Mixing your Bitcoin might become illegal in the future

[electronicash]

there was a mixer that had been shut down before so it's very possible to happen again.  cryptocurrencies are almost going to be regulated, it makes sense for them to suspect laundering is done thru mixers. it's just not going to be easy for them to do that though. if they become successful in preventing anyone from creating a mixer then the criminals will resort to the XMR which will make it them harder to trace.

[odolvlobo]

Bitcoin mixers have one job: To disguise the original source of Bitcoin funds. ... this is the very definition of money laundering.

That is not true. In order to be considered as money laundering, the money must be involved in a crime. If the money is not involved in a crime, then it is not money laundering.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/money_laundering

[Shasha80]

Do you think there's a possibility this will happen in the future? If not, why? What do you think will happen once mixers (both custodial and non-custodial) are banned by the government? Will this force people to use privacy coins more thoroughly? Or will everything remain the same? Any input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

It already happens since the mixer is available and continues to happen in the future, even if the government is trying to interfere or surveilling their citizens for suspicious activity. If that is about money launder, the criminals will find a way out how they can get and use the money without the government knows. The criminals can use the Darkweb to make a transaction, including money laundering or other illegal things because they do not want the government to track them.

But for most people, they will not have a problem seeing that thing and they think that is normal if their government wants to know their activity when they use crypto.

I'm sure Criminals will find a way to be able to carry out illegal activities, even though in the future mixers will be banned by the government.
One of them can be through Darkweb, actually the number of criminals who commit crimes using a mixer is very small in my opinion. Since
many criminals prefer to use fiat to carry out criminal transactions, it may be because it is easier to use fiat than crypto. So it is not certain
that mixing Bitcoin will become illegal or not in the future, depending on the number of crimes that have occurred in the crypto world.
If the percentage continues to increase, criminals use mixers to commit crimes, there is a possibility that mixers will be banned by the government.

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

There is very high probability that mixers will be banned in the future. But it doesn't mean they will be gone.

@Darker45 is correct, there will still be people that are going to use mixers and I don't think that people are going to get caught by authorities mixing their coins unless they tell them that they did, that is assuming that the government doesn't have a wiretap on your electronics and tracks all of your movements.

This will always be a cat and mouse game. Some will probably get caught and some will not. The same goes with the traditional form of money laundry which also involves popular banking institutions. It was made illegal but it is still going on strong until now.

Bitcoin mixing may not necessarily mean money laundering but if it is a process which obliterates the tracks of the funds, it will automatically be suspicious in the eyes of the authorities. If a certain tool wipes out how money is obtained or what kind of transaction it came from, it already raises a flag; it triggers an alarm. If it appears to be an obstruction of law enforcement, then expect that the authorities won't be friendly toward it.

I will bet that this law will only have its fangs reared for about three months because that's the lifespan of implementation in my country. It will be a cat and mouse if they were to really implementat and enforce it no matter what happens but I have doubts with this banning stuff. Look at the Great Firewall of China jumpers, they are still around even if their Internet in China is heavily censored.

[concept2]

How can they track any transactions using mixers? there are likely more than 10 ways to mix your coins or suspiciously use bitcoin without being noticed. Furthermore, there are services receiving bitcoin in exchange for cash so without any online clue, how can a government put us in jail?

[BitcoinPanther]

Do you think there's a possibility this will happen in the future?

There is a high possibility that Mixing Bicoin will be banned by the government under the guise of anti money laundering law. 

What do you think will happen once mixers (both custodial and non-custodial) are banned by the government?

I don't think it had a major effect on the Bitcoin market and I believe regular user won't be affected by the banning of mixer services.

Will this force people to use privacy coins more thoroughly? Or will everything remain the same? Any input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

Those who have nothing to hide won't use privacy coins but those who have shady activities will more likely to use privacy coins.

[Lucius]

What do you think will happen once mixers (both custodial and non-custodial) are banned by the government? Will this force people to use privacy coins more thoroughly? Or will everything remain the same? Any input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

Only those mixers that allow themselves to be exposed to the reach of the authorities can be banned, and let someone tell me how any government in the world will ban something that is completely out of its reach?

According to what most governments in the world think today, any mixer is basically illegal - but it is also illegal to share copyrighted content and torrents still work - just as it is illegal to sell weapons on the black market, and that market literally blooming. I think that they (the authorities) will try to fight coin mixing in another way - and I think that they will condition the analysis of transactions and every coin they find to have passed through the mixer will be marked tainted.

[blckhawk]

Do you think there's a possibility this will happen in the future? If not, why? What do you think will happen once mixers (both custodial and non-custodial) are banned by the government? Will this force people to use privacy coins more thoroughly? Or will everything remain the same? Any input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

Well, if Bitcoin keeps having such allegations then there's a possibility that its mixers could become illegal in the future. It's been hard for the government to monitor illegal in this network so certainly, it will be imposed as illegal, it just a matter of time unless the government can pull something to halt illegal operations. I was not so sure what will happen if mixers will get banned but perhaps it will reduce the number of users I guess. Using privacy coins would be an alternative though but the pretty sure government will still do something about it.

[Reatim]

The recent popularity of Bitcoin has brought the attention of governments and central banks worldwide. We've seen certain opposition from countries like India, China, and Russia against the pioneer cryptocurrency. Countries that are friendly towards Bitcoin (like the US and UK), are constantly surveilling its citizens for any suspicious activity. I've seen that some countries have taken action against Bitcoin mixing services with the excuse that they're used for money laundering and terrorist financing. Since most (if not all) of these centralized mixers don't comply with KYC/AML regulations, they're subject to being shut down by the government. Imagine if criminals begin using Bitcoin mixers in mass for money laundering purposes. If the trend continues, mixing Bitcoin may turn out to become illegal.

Do you think there's a possibility this will happen in the future? If not, why? What do you think will happen once mixers (both custodial and non-custodial) are banned by the government? Will this force people to use privacy coins more thoroughly? Or will everything remain the same? Any input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

Actually this is one that we are afraid of for too long now , Because Lets admit the fact that While Bitcoin/crypto mixer is really helpful to many of us (We as Not having any bad transactions) but the problem is those who taking advantage of this disguising , They are using the opportunity to Make their dealings and Illegal businesses hide from this Mixer characteristics .
I'm afraid that in the near future , government will do their Best just to prevent people from Mixing coins and will ended for closure of all Mixing businesses in the world.
But i hope this will take into consideration and will only target those who must be banned, But the question is how would the government do such.

[dkbit98]

Do you think there's a possibility this will happen in the future? If not, why? What do you think will happen once mixers (both custodial and non-custodial) are banned by the government? Will this force people to use privacy coins more thoroughly? Or will everything remain the same? Any input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

They can't really make all mixing illegal in future but they can improve tracking and tracing transactions and freeze coins on exchanges if they want, however that will only result in making better mixers that will have improved mixing.
Bitcoin is public blockchain but privacy is basic human right and Bitcoin mixers will surely evolve and be more decentralized in future, and nobody will be able to do anything about that.
I can imagine future of mixing of Bitcoins inside wallet with other privacy oriented coins that will make it virtually impossible to track anything and there will be no website or central place to shut down.
Chipmixer is doing a great work so far and I would love to see something like Chipmixer 2.0 wallet that would remove the need of using any website (I know about old Chipmixer extension for Electrum wallet).

[20kevin20]

I think that they (the authorities) will try to fight coin mixing in another way - and I think that they will condition the analysis of transactions and every coin they find to have passed through the mixer will be marked tainted.

They'll fight mixing and the rich will still mix their coins while the poor will hand out every single little detail about their txs to the government as if that's completely normal. Laws are almost always just for the poor. The rich are always privileged. Just think of how much hassle there is to launch a company and get a profit while billionaires have privileges such as tax exemptions through tax havens. Meanwhile, while we are considered criminals if we ever think of not paying taxes no more, they're in fully legal conditions although they're doing exactly that, lol.

Blockchain analysis is gonna suck if that's what they're going to do. The worst thing is, you can be asked about a transaction they've marked which happened years ago. They'll know you've used a mixer at least once in your past, and they're going to hate it.

Hopefully though, Bitcoin's fungibility will be solved in the mid-term. We need that, before they start acting for real against "tainted" coins.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Well mixing bitcoin could be Moundy loundry and its clearly against law of many country. in my country bitcoin regulation for trading only no other service allowed Legally except trading or for asset only. and im agree with you mixing bitcoin could be illegal in many states.

[Obito]

If you want to not worry about being charged of a ridiculous crime, I suggest that you move to my country the Philippines, the laws being implemented don't last long so you don't have to worry about it plus if you aren't a big target, you won't probably be bothered and you can pay police for protections.

[virasog]

Do you think there's a possibility this will happen in the future? If not, why? What do you think will happen once mixers (both custodial and non-custodial) are banned by the government? Will this force people to use privacy coins more thoroughly? Or will everything remain the same? Any input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

How will you be able to stop the bitcoin mixers from operating ? Government can't stop bitcoin mixer service and also they can stop people using these services so making it illegal is not practical. On the other hand, centralized exchanges may delist privacy coins, but privacy coins  will continue to exists on decentralized exchanges and their use cases is very strong. So also don't expect privacy coins to be dead in the future.

[danherbias07]

Then make cash illegal too. 
How about physical casinos? Thieves also used that service to mix their cash and they will accept it as long as it is a legitimate money and not a counterfeit.
This is just another way to say "we should be in control of your money" or "we should know how much you are keeping".
They want everything to be following taxation which will make them more money for their pockets to be filled and not for the people.

I bet they will use the mixing services for corruption in case people starts paying with Bitcoin.  It takes a thief to catch another thief.

[Mamun74]

I think it It's  not happen. Cryptocurrencys are almost used to many companies and It's regulated. A lot of countries are using bitcoin now.I think Government cannot stop bitcoin mixer service.

[serjent05]

Bitcoin mixers have one job: To disguise the original source of Bitcoin funds. ... this is the very definition of money laundering.

That is not true. In order to be considered as money laundering, the money must be involved in a crime. If the money is not involved in a crime, then it is not money laundering.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/money_laundering

You got a point but the thing is how can the person who uses the mixer say that the money is clean and not from money laundering.  Remember he hides the origin of the coin and the government is very suspicious in this kind of activity.  Using a mixer is the same as inviting the government to suspect us of money laundering.  And the government is well aware of this possibility that they may be wasting time investigating transactions that they thought is used in money laundering but ending up wrong.  So they would like to avoid this as much as possible, and the solution is shutting down mixing services.

[tygeade]

Do you think there's a possibility this will happen in the future? If not, why? What do you think will happen once mixers (both custodial and non-custodial) are banned by the government? Will this force people to use privacy coins more thoroughly? Or will everything remain the same?

In the space of decentralization and P2P environment, all the regulations and prohibitions are are least bothered. I believe everything will remain same as of now regardless of whatever stand governments will take in future.

How government will know that I am mixing my coins through onion version of mixing. Tor network based mixing services are already in used widely hence even governments think about regulating mixing services, they will slowly understand and will classify it as a basic and privacy oriented human right. No democratic government will dare to interfere into the privacy of individuals.

[shoreno]

bitcoins popularity is not recent but govt's and banks are already at the chase for bitcoin ever since the btc world began . some years ago there was a restriction for mixers and lots of mixers have taken down but most of them continued normally  . mixers complying for kyc is a silly idea because mixers are meant to mask the users privacy if they are not contented on the anonymity btc has to offer .

What do you think will happen once mixers (both custodial and non-custodial) are banned by the government? Will this force people to use privacy coins more thoroughly? Or will everything remain the same?

the anonymity wont be the same of course if no more mixers but aside from mixer , privacy coins have the same issue like this  . it will be a headache for users that wants extra privacy

[hatshepsut93]

I doubt that governments are interested in regulating what people do with their coins, because it's unrealistic to enforce it, but they can tell exchanges and other services that accept crypto to refuse accepting mixed coins, or demand users to show their inputs before mixing. Or maybe they won't even have to, because exchanges already do chainanalysis and some even ban their users from using CoinJoin.