First mixer sanctioned by US authorities (blender.io)

[NotATether]

3 hops for something like an exchange, and 5 hops for something like a government (since a government has more resources) That's what is supposed to be but generally, it's the opposite. Most governments have fewer resources than companies using blockchain forensic companies.

But don't governments merely employ commercial blockchain trackers in any case (unless it were something like the NSA who'd hire dozens of specialists to build their own tool)?

A tool from such an agency as the NSA would merely be used as surveilence, without making official memoranda to avoid giving away the existence of their tool.

But if a govt. merely wanted to track down a bunch of cyber thugs it is much easier for them to order a commercial entity like Chainalysis to do it (less legal paperwork and allowances required in that case).

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[owlcatz]

So I can't help but chuckle at the chipmixer sig posts, sorry! .... So guys.. Is chipmixer is next?  

"Due to recent events ChipMixer is available only on Tor network.
To access it you need following address:

chipmixorflykuxu56uxy7gf5o6ggig7xru7dnihc4fm4cxqsc63e6id.onion

It is impossible to remember - bookmark it. If you cannot then try to remember this:
chip mix or fly - our address starts with this
.onion - our address ends with this. Be aware .online looks almost same
if you use google to search for chipmixer - you will find scam sites
our announcements can be found at BitcoinTalk.org
it is better to bookmark our .onion address
To access Tor network you need Tor Browser:
You can download it here: https://www.torproject.org/download/
it is available for PC and mobile phones"

[BlackHatCoiner]

So guys.. Is chipmixer is next?

This is off-topic. The ChipMixer website has been removed from Google, as it was reported as copyright offender. The scammer with the .online domain had the cheek to do this, not some authority. There should be a press release if it did.

[NeuroticFish]

So I can't help but chuckle at the chipmixer sig posts, sorry! .... So guys.. Is chipmixer is next?  

"Due to recent events ChipMixer is available only on Tor network.

Clearnet has a constant list of malicious clones that fight against Chipmixer. That goes from cloning the website and going good ranks in search results to reporting Chimpnixer itself (to Google) for copyright infringement and most probably also DDoS and such attacks.
That's not the government, I hope you can agree on that.

[Bitcoins101]

Is anyone else worried about what may happen if you move funds from a mixer to big exchanges after this? Of course one could always do another hop to "unlink" a set of coins from a mixer, but how many would be enough?

I think that's the least of your worries if you're in the US.
Lately exchanges have increased their demands about the funds inch by inch, asking you when you get them, where you get them, proof on how you've got them, with what funds, probably ending with questions about the the pubic hair color of the dog of the cousin of the one that sold you the coins. So just obfuscating the chain of transactions won't help too much you in these cases.

That being said, I made once stupid mistake of sending coins mixed through CM directly to Bitstamp the mother and father of all KYC, nothing has happened yet, deposit and SEPA without a hiccup, so probably it's not yet such a big deal. Exchanges will try to delay any such actions as long as they can, they are losing money and volume, they might want to obey the law but not to the point when it strat costing them money.

Nah, they don't really care, people who use mixers are such a small percentage of their business. Vast majority of users never take their coins off of the exchange and just trade back and forth, which is their bread and butter. Those that do are probably just buying jpegs or whatever. Most of the illegal activity nowadays has nothig to do with darknet markets or mixers and has all to do with ponzis, jpeg scams, altcoin scams, romance scams, etc.

[nutildah]

So I can't help but chuckle at the chipmixer sig posts, sorry! .... So guys.. Is chipmixer is next?  

Came across this thread when looking for some other information on Google, but I'd say after this:

https://cryptoslate.com/ronin-bridge-hackers-used-chipmixer-to-launder-over-73m-of-stolen-funds/

its highly likely.

[LeGaulois]

The funny point: check in the article the link to ChipMixer. It's a link redirecting to chipmixer.xyz (instead .com)
Since .xyz is the culprit, so far so good  

One of the most important things in the mixer niche is to be proactive about security and anticipate what can happen (laws, hacks, or an arrest like Tornado).

I think @ChipMixer is smart enough to cover his ass. I hope so.
No doubt The U.S will chase the blenders like witches (The Netherlands seem to like hunting too)

Sor far;
Tornado dev. arrested
bestmixer sized
blender.io seized
Helix's owner arrested
Bitcoin Fog owner arrested

Fighting against BTC mixers is a waste of time to me because we will always see a new one popping online. Cash is still the most used, mixers represent a tiny percentage (very very small. Will they realize that? Not sure...

[DaveF]

What the governments have proven many times is that if they want to put in the time / effort / money they can find tor sites and take them down.
So is chipmixer that good or are they just not going after them?

There is also the fact that at least 2 of the other services were actually saying, more or less not the exact words 'wash your dirty coins here' so there is that aspect too.
And..... it's a free service there is no charge. No different then asking a bank to give you 4 quarters for a dollar. Other others, if I am not mistaken were charging fees.

-Dave

[dkbit98]

And..... it's a free service there is no charge. No different then asking a bank to give you 4 quarters for a dollar. Other others, if I am not mistaken were charging fees.

Good point, but I don't think government regulators really care about this in the end.
I will give you one example with torrents that are also free, but regulators can take down websites that host them if they think something is illegal.
Heck, they would probably arrest me if I go in front of my house to give free lemonade for donations.  

Just reading how crypto.com sent one women $10.5 million instead of $100 return, and they noticed this error after seven months!  
So I am starting to think that all this crypto companies hired bunch of lousy developers and all have weak very security... they are indirectly calling scammers to hack them, especially this stupid bridges.

[Pmalek]

The funny point: check in the article the link to ChipMixer. It's a link redirecting to chipmixer.xyz (instead .com)
Since .xyz is the culprit, so far so good  

I am sure you were kidding when you said that. 
It goes to show how unreliable Google is to provide proper search results. Whoever wrote that article wanted to link to ChipMixer. Since he didn't know the correct domain, he googled it and found the fake .xyz site because that one is still the first result if you do a search for "chipmixer".

Btw, does anyone know if any of the alternative Chipmixer sites are all scams that steal your coins or if any of them can be used to actually mix bitcoin? Not that it matters to me personally, just being curious.

[JeromeTash]

Btw, does anyone know if any of the alternative Chipmixer sites are all scams that steal your coins or if any of them can be used to actually mix bitcoin? Not that it matters to me personally, just being curious.

Obviously, the reason they are using similar domain names and even copy and paste website contents from chipmixer.com is nothing but malicious. if anyone behind the clone sites had any good intentions, they would have used different domain names and branding.

Checking if the clone sites can actually mix coins or not is also something hard to do. I have seen instances where they can trick a user who send in test amounts, and they actually mix the coins but once the user decides to send a huge amount, they get scammed.

[LeGaulois]

Yes, I like to have fun.
In this case, I think it is completely the fault of the author of the article. Journalists are sooo competent nowadays that even Instagram is considered a reliable source.

And no, not all other bitcoin mixers are a scam. There are a couple of them working legitimately and with awesome knowledge. Unfortunately, you have enough of your two hands to count them.

On the other hand, there are (or were) nearly 300 scams. Difficult to clean the industry, unless it becomes regulated.
But hey, who wants that

[PrimeNumber7]

What the governments have proven many times is that if they want to put in the time / effort / money they can find tor sites and take them down.
So is chipmixer that good or are they just not going after them?

This is hard to say. Although I strongly suspect that it is possible to trace the input/output pairs of coin going into/out of CM, to my knowledge, CM is the only mixer that researchers have not been able to publically prove this can be done with CM. If CM is not being run by a government, the operators likely have taken precautions to prevent law enforcement agencies from being able to seize (or more specifically) find their servers.

Given the climate and risk to the operators, I would suspect that CM will eventually shut down, either voluntarily or by force via a government seizing their servers. If I remember correctly, bitmixer voluntarily shut down, and they implied this was because they were afraid the government was going to (try to) seize their servers and put their customers' privacy/money at risk.