I want to know more about mixers and untraceable transactions

[Kalchef]

I don't know if this is the right place for this type of secured transaction questions but please do bear with me, I want to know about mixers and anonymous transactions available in crypto space and I do have few questions too.

1. If privacy coins have mixers or traceless ability built into them doesn't that make them stronger than BTC?

2. Is it true that one can hide their BTC transactions using mixer but privacy coins don't need mixer? But if this is true why did Monero for example has a block explorer because that's the only way tracking can work.

3. What about ETH? Is there any way to hide transactions or ETH has its own mixer too?

[OmegaStarScream]

1. It depends on how you're comparing. Monero has its disadvantages as well but let's say it doesn't, do we really want bitcoin with that level of anonymity when mass adoption is the goal? IMO, transparency is also very important.
2. That's true. The block explorer doesn't mean anything though. The sender, receiver, and amounts can still not be disclosed with or without block explorers.
3. Yes, there's TornadoCash. It's a decentralized protocol.

[Charles-Tim]

If bitcoin is a privacy coin, I believe the government in the whole world would have gone against it by now and it might become just a coin that people are not using. But while using bitcoin, you can still have privacy which is what that matters most. Even as some bitcoin linked to fraud cases have been recovered, I do not think recovery will be possible with privacy coins and it will encourage more criminal and fraudulent activities. Yet maintaining privacy is still possible with bitcoin which has a transparent blockchain.

[JeromeTash]

1. If privacy coins have mixers or traceless ability built into them doesn't that make them stronger than BTC?

Nope,  because Bitcoin's major purpose isn't about Privacy. If this was the case, then there would be no need for the public ledger (blockchain) that is viewable by anyone using block explorers

2. Is it true that one can hide their BTC transactions using mixer but privacy coins don't need mixer? But if this is true why did Monero for example has a block explorer because that's the only way tracking can work.

Mixers don't hide transactions. They just make the transaction untraceable or so hard to trace. The uses of a block explorer are more than just trying to trace transaction IDs or viewing balances in the addresses.

3. What about ETH? Is there any way to hide transactions or ETH has its own mixer too?

Tornado.cash is probably the only ETH mixer I know about.

[dkbit98]

1. If privacy coins have mixers or traceless ability built into them doesn't that make them stronger than BTC?

It depends what coins you are talking about, most of them are totally centralized so they are not better than bitcoin in any way.
Maybe some of them have better privacy but they have other problems like unlimited supply, or mining is mostly concentrated in one or two pools.

2. Is it true that one can hide their BTC transactions using mixer but privacy coins don't need mixer? But if this is true why did Monero for example has a block explorer because that's the only way tracking can work.

I am not exactly sure how monero is working but you can't use their explorer to track everything like it's possible in bitcoin public ledger.
They use ring signatures, stealth addresses and other privacy technologies but you need to do your own research about that.
This is forum section for Bitcoin.

3. What about ETH? Is there any way to hide transactions or ETH has its own mixer too?

They have some mixers for ethereum like tornado.cahs but many times they are unusable because of very high transaction fees.
ETH is worst thing you can use if you care about privacy.
Bitcoin with Chipmixer is much better option in every way.

[PrivacyG]

Monero has a block explorer but you can not extract much information out of it.  There is no transaction amounts, addresses etc that are shown.  Only blocks and very basic information you can not do much with.  This is in comparison with Bitcoin which has everything publicly shown.  A while ago whether Monero's supply is truly finite was a really good debate considering so much information is hidden from the public compared to Bitcoin which has a clear ledger of all the coins that are being produced and moved but this got debunked later on.

Bitcoin needs a mixer because you can clearly, directly link transactions, addresses, wallets, coins et cetera.  You have so much information to work with that it gets harder and harder to create transactions without leaving enough fingerprints to have them linked to a single wallet, identity and so on.

Mixers are used to break the link between coins.  Whether these mixers are honeypots or not, who knows.  Thing is, people are using them and have been doing so for a long time now.  But there is always Coin Joining as an alternative, although it has a small percentage tax that quickly adds up.  Whether this tax is worth it is up to you.

Ethereum has Tornado Cash, mentioned above by other members as well.  But Ethereum is definitely not the way to go if you want privacy.  For privacy, you want to go with Monero and Coin Joining with Bitcoin.  There is one thing you have to remember however.  Even with Monero, you can still leak enough information for transactions to be linked to your IP, wallet, credit card et cetera.  If you use Monero to buy something off the Internet, remember there is post/courier that records your transaction, a company that processes your order with the full name and address on it and so on.

You can not just use Monero or Coin Join your coins and think you are now anonymous and nobody can catch you.  They can, it is very hard for you to be fully private.  From my own experience, I can tell privacy means a radical change of lifestyle and behavior.  Particularly when it comes to technology.  This is a process of continuous learning.  Expect to make mistakes until you get better at handling your privacy.

-
Regards,
PrivacyG

[CryptocurencyKing]

When I come across users that would want the services of mixers, I'm often moved to want to ask why? Perhaps in this case, it could be born out of curiosity or OP is just a privacy freak and just wants to stay off the redial as good as possible.

With all being said from the responses I see in this thread, mixers don't make transactions disappear. They only make it untraceable or give users a had time tracing them if, we try to imagine it bejng possible.  How do they archive this?

I haven't used there services but have attempted it once and they've got a format that comes with some expired address linked session. After your deposit, you are given a token for tracking your session and retrieval od your coin when mixing is done. Without which, your most likely not going to be able to retrieve your coin.

[sheenshane]

1. If privacy coins have mixers or traceless ability built into them doesn't that make them stronger than BTC?

There's no other than stronger coins when it comes privacy is in Bitcoin, most other altcoins are centralized not like Bitcoin it's pure decentralized.

2. Is it true that one can hide their BTC transactions using mixer but privacy coins don't need mixer? But if this is true why did Monero for example has a block explorer because that's the only way tracking can work.

It makes it a hard time to trace but it doesn't mean you were become completely hidden in your transaction, Bitcoin transactions were always disclosed in a public ledger and it can be traceable but it takes a longer time to find the real sender of the address.

For a better explanation, user @RapTarX was made a thread for you to understand how Bitcoin mixers will work.
What is Bitcoin Mixer?

3. What about ETH? Is there any way to hide transactions or ETH has its own mixer too?

Yes, it has, and AFAIK, it's ( https://eth-mixer.com/ ) which I don't know how reliable it is, do your own research instead.

If you want to know where is the list of 2022 List Bitcoin Mixers Bitcoin Tumblers Websites, just click the link.

[coupable]

1. If privacy coins have mixers or traceless ability built into them doesn't that make them stronger than BTC?

Not really! Each one of them have its problem. The stronguest protocol is bitcoin is Bitcoin.
Anonymous transactions is one of the many aspects related to bitcoin that should be resolved by next years updates.

2. Is it true that one can hide their BTC transactions using mixer but privacy coins don't need mixer? But if this is true why did Monero for example has a block explorer because that's the only way tracking can work.

Block explorers are the easiest way for us as simple users to navigate in the blockchain but this doesn't mean it's the only way. Blockchain experts have other tools that we can't deal with. Also having a block explorer doesn't mean that the transactions can be traced.

3. What about ETH? Is there any way to hide transactions or ETH has its own mixer too?

Few mixers out there offer service for Eth transactions. Peer to peer swap to bitcoin is the safest way to hide eth tracability.

[MaximalIdealism]

You ever look into Decred?  Project has been built out and the devs for sometime now.

https://docs.decred.org/privacy/cspp/overview/
Coinshuffle++

[suzanne5223]

1. No privacy coin is ever stronger than BTC and they are just different coins with a different concept but understand that almost all altcoins imitate the BTC concept.

2. Yes, but you have to be sure about the mixer service because there are some mixers that provide worse service. The Monero block explorer is not a flaw to its privacy service since it has stealth addresses and RingCT.

3. Yes, the ETH dev once developed a mixer for ETH and ERC2.0 tokens but I have never used the mixer before.

[tranthidung]

• [Guide] Decent mixing methods. It is a guide on what coins you should use for your anonymity and how to mix your coins.
• The best mixer for Bitcoin as I know is ChipMixer. [ANN] ChipMixer.com - Bitcoin mixer / Bitcoin tumbler - mixing reinvented. If you are interested about them, you can ask in their ANN thread. Chipmixer team are actively on the forum and will answer you. Additionally, there are many tech gurus in ChipMixer campaign who can support you too.
• Wasabi wallet is a good one to use with CoinJoin transaction but please pay your attention on their guides on how to choose anonymity set and avoid to often recombine your mixed coins