What is a Bitcoin mixer, aka tumbler, scrambler or shuffler? These interchangeable terms refer to services that allow people to hide the source of their coins, whether they send or receive them.
Why this service is necessary if one is using Bitcoins? After all, anonymity is part of what Bitcoin is all about, right? Since the Bitcoin blockchain is always in the public domain and is a public log of all transactions, it is easy to track a person from his/her Bitcoin address and any online identity associated with that person.
Some may argue that only hackers or criminals would need to be anonymous when using Bitcoin, or any other cryptocurrency. But that isnt necessarily true.
There are many reasons to keep your transactions private, especially when dealing with large amounts. We don’t publicly display our bank records, simply because its nobody elses business. We make this information known selectively, on an individual basis, when necessary. Whatever your motives, privacy is your right. In the case of cryptocurrency, tumblers can be used to maintain anonymity. Keep reading for more useful information.
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What is a Bitcoin Tumbler?
Using Bitcoins is an excellent way to stay anonymous while making your purchases, donations, and P2P payments, without losing money through inflated transaction fees. But BTC transactions are never truly anonymous. Bitcoin activities are recorded and available publicly via the blockchain — a comprehensive database which keeps a record of all BTC transactions. And when you finally use BTC to pay for goods and services, you will need to provide your name and address to the seller for delivery purposes. It means that a third party can trace your transactions and find ID information.
That’s where Bitcoin mixing services come to your rescue, they work on a simple mechanism of breaking down your coins into many different parts and mixing those parts with other broken parts from other clients.
Tumblers were used to mix one’s funds with other people’s money, intending to confuse the trail back to the funds’ original source. In traditional financial systems, the equivalent would be moving funds through banks located in countries with strict bank-secrecy laws, such as the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas and Panama.
Properly mixing coins may seem like a daunting task to those who aren’t very familiar with cryptocurrency, but it is actually a simple process that only takes a few minutes for each deposit. In total it should only take about 10-15 minutes, and it is something worth doing if you value your privacy and want to make sure you never lose any coins!
How Does a Bitcoin Mixer Work?
Bitcoin tumbling (mixing) involves the usage of a third party service to break the connection between a wallet address sending coins and the addresses receiving coins. So if a person does not wish the whole world to know from where they got their coins, and/or to which addresses the Bitcoins are sent, then tumbling is the way to go. A provider of Bitcoin tumbling service is referred to as Bitcoin tumbler.
Coin mixing will provide you with a certain amount of privacy, by mixing your coins with other coins previously sent or in their reserve and sending different coins to the address you specify. When looking at the blockchain, one will be able to see you sent your coins to a wallet. And that someone sent coins to the wallet you want them sent, there will be no connection between your wallet address and the one where you want your crypto delivered.
Peer-to-peer tumblers appeared in an attempt to fix the disadvantages of the centralized model of tumbling. These services act as a place of meeting for Bitcoin users, instead of taking coins for mixing. Users arrange mixing by themselves. This model solves the problem of stealing, as there is no middleman. Such protocols as Coin Join, Shared Coin and Coin Swap allow few users to gather in order to form one Bitcoin exchange transaction in several steps. When it is completely formed, the exchange of BTC between the participants begins. Apart from the mixing server, none of the participants can know the connection between the incoming and outgoing addresses of coins. This operation can be carried out several times with different recipients to complicate the transaction analysis.
While newer coin implementations such as Cloakcoin, Dash, PIVX and Zcoin have built-in mixing services as a part of their blockchain network.
Bear in mind that if you send your virtual coins to a mixing service which is unreliable or operated by a scammer, you’ll lose your coins. We encourage you to do your own research to find a trustworthy service.
Is Bitcoin Mixer a must?
There are good reasons for everyone to mix their coins, but for those who use Darknet Markets in particular, it is a necessity. New tools are being built all the time to increase the publicity, as well as private corporations and government agencies, to follow coins through the blockchain and track those who use it.
It may seem like a waste of time now, but in the near future, it may be simple for anyone (including friends, relatives, employers, and law enforcement) to track every BTC transaction you’ve ever made and see exactly where it ended up. Breaking the connection between your addresses and the coins’ destination by mixing them is certainly a precaution that all users should take.
How to use Bitcoin Tumbler?
In this tutorial, you would find the simplest instructions. And even if you are unfamiliar with the process of coin tumbling, you will soon be able to do so effectively.
In order to mix your coins using this method, you will need:
- Bitcoins, or the ability to buy them.
- The Tor Browser
- The ability to create a new Bitcoin wallet, both via Tor and on the clearnet. Alternatively, you could use Blockchain.info and their Tor hidden service to create all or some of your wallets.
Step-by-step guide
- Create BTC wallet #1.
- Buy some coins and transfer them to wallet #1.
- Create BTC wallet #2 over the Tor network.
- Send your coins from wallet #1 directly to wallet #2.
- Create BTC wallet #3 over the Tor network.
- Select a mixer service and set up your transaction there using the address(es) from wallet #3. It is recommended that you use multiple addresses and to set random time delays (always make sure you are using the correct .ONION links!).
- Send the coins from wallet #2 over the Tor browser to the address generated for you by the mixer.
- Assuming these coins are going to be sent to a darknet market… if you don’t already have your deposit address, sign in and get it while having JavaScript disabled. Never use any market that requires you to enable JS! However, Bitmixer still requires users have JavaScript enabled.
- You can use Blockchain.info’s Tor hidden service to watch for your coins arrive from the mixer. Once you have them, restart Tor and then send the coins to their eventual destination.
The only weakness remaining is the fact that the mixing company has records of your transactions, and although they all claim to delete them shortly after the transaction is complete, it is possible they could have a trail of where your coins went. You can negate this risk by repeating the process with a second mixing service.
Popular Mixing Services
1. BitsMix.Biz
BitsMix is one of those mixing services that keep your crypto safe. The platform will take your bitcoin, mix it with other deposits, and give you the same amount of bitcoin in return. It’s designed to reduce bitcoin tracking, “clean” your coins, and help ensure anonymity on the transparent bitcoin network.
A bitcoin mixer service like BitsMix.Biz will take your bitcoin, then give you different bitcoin in return. The platform collects everyone’s bitcoin deposits, mixes them up into one central account, and then returns the bitcoins to users. You get the same amount of bitcoin (minus a fee), but different bitcoin from different parts of the blockchain.
With BitsMix.Biz, you get a letter of guarantee. That letter of guarantee is proof of BitsMix.Biz’s obligations. When they give you their bitcoin address, they’ll provide a digitally-signed confirmation that this address has genuinely been generated by the server. That letter is always signed from the BitsMix.Biz main bitcoin account (that account is publicly available on BitsMix).
The platform also uses a special 12 symbol “code” to ensure you get your bitcoin back every time you use the service. You save that code. That code also 100% excludes you from receiving your own coins anytime in the future.
With BitMix.Biz you will get:
- Fully Anonymity
After your order is invalid, BitsMix.Biz will remove any information about your transactions. Absolutely no logs or personality identifying information is kept regarding your use of the BitsMix.Biz service. - Instant Transfer
Money is instantly transferred to your address after your transaction is confirmed. - Partner Program
BitsMix.Biz pays users when they refer others to the platform. They’ll pay for every transaction made by an invited user.
The platform charges a mining fee of 0.4 to 4%. You can set the fee manually when you’re mixing your bitcoins. The address fee is 0.0005 BTC per output address to cover any transaction fees charged by miners.
BitsMix.Biz’s mixing process takes up to 24 hours, although it’s usually “almost instant” depending on the current service load.
You’re required to mix a minimum of 0.007 BTC and a maximum of 1000 BTC. Transactions outside this range will not be accepted.
2. SmartMixer
One more tumbler service worth your attention is SmartMixer. It is a reliable blender service which helps to hide the traces of your crypto transactions by mixing them with other fund transfers. This platform differs from others offering three pool assignments:
- Standard Pool (client’s coins are mixed with incoming funds of other users).
- Smart Pool (client’s coins are mixed with incoming funds of other users, private reserves of the service, and coins from investors).
- Stealth Pool (client’s coins are mixed only with private reserves of the service, and coins from investors).
The mixing process is very simple and takes only a couple of minutes. It is enough to select one of three coins acceptable (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash), enter the recipient’s address, delay the transaction for any time up to 72 hours, send coins to the address indicated, and wait for their delivery to the final destination.
The service requires no signup and guarantees 100% confidentiality to all users. Mixing fees are very reasonable and taken from the miners’ fee which is very comfortable. Moreover, during the first transaction, you get a Smart Code which will reward you with a discount on further mixing. Every transaction is supported by the Letter of Guarantee and information about it is deleted after 24 hours to guarantee anonymity.
Other advantages of SmartMixer is a friendly customer support team working round the clock as well as a referral program with one of the highest commissions which can reach 70%.
3. Anonymix
When you need truly anonymous Bitcoins, Anonymix is the only mixer for the job. Due to their sophisticated reserve system with both hot and cold storage, they can handle high capacity mixes of up to 100 BTC to ensure that, whatever you need to mix, they can always deliver bitcoins without a trace.
In addition to high-quality mixing, Anomymix gives you the chance to win more than you pay! Every 100th mix receives a bonus of 25%, so mix your Bitcoins often to increase your chances of winning.
Here’s what else you need to know:
- Bulletproof Mixing:
To make your mix even harder to trace, Anonymix offers you an array of delay settings and the option to send your Bitcoins to multiple addresses. - Low fees:
Anonymix charges a service fee of .3% and a transaction fee of .0001 BTC per payout address. - Certificate of Origin:
Anonymix always provides documentation that the Bitcoins you receive come from them.
Anonymix uses an algorithm resistant to blockchain analysis when they mix your Bitcoins, so you can rest assured you’re always getting the best possible mix. Visit Anonymix today at bitcoinmix.net.
4. BitcoinMixer
BitcoinMixer is a new mixing service launched in December 2019. It guarantees reliable Bitcoin mixing and has a number of features that are important for getting full anonymity.
The first thing to pay attention to is low fees. The platform charges a fee of 0.25% in addition to the transaction fee of 0.000001 BTC for every payment address you send Bitcoin to. The minimum amount for mixing is 0.0002 BTC and all the smaller amounts are considered as donations. The main features of the mixer are the following ones:
- Instant and delayed transactions (up to 24 hours),
- No logs policy,
- Mix ID for every order,
- Minimum of 1 confirmation,
- Payout distribution to up to 5 addresses.
The platform offers to improve your transaction privacy and delay the mixing process for the period of up to one day as well as select up to 5 addresses to send clean Bitcoins to.
Every mixing order is granted a mix ID for a crypto holder to be able to check the status of the mix or to restore it if there is a crash in the browser after you send a deposit. The service has no logs policy and delete all the information about the mix in 7 days.
If you mix an amount under 20 BTC, you will need to wait for only one confirmation. Large amounts over this sum require 6 confirmations on the blockchain.
BitcoinMixer has a professional customer support service that usually gets back to users within 24 hours since sending the contact form you have filled.
5. CryptoMixer
CryptoMixer is another simple yet trustworthy Bitcoin Tumbler service. And one of the primary differences it has compared to the other platforms on this list is that it can accommodate really “large volume transactions”.
There is no Maximum transaction limit as such, considering how their reserve is really huge and you’ll need to be a millionaire before you can run them out of funds. If any limit is breached, you are notified before you make the payment.
The minimum transaction 0.001BTC, any amount lower than this is is considered a donation, like in the case of PriveCoin, and isn’t sent back to the customer.
The minimum fee is 0.5%, with an additional 0.0005BTC for every deposited transaction.
You can set a custom fee for added anonymity and they also provide a letter or guarantee like all the mentionable Bitcoin Tumblers out there.