🍀🍀 whirlwind.money | Review Campaign | Write a review & earn up to $100! 🍀🍀

[cafter]

At Last
Whirlwind.money is a bitcoin mixing service that prioritizes user privacy and security. However, some users have reported issues with high fees, confusing processes, and grammatical errors on the deposit page. To improve the user experience, Whirlwind could create a youtube tutorial to help beginners navigate the process, provide a support portal for users to easily message, and consider sweeping deposits less frequently with a more appropriate fee to save money. Despite these issues, Whirlwind's fast mixing times, multiple mixing levels, and Note option make it an attractive choice for anyone looking to increase their anonymity while using bitcoin.


Bitcoin address: bc1q3ntj0yzmzkfxyp98rhg4qvjsuzvlz0nx8gw73z

nice technic.. bounty hunter, you did mistake here: "Whirlwind.money is a bitcoin mixing service that prioritizes user privacy and security. However, some users have reported issues with high fees, confusing processes, and grammatical errors on the deposit page."

this guy is written AI generated reply in his/her reply.

check here i asked CHATGPT, chat gpt suggested exactly all points soka1 written here in bold text
and here is image :

[1714275702]

1714275702

[1714275702]

1714275702

[1714275702]

1714275702

[1714275702]

1714275702

[Cantsay]

~~~

You didn't have to quote his entire post; it's making the thread look cluttered; at the very least, you could have snipped out the images.
Edit your post and make some changes to improve the format.

And as for the bounty hunter who was too lazy to write their own review and had to rely on chatgpt, I'm sure Hhampuz knows how to deal with such a user.

[BitcoinGirl.Club]

Once received then I will take some time before leaving my review. Finally I am very close.

Let's get into the review.
Btc address: bc1qrkssk2nam39p3ltftcn9c9u7whzhvldndc4vc0
[I would not appreciate anything less than $100. If such that's what in mind than donate it to someone or something running for good cause instead of sending it to the above address. Post the transaction ID]
I consider myself a regular client for mixers. However, It took me several days to test the system before making the review. Even I had to setup a bounty. It took me time and a good amount of barnstorming to bring a complete package. You are going to read only the truths. I have nothing to feel myself biased in the review.

The website feel and look:
I have nothing to add and discuss about the website looks. Most of the reviewers above me has already talked about it form many ways. In my opinion, it's good, working fine, better than some other mixers exists so far, may be one of the bests. I saw people to face errors, but I never faced any error yet. I assume, I was doing the things correctly besides, my focus was not in front end validation but in actual mixing algorithm which matters the most for the type of service.
5 out of 5 website front end design and look.

Mixing:
FAST option was set to a 48 hours delay to ensure the outcome of the mixed coins are hard to find. Sending the coins were as expected, smooth and easy. Once sent then it was the waiting time to receive the coins. I did not check the exact delay that used to send but it was more or less in time from my guess. Fees were set to 0.25% and output address was set to one address.

Sent BTC: 0.01690363
Received BTC: 0.01671138
Fees paid: 0.00019225

All BTC were going [instantly, leaving no hard work even for someone who has started using block explorer half an hour ago, you don't need a tool at all] to a known address, the first BIG issue, at least for me. In fact with the FAST option, when you have one receiving address set to receive coins then it's useless. It serves nothing but taking your BTC from address A (The address that is given to you) to B (Mixing address which is knows to everyone) and then B to C (Bitcoin receiving address). In between, you are paying the fees which is a waste for you. With proper blockchain analysis tool, anyone can easily find a good pattern and discover the destination address.
I will give 👉
0.5 out of 5 for anonymity in this setup.
4 out of 5 for service fees.
0 out of 5 satisfaction for using the setup.

Not recommended, it's giving a false sense of mixing

The FAST option is only useful a bit when you will give more than one receiving addresses. The more addresses you have, to receive BTC the higher is your chance to hide the trace. But adding more addresses mean you are paying additional fees of 0.0001 BTC for each additional addresses where it starts becoming expensive. Plus you will need to send a good amount of BTC to split between the receiving addresses if you want to minimize your mixing cost.
I will give 👉
3 out of 5 for anonymity when using two or more receiving addresses.
4 or plus for anonymity when using three or more receiving addresses.
2.5 out of 5 for service fees when using two or more receiving addresses.
0.5 out of 5 for service fees when using three or more receiving addresses.
3 out of 5 satisfaction when using two or more receiving addresses.
0.5 out of 5 satisfaction when using three or more receiving addresses.

A mixing setup, using more than two or more receiving address is fairly recommended. More receiving addresses are better, but it comes with a higher cost.

NOTE option is the most useful option I found in Whirlwind. But it can cost you a greater risk. I am coming to the risk later. In my setup I sent BTC twice to create two NOTEs and then combined the NOTEs before withdrawing the BTC to my receiving wallet. I can not clearly remember since it was few days ago, If I am correct then both NOTEs were created on the same day in few hours delay. The next day they were combined and then I waited more 24 hours before withdrawing the BTC. All together 48+ hours if my time frames are correct. There were no problem from the website front end in the mix although the site went through constant update as I was reading information on the forum.

Note 1 sent: 0.00660254 BTC
Note 2 sent: 0.00474263 BTC
Total sent: 0.01134517 BTC

Note 1 balance: 0.00658604 BTC
Note 2 balance: 0.00473078 BTC
Combined note balance: 0.01131682 BTC

Received balance : 0.01121682 BTC
Fees paid : 0.00012835 BTC

As mentioned earlier, it's the most useful mixing on Whirlwind. You can have better anonymity since it become harder to find what possible options you went though. But the greater risk is in trusting the system/operator. BTC taught me to hold my own key and I do not trust anyone with my coins. I will take short risk, a very quick one, may be maximum 30 minutes and in between I want to see my coins are in my possession. I never trusted Chipmixer with their invoice (I guess I got the term correct) for the same reason. They had their years of shares in the service but whatever your reputation is, nothing matter for me if your option is to give you my BTC and hold it for longer time.

This is where I suspect things can go very wrong. When Whirlwind will become popular, they will have a lot of clients, every hours several hundred transactions, many BTC is in holding. Adding it for days, weeks (let's not go for months). The accumulation become bigger and bigger. One rug pull is more than enough. Everyone is going to lose the coins they left for NOTE options including those who were waiting to receive coins from the FAST option in that moment.

Setup for one receiving address and when combining more than one NOTEs, I will give 👉
4 out of 5 for anonymity in this setup.
4 out of 5 for service fees.
4 out of 5 satisfaction for using the service only when the mixer brand is less popular and small
Recommended, only when the mixer brand is small and less popular.
Not recommended when the brand is big enough that a rug pull is good to disappear with your coins.

Setup for more than one receiving addresses and when combining more than one NOTEs, I will give 👉
5 out of 5 for anonymity in this setup.
2.5 out of 5 for service fees.
5 out of 5 satisfaction for using the service only when the mixer brand is less popular and small
Recommended, only when the mixer brand is small and less popular.
Not recommended when the brand is big enough that a rug pull is good to disappear with your coins

Without combing NOTEs, it is just another form of FAST option.

Overall, nothing exiting although the NOTE option sounds exciting. There is another term I am reading around is, the Blind Certificates. I still need to study the concept. It's good to see the person from Whirlwind is active in the community. Actively asking questions, taking suggestions and applying it in the system to improve the service.

Let's finish with some pros and cons.
Pros:
The person behind the project is active and is trying his best to build a trust for the business.
The website look and feel is good.
Mixing steps are very easy to use.

Cons:
NOTE option requires a greater trust. Very risky when the business is large and popular. That's when a rug pull can take everything from you.
A known mixing address, I don't want everyone to know I am mixing my coins.
Authority blacklist the known mixing address, my addresses [receiving] are possibly blacklisted. I do not want the stone on my chest.
For a setup of more than two or more receiving addresses, the fees start becoming higher.
FAST option with one receiving address is giving a false sense of anonymity.
NOTE option with one receiving address is giving the same false sense of anonymity.

Thanks for reading.

[whirlwindmoney]

Cons:
NOTE option requires a greater trust. Very risky when the business is large and popular. That's when a rug pull can take everything from you.
A known mixing address, I don't want everyone to know I am mixing my coins.
Authority blacklist the known mixing address, my addresses [receiving] are possibly blacklisted. I do not want the stone on my chest.
For a setup of more than two or more receiving addresses, the fees start becoming higher.
FAST option with one receiving address is giving a false sense of anonymity.
NOTE option with one receiving address is giving the same false sense of anonymity.

Thanks for reading.

Thank you for your review -

After reading this it only reinforces my beliefs that I need to explain Whirlwind's inner workings better. While you certainly made some valid points, for example the part where you talked about the need to trust us and associated risks, I think pretty much everything else is false and it's because you didn't understand how it actually works, but that's my fault for not making it clear enough, not yours. In the following days I'll make the comparison with the other services and I'll explain mathematically why we are the superior solution and I'll be curious to know your or anyone else's opinion after that.

I'll go through the cons you listed:

NOTE option requires a greater trust. Very risky when the business is large and popular. That's when a rug pull can take everything from you.
Correct, that's why I started this thread before I launched the service and I started a discussion around adding trusted people to the multi-sig. If implemented this would eliminate any risk of rug-pull

A known mixing address, I don't want everyone to know I am mixing my coins.
This really depends on what you care more about, hiding that you are using a mixer or real privacy. There is no in-between, show me a competitor that can hide this while also being as resistant to deanonymization as we are and I'll agree with you.

Authority blacklist the known mixing address, my addresses [receiving] are possibly blacklisted. I do not want the stone on my chest.
This is a valid concern, but I don't believe authorities have any reason to blacklist our address for the foreseeable future since we do not engage in any illegal activity whatsoever

For a setup of more than two or more receiving addresses, the fees start becoming higher.
It's the same with any other competitor, in fact we are by far the cheapest option of the bunch so I don't understand how this could be a con

And now the most important part:

FAST option with one receiving address is giving a false sense of anonymity.
NOTE option with one receiving address is giving the same false sense of anonymity.
In your review and also in the bounty that you set up (after leaking your exact input/output amounts and number of outputs, noone will do this in a real-world scenario), you assumed that observers would know which option you chose (Note or Fast), they'd also know that you withdrew already and the exact number of output addresses. That's the main reason why your perspective is skewed. All deposits and all outputs look identical to any outside observer, thanks to this it's impossible to know if a specific depositor even withdrew his balance, let alone point out his exact address. The fact that no observer could know this information and all deposits are blended together is the biggest strength of our system.

Any output that you see could originate from any deposit and this is why even if you deposit x amount now, and withdraw the same x amount to another address 10 minutes later it certainly doesen't mean that the output is yours, it could be any depositor's since the start of the service. Of course for more peace of mind you could withdraw to multiple addresses, but even if you only use 1 you have the anonymity set on your side, so plausible deniability is achieved regardless.

Again there is no way to know or prove if a specific deposit was withdrawn/ what % of the total deposit was withdrawn up until a certain point in time/ in how many addresses it was withdrawn/ which mode was used/ which fee was used.

Sure, right now the anonymity set contains only 137 addresses as of the time I'm writing this, but I expect it to grow at a very fast pace. Imagine it got to 5000 deposits and you see an output similar to a recent deposit, does that mean that the transactions are linked in any way? No, the output could originate from any of the 5000 deposits and it's impossible to prove otherwise unless you have external information, but in that case the issue is not related to Whirlwind in any way.

Also since you believe that the most recent deposits are linked to the most recent outputs if their values are similar, why wouldn't you wait for deposits to happen and then withdraw a similar amount every time? According to your logic this would trick observers into believing those are your coins, when in fact they're not.

To prove my point I just made a withdraw to this address: bc1q7zxmqwspvvfz2af0t42jvuvjvxeq2qdwwpv5y8

If the system really is as bad as you say, it should be very easy to track which deposit this output originates from. Even with the current anonymity set that again, is weak for now, I think it's impossible to deanonymize it with even a bit of certainty. Prove me wrong and I'll gladly offer a $1000 bounty.

p.s. the last 2 cons you listed could be said about any other competitor - the main difference is that while for Whirlwind the anonymity set is every deposit that was ever made for the reasons explained above, for any of our competitors the anonymity set is only the number of deposits that were made during the time limits imposed by the "maximum delay", which in most cases is under 200 hours.

you might argue that they are not using a single address like we do, so it's harder to track. But this is in fact as you call it a "false sense of anonymity", since their addresses are tagged by analytics firms anyways. Let alone that they use mixing codes which basically means they keep logs. If receiving your own coins back is an issue, then besides the fact that it means the mixing process is basically useless, additional risks are introduced such as receiving back coins with a way darker origin than your own deposit.

My apologies if my reply comes across as offensive to you, it's far from my intentions. I appreciate your honesty, this type of review is exactly what I was looking for. I can only improve the service if I get open feedback.

[villain_Mr.Burns]

Reserved

[LeGaulois]

Pretty well argued. And yep, I guess Whirlwind needs to be deeply explained with a comparison with the other tumblers

(by the way:The point to tumbler your bitcoins is to obfuscate your transactions, not to hide the fact a mixer was used, otherwise it's a big fail)

- About adding trusted people to the multi-sig, I'm not convinced (yet) to be a good solution.
- The risk of a rug-pull will fade once the reputation is established

my 2 cents...

[examplens]

A known mixing address, I don't want everyone to know I am mixing my coins.
This really depends on what you care more about, hiding that you are using a mixer or real privacy. There is no in-between, show me a competitor that can hide this while also being as resistant to deanonymization as we are and I'll agree with you.

I've seen cases where exchangers made it difficult to exchange/withdraw bitcoins or even block funds that they thought came from mixers and because of that, they marked them as tainted. I'm not saying that this is a good practice and what we want, but unfortunately, it happens.
maybe all competitors should not be guided by the fact that it is like that everywhere, but try to find a solution.

[JollyGood]

My apologies if my reply comes across as offensive to you, it's far from my intentions. I appreciate your honesty, this type of review is exactly what I was looking for. I can only improve the service if I get open feedback.

There was nothing offensive at all. You countered your points in an easy to understand manner and you cannot do more than that when trying to explain the functionality and when correcting misunderstandings as well as misconceptions about how Whirlwind operates.

Pretty well argued. And yep, I guess Whirlwind needs to be deeply explained with a comparison with the other tumblers

(by the way:The point to tumbler your bitcoins is to obfuscate your transactions, not to hide the fact a mixer was used, otherwise it's a big fail)

- About adding trusted people to the multi-sig, I'm not convinced (yet) to be a good solution.
- The risk of a rug-pull will fade once the reputation is established

my 2 cents...

I have to agree, that was a very well articulated and it was an informative post by whirlwindmoney debunking the misinformation.

[Hhampuz]

The following users reviews have been paid:

hZti
hugeblack
cafter
ETFbitcoin

Soka1 and Qurbanshah have been denied payment.

@BitcoinGirl.club is payment pending btc address.
@famososoMuertos is payment pending Chapter 2 of their review.

Thanks again for all of your reviews, this is currently on hold which means from this post no new (not previous "reserved" posts either) will be considered for a payment.

[famososMuertos]

/🍀/

Chapter 2.

It's been a few days, so let's check if the data really goes away. (Fast)

Using the information provided, the following message is obtained (Fast):



Now the log leaves a doubt, disappears or simply blocked.

We can see some of the mentioned updates I am not going to name them all but for example this is new:



In this new visit (we describe it as chapter 2/part 2) we must go to Withdraw Note, which appears in two places:



At the bottom:



We click, Withdraw Note:



After clicking we can see that part of the updates (statistics) are not being added correctly:



We placed our Private note and... I couldn't see my balance:



Question: what is the minimum balance or remaining? I mean at least I should be able to see my balance, which wasn't zero. I suppose that if it is less than 10000 sat, canceled the access(!?).

Anyway, how did we get to that private note.

We are presented with 4 steps, which are actually 3, since the first is just deciding if it is Note.

In step 2, it presents us with the fee that we are going to pay, and with an appropriate warning (!). On the other hand, in past visits the minimum percentage was 0.25%, currently the minimum is 0% (!?) It can even be set manually.



Then we generate the Private Note (PN).
Keep safe that information well, it will allow you to check your balance

Step 4 should be the easiest, it was in my previous visits, in this case, it didn't happen, the button didn't works correctly.

In fact I mention it again, it is possible that someone may forget to download or save the private note, since when you reload the page it updates and generates another PN, so, you should review this and try to leave that warning for unsuspecting users.

If we use the button again, it should only change the Captcha but instead reload appears, there is something strange there:



It gives the feeling that you are reloading the entire page. But then the following image appears:



That is, the letters disappear.

I must make a point here;  mention that I did this process the first time without delays, without problems, it is not being the same in this update.

Then I got the message: ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT

I resume my previous notes here, since the problem was not solved. (Edit: I'm not sure how long it took but it was several minutes, I suppose, the service was active again)



Notice the simple detail:Fast + Note before, and is now Note + Fast.

The image is edited, (!) I use it to indicate that this space can be used, do not leave it empty

Finally I was able to see my deposit, then I used the PN and the withdrawal proceeded without any problems:



I would like to point out that if you include a duplicate address by mistake, a warning is generated on the screen:



It is not the most prolific but it warns you.

In general, this last experience was not the best, I must honestly say that my first visits to whirlwind were more satisfactory than this last time.

Finally, I think there are many fixes under development and that undoubtedly creates several of the problems mentioned, regarding the result of the process of using your services, it worked in my first experience, now, in the analysis of how anonymous and safe it is whirlwind.money in the basic objective of its service, anonymity, it is valid to say that it has a moderate to good value, my case.

I think it is necessary to add that the use of the service by the user in his own experience is vital, in fact anyone can evaluate the (his) result and can find a status from bad to critical, but it can be an error on the part of the user. So, I must say it in your favor, so make improvements in the FAQ and of course make the process as friendly as possible (Ux/UI), it already is, but you can add more help announcements to avoid basic errors.

I think despite only having 137 addresses (your words) it's nice to see it add some of those stats, on the page, there's more stuff that's already been comment in the development of this review.

Chapter 1 and 2 confirmed. sent.

Review Campaign
/🍀/

...//...:::
Chapter 1: fast deposit. I want to evaluate how fast it is and if it is true that in five minutes I could have my request ready.
pter 2.
...

btc address: bc1qx7dztka7z6td4tl7d292x0q2deu7cg8axht8vd

Thanks!

[Hhampuz]

BitcoinGirl.club & famososMuertos have been paid and that concludes this review campaign, for now. Thanks again to everyone who got involved!

[BitcoinGirl.Club]

BitcoinGirl.club & famososMuertos have been paid and that concludes this review campaign, for now. Thanks again to everyone who got involved!

All looks good. It was a nice journey. Thanks.

I think pretty much everything else is false and it's because you didn't understand how it actually works, but that's my fault for not making it clear enough, not yours. In the following days I'll make the comparison with the other services and I'll explain mathematically why we are the superior solution and I'll be curious to know your or anyone else's opinion after that.

The entire response was nice and thoughtful. I will really like to be false as I see you have ideas and solid activity to improve the service. In the next few days I will start a service discussion thread and I will involve all mixers that currently we have and will test the services individually. There will be comparisons too. I don't work for anyone, not getting paid for anything (this one was a paid review but it did not bias me at all because the amount was not something that could trigger me to compromise with my opinion), so it's easy for me to keep everything unbiased. Whatever the outcomes, it all will be from my personal observation and I hope it will help the mixer services to take whatever they need to improve their mixing algorithm or even business model. 

Too many mixers these days but I am sure everyone has their own specialty to build their own loyal customer base. The time of Chipmixer was some kind of monopoly in mixing sector but right now it seems we will have a healthy competition between each others and if it does then mixer users will be the most benefited group.

[whirlwindmoney]

We'd like to thank everyone again for all your thoughtful reviews and suggestions. Please read the latest announcement and let us know what you think!

IMPORTANT UPDATE!

During the past few days since the last changelog update we worked tirelessly on addressing the issues raised in the review campaign and evaluating all suggestions for new features. Let's start with the issues:

We are now confident enough to communicate that the stability issues have been fixed. While short downtimes* could still happen every now and then because of our architecture**, using the service should now be a much more pleasant experience.

You will find the changes that we made today quoted at the end of this post, and this is what's left for the following days:
-Sweep deposits more efficiently
-Add support for all address types
-Popups for success and error messages instead of alerts
-Outputs from main address will be sent with a higher fee to avoid transactions getting stuck (if we continue to consolidate all received UTXOs)
-Delay time will be respected even if the service has downtime***
-Fix UI issues on mobile

If we missed anything let us know and we'll add it to the backlog.

And now the most exciting part, suggestions and new features:
-1 confirmation for small deposits
-Lower minimum deposit for Notes so you can consolidate small balances anonymously
-Pay to Note

Some users suggested that we should implement a 'Split Note' feature, where instead of combining 2 Notes together to consolidate their balances you could also split a single Note into multiple smaller ones. The idea behind this was that instead of sending someone BTC and revealing your address while also paying fees, you could split a Note with your desired amount and send it to the person directly in an anonymous way.

We considered this but there is one huge disadvantage if we implement it in this form, and one that is not acceptable to us. The receiver could lie about the Note being empty or not having the agreed balance, and as a sender you would have no way of proving it.

Here is where our Note system really shines. When you 'generate' a Note, what you are saving is its private key. Each Note also has a corresponding public key that is displayed in the Letter of Guarantee. (API Address)

This makes it possible to implement a Pay to Note feature where from your own Note's balance you can send any amount to another Note's public key, essentially enabling feeless and anonymous BTC transactions. Whirlwind will sign a Letter of Guarantee for each transfer so the sender will be able to prove that he is acting in good faith in case any issues arise.

As an example let's say you want to send your friend 1BTC. Currently you would need to send it through a normal transaction, revealing both your and your friends addresses in the process. With the Pay to Note feature you would only need to ask your friend for his Note Public key, and you can use that to send him the 1BTC anonymously and for free through Whirlwind from your own Note balance. He could then use his Note Private key to withdraw it to his address/es through the normal process. Unless you tell him yourself, not even your friend will be able to know your originating deposit or any information about you at all.

We reckon this would be a huge breakthrough and hope that you are as excited as we are for what's coming!

Ready to answer any questions or concerns!

*seconds, maybe a few minutes in exceptional cases
**we use a backend + validator model, multiple servers have to sync through Tor all the time so 100% stability isn't achievable with the current level of security. You can read more about it in the discussion thread I started, but in short we value security above everything else
***currently if you have to receive 2 outputs in 1 and 2 hours respectively, but the service is down for 3 hours, whenever it's getting back online you will receive both outputs at the same time. it will be changed so that you only receive the first one and then have to wait for another hour to receive the second

Changelog

04.13.2023 10:00:00 PM UTC
-Stability issues should now be fixed
-Illustrations downsized for faster loading
-Added warning to save the Letter of Guarantee received after each withdraw from Notes
-Transaction queue is still visible after you withdraw from a Note (page refreshed automatically before)
-Withdraw note 'Continue' fixed, not clickable anymore if a Note is not introduced

[cafter]

We'd like to thank everyone again for all your thoughtful reviews and suggestions. Please read the latest announcement and let us know what you think!

snip

- am trying to visit the website on clearnet for atlest 5minutes, and this error is showing : This page isn’t workingwhirlwind.money is currently unable to handle this request.
HTTP ERROR 500

- adding a chat support may be helpful, and if you are looking for customer support specialist then i am open to work.

- the cursor which is confusing, it confuses like there is a link shows in one fingure cursor. you need to change from this to line.


- make sure of this issues or attacks: sybil attacks, address collisions, vulnerable to attack.

[nakamura12]

If the review campaign is still going on then I would like to give an honest review to see or to check the result of new update or changes on the platform.

Reserved

[sam00]

If the review campaign is still going on then I would like to give an honest review to see or to check the result of new update or changes on the platform.

Reserved

As of now the campaign has been concluded as Hhampuz stated last week:

BitcoinGirl.club & famososMuertos have been paid and that concludes this review campaign, for now. Thanks again to everyone who got involved!

[nakamura12]

If the review campaign is still going on then I would like to give an honest review to see or to check the result of new update or changes on the platform.

Reserved

As of now the campaign has been concluded as Hhampuz stated last week:

BitcoinGirl.club & famososMuertos have been paid and that concludes this review campaign, for now. Thanks again to everyone who got involved!

The campaign review might continue sooner or later. It could be temporary only because of this statement "and that concludes this review campaign, FOR NOW". If it restarted then I'll use the previous post instead of creating another post.