What is Bitcoin mixer. A Simple Guide to Mixing Bitcoin Safely and Efficiently

I am glad to welcome you friends. Earlier, on the pages of my blog, I have never mentioned such a sensational topic today as the Bitcoin cryptocurrency and everything connected with it. It's time to improve. Probably, on the open spaces of the Runet, and the entire Internet, in general, there is no Webmaster who would not have heard about this new electronic currency and did not show any interest in it. The cue ball rate is growing, mining farms are expanding exponentially, more and more users want to invest in this topic. But are you friends thinking about the other side of the coin, namely the protection of transmitted information and the anonymization of transferred payments? After all, you must agree that public information about your operations, which will be available to many people, is not very good. Especially when the conversation is about serious amounts and transactions.

What then to do and how to ensure the confidentiality and anonymity of payments? The network provides many options, the so-called bitcoin mixers, but we will consider the most convenient and easy-to-use option called CoinMixer.

How Bitcoin Mixer Works

All Bitcoin transactions carried out are merged together into one permanent public record. Using blockcain technology, you can track transactions for the transfer of funds from one address to another. The task of the bitcoin mixer is to break the chain between your old address and the new one by sending funds in such a way that they first go to other users, and their funds go to you. Thus, there is a mixing of different means with each other, to obfuscate the trail from the original source.

As a result, we get random amounts of transactions, which increases time delays. It is precisely because of the delays that the connection between the starting and ending addresses of the transaction is cut off.

As a result, the service protects your information, and most importantly, it does not allow you to track payments made on the Internet.

Service benefits

1) Anonymous work... The considered bitcoin mixer does not require creating an account in the service, entering any information about itself, and it also does not collect data on user activity;

2) Transparent process... The system has already prepared a large number of specially mixed bitcoins for each user. You can independently check that your bitcoin funds are completely anonymized by checking the withdrawal address in the block explorer, for example, through the Blockr.io service;

3) Simple interface... The site provides a simple interface that even a beginner can understand. And the process of anonymizing bitcoin funds itself takes a few minutes of your time;

4) Work safety v. Check out the safety checklist below and conduct your operations with peace of mind.

I like everything, how to start?

Go to this link and fill out the required form with lists of your withdrawals (indicate the addresses to which anonymous Bitcoins will be sent), then confirm the transaction by sending the required amount (plus the service commission) to the address of the CoinMixer service bitcoin wallet.

After that, the mixed bitcoins will be sent to you automatically to the addresses you previously specified.

Important! You need to create at least 2 outputs with different time delays. Then it will be much more difficult to analyze the blockchain and find out what exactly you are using the bitcoin mixer.

You can get acquainted with the full withdrawal process (manual for work) at this link:

https://coinmixer.se/ru/bitcoin-mixing-service/how-to-use-bitcoin-anonymously/

The service commission is 1-3% of the amount and 0.0007 bitcoin for the withdrawal address, to cover the commission for the transaction, for miners.

Verdict

This service is perfect for those people who do not want to publicize their blockchain operations, but leave them anonymous and confidential. If you have a fairly substantial amount that is stored in bitcoins, then for anonymity, I would advise you to pay attention to the bitcoin mixer in question. The procedure itself is quite simple to work with with full explanations, which are described in detail in the manual at the link above. (2 votes, on average: 5 out of 5)

Bitcoin shuffling, also known as bitcoin mixing, is the process of using a third party service to eliminate any connection between the address from which the bitcoins were sent and the address (or addresses) to which they were sent. Since the Bitcoin blockchain is an open ledger of transactions, shuffling bitcoins is critical for those who don't want the whole world to know where they sent, where they store, or where they got their bitcoins from.

Mixing bitcoins may seem daunting to those who are not too familiar with Bitcoin technology, but it is actually a very simple process that will only take a few minutes for each of your addresses.

There are good reasons for everyone to shuffle their coins. as well as
, more and more new tools are constantly being created to track the trace of coins in the blockchain and those who use them. It may seem like a waste of time now, but in the near future, it will become very easy for everyone - including your friends, family, employers, and law enforcement agencies - to track down every transaction you've ever made and see where you were sending money at that moment. So obfuscating traces between your address and the recipient's address definitely makes sense right now.

In this guide, we will try to keep it as simple as possible. step by step instructions, with the aim of helping bitcoin users who are not quite familiar with the process of mixing coins. When writing the instructions, we assumed that the user has basic knowledge of how to send and receive bitcoins, and how to navigate sites in the .onion domain.

To mix bitcoins according to our recipe, you will need:

• Bitcoins or the ability to buy them;
• Tor browser;
• The ability to create new wallets - both through Tor and on the regular Internet. We recommend a wallet, but any other wallet that runs on top of the Tor network will work as well. To create all or some of the wallets, you can also use Blockchain.info and their hidden Tor service.

IMPORTANT: Always make sure you get the .onion links for this and any other hidden service from a secure source (like Darknetmarkets.org). Never use links from Wikipedia, Reddit or the Hidden Wiki on the darknet! Also, never go to the "white" address blockchain.info from Tor, this action will open you to another possible vulnerability (dummy exit nodes in Tor). Safe place to take correct links- page at darknetmarkets.org.

Step-by-step instruction

Step 1: Create a wallet on the regular internet (let's designate it as wallet # 1).

Step 2: Buy bitcoins and send them to wallet # 1.

Step 3: Create a second wallet, this time through the Tor network (wallet # 2).

Step 4: Send bitcoins from wallet # 1 directly to wallet # 2.

This should be done to add credibility to the connection between your wallet on the regular Internet and personalized Bitcoin purchases. If you ever become a member of a law enforcement investigation, or from the company that sold you coins (which happens all the time when buying bitcoins for), you can reasonably claim that you sent them to someone who controls wallet # 2 (under whatever plausible excuse you can think of to justify buying bitcoins). After that, you have no idea, and moreover, you do not care what exactly the recipient of the bitcoins did with them next. And no one will expect this from you.

Step 5: Create a third wallet, also via Tor (wallet # 3).

Step 6: Choose which mixer you will use. Create a set of addresses in wallet # 3 to receive bitcoins from the mixer. It is best to use multiple addresses and randomize the mixing time in the mixer.

ALWAYS CHECK YOU ARE USING THE VERIFIED LINKS. ONION

First of all, we recommend Helix by Grams and Bitcoin Fog, as two of the best, despite the fact that there are no perfect ones in nature. But so far, these two mixers have been reliable, with millions of dollars going through them. DO NOT USE blockchain.info split submissions or any other coinjoin product as a mixer, as they will not hide your footprint to the extent that others can.

Attention: Disable JavaScript in Tor before proceeding to this step if you are going to use Helix, Bitcoin Fog, Bit Blender, or any other mixer that works without JS. Click the "S!" before the Tor address bar, then> Forbid Scripts Globally.

Unfortunately, Bitmixer still requires users to enable JavaScript.

Save the Letter of Guarantee if you decide to use Bitmixer. If you are using Helix, save the address it will redirect you to after you enter the addresses for receiving the shuffled coins. Save this information, as well as logins and passwords from other mixers.

Step 7: Send coins from wallet # 2 via Tor to the address generated for you by the mixer.

Step 8: Assuming that these coins will go to the darknet markets ... if you don't have an address to place a deposit yet, go to your market account and save the address, even though JavaScript should be disabled at this point! Never use marketplaces that require you to enable JavaScript!

Step 9: You can use the hidden address of the Blockchain.info service in Tor to make sure your coins are returned from the mixer. Once you see this, restart Tor, and send the coins to your marketplace account address (or whatever address you originally intended to send them to).

The reason it makes sense to create another wallet between the mixer and the marketplace account is that if ever there is any problem with your account (forgot password, account hacked, password stolen, lost PGP key, etc.) you will be able to use the fact that you control the addresses from which you replenished the deposit as proof that you are the owner of this specific account with a specific address for the deposit.

Also, you should create a separate wallet, the addresses of which will be under your control in case you ever withdraw bitcoins from the market to the mixer. It is much more important to have such a wallet than when moving the mixer -> market, in case the market delays the withdrawal of your deposit (believe me, this happens). The mixers remember the addresses generated for you for a set period of time, usually from 6 to 24 hours. If you initiate a withdrawal from the market directly to the address of a bitcoin mixer, and suddenly a problem arises, and the market delays the withdrawal of funds for 48 hours, then you will face a very real risk that the mixer will not receive your bitcoins after the withdrawal from the exchange, and will never return them to you. And this will not be a fault of the mixer, they do not hide their principles of work. Mixers delete records of addresses and transactions every X hours - in order to maintain the confidentiality of the transactions.

Advice: In order to make sure that there is no connection left between wallet # 2 and wallet # 3, you can use the analyzer from Blockchain.info. In the link below, replace 1YOURBITCOINADDRESS with your wallet # 3 address:

On the page that opens, look for the address (or addresses) of wallet # 2. If you can't find it, you can be congratulated! You've got an untracked bitcoin shuffle! If the service shows the address of wallet # 2, then there is some problem with the mixer you used. You can contact them to clarify the circumstances, or just use another for the future.

The only fly in the ointment is the fact that mixers can keep records of your transactions. While they claim to delete all records shortly after sending bitcoins, the possibility remains that they retain a trace of where your coins were sent to. This risk can be mitigated by passing the coins through another mixer.

Perhaps the description of the process will seem more complicated than it really is. In general, the whole procedure should take about 10-15 minutes, and it is well worth it if you value your privacy and want to be sure that under no circumstances will you lose your money.

As in any other case, when it comes to sending money to someone, you should do your own research before using the services of any Bitcoin mixers, and focus on the ones that users have written about. best reviews, and the level of trust in which is the highest. The mixers listed in this article have been in operation for a while, and during that time there have been no verifiable complaints about them. The other listed services have either recently appeared, or they have already been hacked, or there have been complaints from users about them. There are no links in the article to mixers that are known to be fraudulent (they do not return the coins sent to them), or to those that do not work as they claim.

Related

1. Nikolay

Most of the newbies who are just starting to discover the world of cryptocurrencies believe in the anonymity of Bitcoin. This belief is based on the fact that any user can open a bitcoin wallet, as well as send and receive coins by interacting with other users, without being tied to any personal data and without having to go through verification by sending scanned copies of their passports or other documents to the network. Indeed, compared to opening a bank account, opening a wallet happens in a matter of minutes and does not require the owner's personal information to be made public. But, despite the fact that wallets are not tied to the identity of the user, the anonymity of the bitcoin network is seeming and special services or professional hackers will be able to establish your identity.

In this article, we will explain why Bitcoin transactions are only pseudo-anonymous and how you can really keep Bitcoin anonymous, or at least try to obfuscate the tracks.

Why is Bitcoin not anonymous?

With a bank transfer, your transactions cannot be viewed by any ordinary user. In the bitcoin blockchain, anyone can look into your wallet, knowing its address and see not only the balance, but also the history of transactions, including the wallets of your counterparties, and establish the chain through which the coins were sent or received. Of course, an ordinary user will not recognize your name or address. But this data is stored in many services in which you bought or spent your cryptocurrency. If you bought bitcoin on an exchange requiring verification of data or spent it on purchasing goods in an online store indicating your data or delivery address, then this information can be provided to regulatory authorities or obtained as a result of hacking an exchange or online store.

It is believed that the anonymity of bitcoin disappears at the time of depositing or withdrawing funds to the wallet. If respectable residents of Europe or the United States should not be afraid of disclosing their bitcoin transactions, then in countries with total corruption of law enforcement agencies, it is advisable not to once again shine their bitcoin addresses so as not to become a victim of extortion. Next, we will figure out what you can do to maintain your anonymity.

How to keep Bitcoin anonymous?

To begin with, we will give a few tips on ensuring anonymity, and then move on to an overview of special services.

• On exchanges, cryptocurrency must be bought in small volumes, which do not require account verification or use decentralized exchanges. If you want to make a large investment in bitcoin, then use large quantity wallets and accounts on exchanges.
• For each new deal, create new address wallet. For convenience, you can use one of the HD wallets (hierarchical deterministic). An HD wallet provides an unlimited number of bitcoin addresses, the connection between which cannot be established, but they are all tied to one master key. This feature is now supported by Armory, Electrum, Multibit, BitGo and TREZOR wallets. The popular blockchain.info creates a new wallet address for each transaction.
• Use the TOP browser or hide your IP address with VPN services. The nodes that your transaction goes through can record IP addresses.
• If possible, ditch Bitcoin transactions in favor of cryptocurrencies that provide much greater anonymity: Zcash, Monero, or DASH.
• Use special services mixers mixing payments.
• Try to send round sums without breaking payments through mixers without a unique fractional part. Even if you pass an amount through the mixer, for example, 0.52148752 bitcoin, then you can find it at the exit from the mixer. But to understand where your transfer of 0.5 bitcoin went in the whole list of transfers with the same amount is much more difficult.

Bitcoin Mixers - Transaction Mixing Services

Bitcoin mixers split the payment into many small ones and mix them with the payments of other users. As a result, the full amount is sent to the recipient's address, but from different wallets and often split into parts.

Many of these services have already closed. These are the most popular Bitmixer.io and the lesser known Bitcoin Blender, Bitcoin Laundry and others. This is mainly due to problems with law enforcement agencies, because such services were used mainly in the Darknet to buy prohibited goods. Previously, the Shared coin function in the blockchain.info wallet allowed mixing bitcoins, but now it has already been removed from the functionality, due to the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

Remember that when you send bitcoins to such an online service, no one guarantees you their return. Be sure to read the latest reviews before using to see if the service has been snubbed.

Of those working online services at the moment we can distinguish:

• Bitcoin Fog (https://www.bitcoinfog.co/). Works through the TOR browser. Charges from 1% to 3% of the deposit. Payments are split into parts, which are credited at random intervals.
• Bitcoin Mixer (https://bitcoinmix.org/). Charges from 2% to 5% for each transaction, depending on the speed of enrollment of payments. Fully automatic mode without saving any logs or wallet information.

Much harder to use, but much safer software NtumbleBit. You can download it on GitHub: https://github.com/NTumbleBit/NTumbleBit
For the application to work, you need.

Anyone who wants to anonymize their Bitcoin transactions often resorts to various tricks. In most cases, it is easiest to use specialized cryptocurrency mixers. It turned out that Bitmixer.io, the world's largest Bitcoin mixer, will cease to function. It is still not clear if this decision has anything to do with Bitmixer's relationship with AlphaBay users.

Popular service Bitmixer.io goes to the bow

The latest news has surprised the entire cryptocurrency community. Bitmixer.io has been around for many years and has been one of the trusted services for mixing transactions. The company provided all users with an additional degree of protection of personal data, while the popular cryptocurrency itself cannot boast of such features. It took several years before the Bitmixer team finally realized that this was not an oversight of the developers, but a predefined feature.

In addition, the mixers have gained an extremely negative reputation in recent years. They are often associated with the organization of criminal activities on the Internet, mainly on the darknet. Popular trading floor AlphaBay even redirected users who wanted to hide their bitcoin history before sending payment through the platform to BitMixer. Perhaps this connection made law enforcement officials dig deeper and look for the organizers of the service.

Information about the shutdown of the popular mixer appeared at. While the company is making good money, which is to be expected because the mixers don't work for free, the service was shut down in an instant. Something definitely made the operators quit their business, although it is not yet clear what. Bitcoin does not need transactions on the darknet to be successful, which should be obvious. Other mixers are still working.

In, given by Bitmixer owner The Merkle in 2015, he mentioned that Bitmixer transferred 65,000 BTC per month. If this is true, then this entire stream of users will rush to look for alternative mixers, which will lead to an increase in the volume of their operations. Alternatively, users can switch to anonymous cryptocurrencies such as Monero or Dash, which will also have a positive effect on their exchange rate.

The Bitcointalk community is not happy about the latest news. The fewer mixers left on the market, the more difficult it will be to hide the history of the origin of bitcoins. This can be a serious problem. Also, there are not many mixers on the internet that users can trust.

It doesn't look like anyone will take over the platform or run their code on it. Also, the company is not for sale, which is also strange. It looks like the operator has changed its mindset and now believes that Bitcoin will become a legal currency in many countries in the coming years. And this is possible only without mixers.

This is one of the most reliable and convenient bitcoin mixers, despite the fact that it appeared quite recently, but it has positive reviews and a large reserve - over 2,000 BTC. The service is still far from the giants of this sphere, but, in general, development is visible, and the creators of the site are meeting their users halfway:
- the client of the system can set the distribution amounts and the time of the transfer by himself, which he considers optimal for anonymity;
- Bitcoin mixer is available from both PC and phone;
- blender charges from 0.5% to 3% for its services.
- The mixing code is available to the users, which guarantees the user that the transaction will not be mixed with the previous ones.

In addition, it is possible that future versions of Bitcoin will provide users with a higher degree of anonymity, although no developer has officially confirmed this.

(24 estimates, average: 4,92 out of 5)

One of the most destructive misconceptions among those who use cryptocurrency is the belief that Bitcoin is indeed a safe and confidential means of payment. But what if this is not at all the case, and the legendary creators of the largest blockchain system ignored the issues of anonymity? The realities are such that this settlement system is really not 100% anonymous and in fact makes it possible for everyone to find out who and in what quantity a given amount was transferred.

Today, either because of ignorance, or because of the lack of a real need for anonymity, the demand for bitcoin is still high and continues to grow, and with it the price of the cryptocurrency is growing. Apparently, the fact that the contents of wallets and all transactions are visible at a glance does not particularly bother investors who are actively buying up a promising financial asset. Therefore, our material will be of more interest to those who use Bitcoin in order to make anonymous and secure transactions with a minimum commission.

Anonymity of payments is an issue that worries not only those who engage in illegal activities. The very fact that any blockchain user has the ability to access all your transactions and find out where your funds were spent will seem to many to be a hole in the security of your finances.

And this is quite logical, because we do not even take into account the fact that the federal services potentially have complete control over operations. So what happens - cash settlement with paper money is much safer than Bitcoin, which initially positioned itself as an anonymous means of payment?

Pseudo-anonymity is a key disadvantage of Bitcoin

Of course, things are not so bad, and the creators of the world's first cryptocurrency do not deserve too harsh criticism. In the end, the Bitcoin system does provide a certain level of security and conditional anonymity. However, the toolkit in this regard is limited only by the fact that the system does not ask for your personal data and does not regulate the process of transferring funds in any way. However, the developers of the cryptocurrency clearly missed the fact that the very essence of bitcoin as an electronic currency based on the blockchain, where all operations are visible at a glance, completely negates the ability of the currency to be anonymous.

Blockchain technology is designed in such a way that all transactions within the system are collected in a completely transparent database. Chains of information blocks, where bitcoins and transaction data act as information, are completely open and any user of the system has the opportunity to see how much bitcoin was sent and to which wallets. In theory, it is even possible to determine the balance of a particular wallet, which makes the system manifestly insecure.

A shortsighted user may assume that if his transactions are visible to other users, then this is not the most a big problem as no personal data is available. However, we are talking about imaginary security. Many people forget that personal data is not available until the moment when the funds are not withdrawn to a payment card or sent as payment for goods with delivery to the address. As soon as you convert bitcoin to fiat money, your persona is immediately de-anonymized.

And although 99.9% of bitcoin owners are completely uninteresting to special services and fraudsters, today there are already known cases of disclosure of the identities of criminals who accepted "black payments" in bitcoins. It becomes obvious that it is not so difficult to figure out who and where to transfer money, if there is a request and funds for this. Also in the news there is already a flicker of crime for extortion of cue ball.

How can a Bitcoin user remain in the shadows without showing their personal data? You can solve anonymity issues with the help of a Bitcoin mixer, a technology that will be discussed below.

What is a Bitcoin mixer?

Many blockchain users, for whom anonymity plays an important role, after learning that Bitcoin does not guarantee 100% security, begin to actively remember whether they have "exposed" their personal data anywhere. Be that as it may, this category of users has the opportunity to make all subsequent transactions confidential using Bitcoin mixers.

The essence of such services is to mix the bitcoins of all network users, as a result of which payments are anonymized. Usually, in order to start using a Bitcoin mixer, it is enough to go through a simple registration procedure on the website of one of the popular services, and then you can send bitcoins to the address indicated in your account. After some time, you will be able to receive your funds minus the system commission.

Mixer operation diagram

• The de-anonymized user sends funds tied to his identity to the Bitcoin mixer;
• The system shuffles the funds and sends the anonymized money to the new wallet;
• The chain of operations tied to your identity is cut off at the mixing stage, and you get an anonymous wallet with money credited to it.

Potential risks

When using Bitcoin mixers, you need to assess the risks soberly. There is always the possibility that the mixer service is fraudulent. Using a mixer, you send funds to an unknown person who may not return them, and it will be impossible to “rewind” the transaction. And given that the Bitcoin system is decentralized, then you simply will have no one to complain to, since the support service simply does not exist.

Also, the user should take into account the risks of transferring his personal data to third parties. In theory, mixer services can provide logs to intelligence officers, provided they are under pressure. First of all, these risks concern the owners of large amounts, so investors who have a couple of coins in their wallet should not panic.

You need to be aware that not a single service mixer will give a 100% guarantee of high-quality mixing of bitcoin. If the mixing algorithm is too simple, then it can be easily calculated, and, therefore, you can find out who entered the money into the system and where to withdraw it. In addition, if you receive dishonestly earned Bitcoins from the mixer, this may also raise suspicion. Your funds, honestly earned on HYIPs, will seem to you harmless fun in comparison with the money earned from drug or arms dealing.

Popular Bitcoin Mixers

If you are not embarrassed by the risks inherent in Bitcoin mixers, then you can choose one of the following services for “covering the trail”, each of which has its own advantages and features.

The operation of this mixer is based on the principle of dividing the translation into small parts with further forwarding through the backup circuit. There is always a sufficient number of coins in the service reserve to ensure uninterrupted operation. This allows you to maintain the speed of transactions, while not creating a large queue waiting for the arrival of new coins.

The second noteworthy point is the mixing code, which prevents the sender from receiving their own coins. Thus, the anonymity of the sender is not compromised. In terms of security, Blender keeps the bar high - the service works without scripts, and data exchange is carried out with the support of SegWit addresses.

While maintaining the minimum commission for the operation and a small deposit, Blender stands out among other mixers. Also, about this mixer, there are already many articles on the network from trust sites, which instills confidence in this project.

CryptoMixer

There are many positive reviews on the network about this Bitcoin mixer, which has appeared relatively recently. In addition, it is secured by a reserve of 2,000 BTC. Among the advantages of the system, it should be noted:

• Possibility of self-setting of the distribution amount and the time of the transaction;
• Mixer availability on stationary and portable devices;
• API for developers.

The system commission is 0.5% + 0.0005 BTC fixed.

Coinmixer

This service has some differences compared to CryptoMixer. It clearly regulates the cryptocurrency mixing algorithm. In particular, the user cannot make a transaction for more than 20 BTC at a time. Thus, if you need to anonymize a larger amount, you will have to make an application repeatedly.

This service has a good reputation and is in demand in the cryptocurrency community. For the convenience of the service, you will have to pay a commission from 1 to 3% + 0.001 BTC.

Other ways to anonymize payments

The search for a universal obfuscation technology has attracted and continues to attract developers of cryptographic currencies. Creating a truly anonymous currency for developers is not only a personal professional challenge, but also an opportunity to squeeze the popular Bitcoin out of the market. Developers, realizing the weaknesses of the world's largest cryptocurrency in terms of capitalization, do not sleep and use this gap to promote their projects. For this reason, digital money that protects the personal data of its users is becoming more and more.

The obfuscation technology has already been successfully applied in coins such as Dash and Monero. Nevertheless, today professionals understand that deanonymization of operations in these systems is theoretically possible. The ZCASH cryptocurrency brings to a fundamentally new level of anonymity, which does not display information about the transaction, but only states the fact that the transaction took place. This technology significantly surpasses the anonymization methods provided by bitcoin, which creates a huge demand for z-cash and similar less popular cryptocurrencies.

How to ensure the anonymity of transactions on the blockchain?

Not every blockchain user uses technology to conduct illegal transactions. Most of the cryptocurrency community uses technology for anonymity at the household level. If it is important for you that your income and expenses remain inaccessible to third parties, then when making transactions, use our recommendations on hiding personal information:

• Use at least two Bitcoin mixers to obfuscate the tracks. If suddenly one of the services compromises you, the second will act as an additional security gateway.
• To carry out the operation, use TOR browser complete with two mixers. Also recommended in TOR settings disconnect
• If the service mixer requires mandatory registration, then each time you perform an operation, create a new mail account.
• Each time you use new wallets to make transactions.
• Use proven mixer services that have been reviewed by reputable representatives of the crypto community.

These tips will help you to anonymize the movement of your finances on the network as much as possible and practically eliminate the possibility of tracking how you use your cryptocurrency.