What will a mixer do under the mentioned situation?

[Stedsm]

We all know about hacks, scams, password leaks and all the shit that's happening in the crypto world and we also see lots of scammers using mixers to eradicate the possibility of them being caught at all (though there are traces, but using mixer saves these scammers at the least, not intentionally).

Now, let's say that a hack happened some day at some exchange for about $300 million (or even $3 million, just e.g.), and the exchange immediately opens up about the hack. For a second, just think that the scammer keeps the coins in his wallet and doesn't move them for some time, however FBI and other major authorities are aware of this hack and they give orders to mixers that if a specific address is provided to the mixers (if they know exactly on which address the hacker has kept the coins), and they ask them to immediately report them about the same, then let me ask some questions:

1. Do mixers know where they're getting a deposit from?
2. If yes, will they co-operate here with the officials and let them know about the deposit?
3. If they do, how will they stop the scammer from moving his funds out of their mixer?

[JeromeTash]

For a second, just think that the scammer keeps the coins in his wallet and doesn't move them for some time, however FBI and other major authorities are aware of this hack and they give orders to mixers that if a specific address is provided to the mixers (if they know exactly on which address the hacker has kept the coins), and they ask them to immediately report them about the same,

So how do Authorities go about it?

Like "Hey Yomix, please do not mix coins coming from this address, if you refuse to comply, we know where you are and we shall arrest you"  

I think the fact that almost all the mixers around are not registered financial entities or under any regulatory board, they are not answerable to any authority except maybe their customers.

The only choice authorities are left with is to investigate and crack them down.

1. Do mixers know where they're getting a deposit from?

They don't need to, except possibly with the controversial wasabi wallet. I understand they can block certain inputs from "blacklisted sources.

2. If yes, will they co-operate here with the officials and let them know about the deposit?

This is what exchanges do, highly unlikely for mixers to do such a thing if you read their privacy and no log polices. How do you promise people privacy but then reveal private customer information to the Government. Then that's not a mixer.

[Stedsm]

So how do Authorities go about it?

Like "Hey Yomix, please do not mix coins coming from this address, if you refuse to comply, we know where you are and we shall arrest you"  
--snip--

Lol, not like that obviously  
No mixer will ever respond to authorities because even they may get traced down and these authorities don't like mixers at all if I'm not wrong, and especially they won't respond if the authorities send a message in the way you described.  

Just in case, they try to get the specific mixer's email address for support or let's say, PM them here on Bitcointalk, will they ever address the authority's concerns about a hacker's address and that he may deposit to their mixer? And even ask the mixer to block that very address?

Then even if the hacker moves coins to various sources, it'll still be known because they're not getting mixed.

PS. I'm looking for mixing services to come to this thread and respond so that my confusion regarding the same gets cleared. I mean, if they're interested to reply here...

[PX-Z]

Authorities doesn't even care when an exchange is hacked or mandate every exchange to block the address track the hackers' address once it deposit to an specific exchange. Exchanges do it by themselves for the community and at least help the victims to bring the money back to hacked exchange.

How much more to mixers where they are considered as "illegal" by the authorities, as if mixers will respond as well. Also i dont even think mixers follow the requests of exchange to block  the deposit from hacked address because it will contradict the sole purpose of owning a mixer business.

[LeGaulois]

When the FBI contacts you, believe me, you have suddently something more important to do than cooperating with their request  
Especially when you operate a mixer.

Also, scammers are not so dumb. They can smell the smoke before the fire

[Yamane_Keto]

The cooperation mechanism depends on the type of blender and how much information the government can gather about that blender and pressure them.

So far, I have not heard of a decentralized mixer, where there is no single central authority that controls the mixing, and therefore most of the mixers that are currently operating can be stopped if the owner of the mixer is known, and do not forget that some mixers are run by some agents to collect data.

Mixers are a way to enhance the privacy of an ordinary user, but when it comes to hacking multimillion-dollar, it is not easy to “launder that money.” Even if he succeeds in breaking the link between him and the crime, suddenly having $ 300 million or withdrawing that amount to your bank account is enough to raise suspicion.

Hacker attacks end either by negotiating with the authorities or arrest/kill, or they are sponsored by a state that supports this activity.

[Cuenta Alternativa]

I think the fact that almost all the mixers around are not registered financial entities or under any regulatory board, they are not answerable to any authority except maybe their customers.

This is not the case. If you operate in the USA or any EU country, or any other, you are subject to the laws and authorities of those countries. It is another thing if those authorities try to send you a request and all they find is an email. But what you say is like saying that an illegal immigrant is not going to answer to the authorities of the country where he is because he is not from there.

Furthermore, little by little, as regulations advance, mixers will be required to have a licence, which will make them lose much of their meaning, or they will be declared illegal, so they will not be in the legal limbo they are in now, and for example, advertising them here will be illegal advertising, which will not be allowed. But hopefully that's still a few years away.

So, with respect to the OP's point, mixers can either cooperate, potentially losing customers (albeit for the right ethical reason), or not cooperate and potentially end up as a Chip Mixer.

[Pmalek]

Any mixer that cooperates and listens to government demands shouldn't be trusted. Today the reasons could be that the money is stolen or hacked. Tomorrow, it could be because the owner is black, white, Jewish, Muslim, in the opposite party, anti government, too liberal, fascist, pro gay, young, old, American, Russian, Iranian... No censorship at all. A little bit of censorship opens the door to keep raising that bar in the future little by little. 

1. Do mixers know where they're getting a deposit from?

They don't need to, except possibly with the controversial wasabi wallet. I understand they can block certain inputs from "blacklisted sources.

Wasabi's coordinator zkSNACKs works with an unnamed blockchain analysis company to surveil and identity UTXOs they consider "unwanted", "dangerous" or simply "tainted" in their own definition of those words. If the company tags certain UTXOs as such, they will be banned from coinjoining.

PS. I'm looking for mixing services to come to this thread and respond so that my confusion regarding the same gets cleared. I mean, if they're interested to reply here...

In that case, I would make them aware of the existence of this thread. PM the forum representatives you would like to hear from. But remember, it's all about image. None of them will tell you they will cooperate with any government investigation. What would really happen is something only they know, and it's not for the public.   

[NeuroticFish]

1. Do mixers know where they're getting a deposit from?
2. If yes, will they co-operate here with the officials and let them know about the deposit?
3. If they do, how will they stop the scammer from moving his funds out of their mixer?

Since the mixers are operating in the gray area - let's be honest, at least in theory they protect privacy of both honest users and possibly money launderers too - they may simply not care where the money comes from. Of course, this is probably the official reason some mixers are targeted by law enforcement too (and it's better to honestly say "I didn't care, so I didn't know").

On the other hand, a mixer is just a private business as any. The mixer owner may take certain steps without announcing that (from locking and returning the stolen funds to keeping track of the transactions), but, since such things can hurt the image of a mixer, we will never know a mixer's real stance on that.

So I think that you're expecting too much.

[tabas]

I doubt that the authorities will contact a mixer and will instruct them to monitor bitcoins from an specific address. If so, there will be no closure from the mixers that they've taken down before and they'll just instruct them to be honeypot of most transactions and have logs of it.
We've seen this type of cooperation from the exchanges but haven't seen this happen from a mixer. And if ever that happens, that breaks the purpose of why mixers have been made.

[Little Mouse]

Though a mixer is something else than only mixing hacker's stolen Bitcoin, they would be considered as fraud if they cooperate FBI or any other in such a case. Mixers are supposed to break the link of input regardless of wherever the input came from. No mixer would look at where BTC has come from if they are linked with any hacker unless they are the same ChipMixer honeypot of the FBI  
However, mixers are centralized and they can do all these things including freezing your Bitcoin from the order of FBI.

[hugeblack]

I think that Monero is the only currency that provides you with high privacy in a decentralized manner, Bitcoin is Pseudonymous and therefore trying to enhance this privacy through mixing is not a good idea because privacy is a continuous chain of operations, any weakness in this chain means a complete weakness of the chain and then it is easy to break Your identity, but the question is, who wants to break your identity.

Therefore, the use of mixers means that you will not guarantee that at some point your data may be sent to the government or that it may be hacked in another way, such as your use of bitcoin explorer with a vulnerability, VPN, web browser, cookies data, ...etc.

[Faisal2202]

1. Do mixers know where they're getting a deposit from?

i think yes, i'm not an expert but AFAIK if they don't know the deposit address then how can they remember the receiving address plus you asked if authorities have the hacker address (containing $300 million), they i think it does not matter whether mixer knows the deposit address or not because they already have the hacker account details and can detect whenever the hacker try to make deposit on Mixer.

2. If yes, will they co-operate here with the officials and let them know about the deposit?

I don't think so, because they might not co-operate with them you can take the example of latest ban on Coinmixer, did they co-operated? idk, But in my view if such illegal cases happens then at least these mixer should co-operate with them because at one side we talk about it's mass adoption and other side they don't want to co-operate with authorities, i think they should co-operate with them in vital condition like these and should take extra measures to keep other anonymous while exposing only the hacker account.

3. If they do, how will they stop the scammer from moving his funds out of their mixer?

I don't think they can block addresses rather other than using blocklist for addresses, answer has many probabilities as if they co-operate with authorities then authorities will ask mixer to not block it in fact they will ask them to seize it idk if they can access the seized money, but by blocking it they will lose the chance to get access to stolen money back. And If they are not co-operating with authorities then they could block it because why would they need problems. Honesty is the best policy.

[The Cryptovator]

If using a Bitcoin mixer poses the risk of funds being frozen or other adverse consequences, then what is the point of using Bitcoin Mixer? It would essentially be no different from using a centralized exchange. Additionally, since mixers do not comply with law enforcement, it is not surprising that they are often banned by authorities. Therefore, one should not rely on mixers to protect against stolen or hacked coins. While this may benefit scammers or hackers, it is simply a consequence of the decentralized nature of

[Saisher]

1. Do mixers know where they're getting a deposit from?

The mixing teams are coders and developers they know how everything works so it's likely they know how to trace addresses this is mixing business and their business is privacy anonymization of addresses

2. If yes, will they cooperate here with the officials and let them know about the deposit?

There is not one answer and the answer is not general nor they will give the same answer but they know that this going to come while they are in operation, and some will likely cooperate because they are not in the business of conniving with hackers and scammers,
the easiest way to close your business by authorities is to help scammers getaway

3. If they do, how will they stop the scammer from moving his funds out of their mixer?

They have a way to do that they are the developer of the platform, and developers always have something kept secret from their users this is for foreseeable circumstances.

[Potato Chips]

If using a Bitcoin mixer poses the risk of funds being frozen or other adverse consequences, then what is the point of using Bitcoin Mixer? It would essentially be no different from using a centralized exchange. Additionally, since mixers do not comply with law enforcement, it is not surprising that they are often banned by authorities.

Tbf, the chances of this happening is quite low comprared to most centralized exchanges and it's mainly because they don't comply with authorities. Mixers are designed for privacy and authorities will probably want everything to be recorded and analyzed similar to CEXs which would defeat the purpose of the service. Both offers a completely different service as well. you can't go on CEXs and expect to have the same level of privacy mixers offer.

One great thing about keeping up with the community is, if mixers did something unlike the nature of their service, the stories will likely spread out and they would eventually lose users who research.

[JeromeTash]

This is not the case. If you operate in the USA or any EU country, or any other, you are subject to the laws and authorities of those countries.

Alright then,

Except for wasabi wallet whose coordinator zkSNACKs is a Gibraltar registered company according to multiple sources. Can you list for me among the existing Bitcoin mixers, ones that are registered with the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network? Or any other regulatory body in any country they "Operate"?

[Jawhead999]

I think that Monero is the only currency that provides you with high privacy in a decentralized manner, Bitcoin is Pseudonymous and therefore trying to enhance this privacy through mixing is not a good idea because privacy is a continuous chain of operations, any weakness in this chain means a complete weakness of the chain and then it is easy to break Your identity, but the question is, who wants to break your identity.

Therefore, the use of mixers means that you will not guarantee that at some point your data may be sent to the government or that it may be hacked in another way, such as your use of bitcoin explorer with a vulnerability, VPN, web browser, cookies data, ...etc.

Monero has smaller adoption and hash rate than Bitcoin, it's increase the possibility of 51% attack. There are few institutions pressuring many centralized exchanges to delist privacy coins including Monero. What come to my mind is, when you're use Monero, you will be suspected for illegal use. But if you use Bitcoin with high privacy level, you will not be suspected for illegal use since Bitcoin is accepted in most of countries by follow their regulations.

Talking about privacy leaks of the user's ignorance e.g. honey pot explorer, VPN, no privacy web browser etc aren't related to usage of mixer.

[aioc]

1. Do mixers know where they're getting a deposit from?
2. If yes, will they co-operate here with the officials and let them know about the deposit?
3. If they do, how will they stop the scammer from moving his funds out of their mixer?

We can only speculate no Mixers' representative will go down here to address this question because it will give away their policy or actions that can harm their platform or will shy away potential clients.
It's a dilemma for any unregulated platforms to receive a notification from NBI to deal with something that will break their policy and terms of service, but I assume that they will not break their client's trust.

There's no intention on their part to help scammers or use their platform for criminal activities but I again assume they can compromise so they can protect their platform and at the same time protect their clients.

[khaled0111]

1. Do mixers know where they're getting a deposit from?

They certainly know the address you used to make the deposit and some other information they can get from browser fingerprints like your ip address, os, browser.. Most of these information can be obfuscated by using a private browser which is highly recommended when dealing with mixers.

2. If yes, will they co-operate here with the officials and let them know about the deposit?

Most if not all mixers aren't licensed so they aren't under any obligation to disclose their customers' data to any third party. No one would be interested in using their services if they do so, anyway.
Besides, most of them claim they don't store their customers' activity logs since they clear them as soon as the session ends.

3. If they do, how will they stop the scammer from moving his funds out of their mixer?

I doubt any reputable mixer would do something like this but technically it's doable. All they need to do is to seize the deposited coins without sending the mixed ones.