privacy especially when Bitcoin fees are higher, and they can always create some malicious code update for wallet and pretend they are good contributors.
Yesterday I found out about interesting wallet called Mercury that still in early stages, that have statechains for transfering private keys in a safe way without fees, and I tested it for the first time with small amount of testnet BTC.
Maybe something like this will be used in future for mixing and swapping coins.

[lovesmayfamilis]

Interesting and other news, which was also posted on this forum. The FBI also uses mixers to hide transactions with confiscated bitcoins.
While the authorities openly state that mixing contributes to crime, the FBI itself does not hesitate to use them. https://news.bitcoin.com/report-claims-fbi-bitcoin-mixers-btc-forfeiture-processing/

[DaveF]

I have posted it before and I'll say it again.
Mixers are for people too lazy to do something themselves.

Do you want to "mix" your bitcoins. Go ahead it's simple, go to this site and they will do it for you.

Want to do it yourself, yes it's more work but it can be done.
1) Find an open public Wi-Fi
2) Register for an anonymous email account
3) Setup an account with an exchange that has fairly liberal KYC
4) Setup another account with another exchange that has fairly liberal KYC
5) Send coins to 1st exchange, exchange to another coin, send to 2nd exchange, exchange back to BTC, withdraw, done.

If the 1st exchange has XMR or another somewhat anonymous cryptonight coin you can do 2 accounts at the same exchange BTC -> cryptonight -> send to local wallet -> send back to 2nd account at exchange -> withdraw.

Never used a mixer or did the above, never saw any reason to, but it's not that difficult.

Side thought, makes you wonder if some of the exchanges that people say have faked volume are just a bunch of bots doing the above. Doubt it, but you never know.

-Dave