Facts and Fiction: 5 Things You Have to Know About Your Bitcoin Mixer

Separating truth from falsehood isn’t always the easiest thing to do when it comes to bitcoin mixers. Here are five things you’ve got to know if you own bitcoin.

Bitcoin mixers have gotten a bad rap. But, seeing as they’re integral to keeping your identity locked down and out of the hands of centralized authorities, it’s no wonder the powers that be love to bad mouth bitcoin mixers.

While this sort of practice could easily equate to criminality when it comes to fiat currencies, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were specifically designed to be anonymous and decentralized. So why is the humble bitcoin mixer so demonized?

Largely, it’s two fold: One, governmental authorities are having difficulty regulating the currency, and therefore making money off of said regulation. Two, if they can make bitcoin anonymity a criminal offense, fewer people may actually use these types of protection methods. But the truth is- lots of people use bitcoin mixers. Few of which are actually criminals.

Bitcoin Mixer: The Public

Fallacy: Only Criminals Use Bitcoin Mixers

Absolutely untrue. “Every day people use bitcoin mixers,” say the blender gods over at Best Bitcoin Tumbler. “This is exactly why it’s so important to ensure that regular people have access to reliable information on how to use these services.” Knowing how to use a blender is really only half the battle. Potential users also need to keep in mind why it’s important to use a blender.

Anytime you purchase or trade bitcoin that transaction is logged, along with your wallet I’d and any other information tied to it, in the blockchain. That means that anybody with a bit of knowledge about analytics and blockchain can easily follow your transaction history throughout the blockchain. Leaving them with all sorts of information. Things like your name, your address, and even your wallet balance.

Bitcoin Mixer: The Corporation

Fallacy: No one else uses Bitcoin Mixers

Again, false. Outside of Joe Public, large companies use bitcoin mixers as well. Which can make the whole process seem a lot less shady. Companies that use bitcoin blenders usually do so to keep their employee’s information or their payroll details out of the public eye. This means that salaries, expenditures, and holdings are kept from being public knowledge.

Which is what most companies that deal in fiat ask for as well. Few companies are happy to make their entire worth, full payroll ledger, bank account info, and expense records fully accessible to the public. This doesn’t make them a shady enterprise but instead provides the company and their employees with the privacy that we’d all expect.

Bitcoin Mixer: The Government

Fallacy: Governments can easily track payment into bitcoin mixers

Ah, nope. While we’re not sure where this particular myth came from, it seems to be a pretty pervasive one. Assuming it’s a scare tactic used to dissuade people from using bitcoin mixers and blenders to obscure their identity that may be tied with their coins. It goes something like “governments flag bitcoin mixing services so that anyone who uses them is automatically identified and put on a watch list.”

While we’re all for a good conspiracy theory, this is a bit tin foil, even for us. While it would be possible to see that you have deposited bitcoin into a mixer, whether or not you receive anything back is impossible to trace. Also- most good mixers exist on the dark web. Accessible only with a VPN, so knowing that a mixer is a mixer- purely from blockchain analytics- is pretty difficult to prove.

Bitcoin Mixer: The Blender

Fallacy: Any bitcoin mixer is a good bitcoin mixer

Definitely not. Bitcoin blenders are just as subject to fraud and scams as any other cryptocurrency platform. In fact, scams happen all the time.

“The most fashionable scam at the moment is when someone uses a fake TOR address for a well-known mixer. Some of these sites look pretty convincing, so it can be difficult to tell a scam from real” says Best Bitcoin Tumbler. “The best way to keep your coins safe is to do your homework and ensure you’ve got the right address.”

Bitcoin Mixer: The Cost

Fallacy: Bitcoin Mixers are free, miners are what costs you

Nice try mixers. While it’s true that miners can incur their own fee, any bitcoin mixer worth its soap will charge some sort of fee. This is what keeps the mixing services on their feet and keeps them with a big ol’ stack of coins to blend with.

Some of the nicer mixers have fee options that are designed to encourage certain customers, like variable rates, multi-use discounts, and flat fees.

 

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