Topic: Bitcoin mixers. Interview 06.2020 (Read 704 times)

I disagree. First off, that information is more-or-less irrelevant to the users who are using the mixer. It doesn't matter how profitable they are; what matters is your coins are mixed thoroughly and unable to be de-anonymized. Secondly, releasing such information could potentially reduce the anonymity the mixer can provide. If we know the turnover of exactly how much bitcoin is deposited to ChipMixer (for example), and know how much is paid via their pay-what-you-want pricing model, and know how much profit they take, and so forth, that information could theoretically be used to estimate the discrepancy between the amount of bitcoin I send to ChipMixer and the amount of bitcoin I withdraw from ChipMixer. I would rather they keep this information private.

I agree with ETFbitcoin above - I would like to see more technical questions. How are they looking to the future to combat ever advancing chain analysis techniques? How do they think Lightning Network will impact their service? What do they think about blinded bearer certificates? When SegWit?

By answering those questions, they proved that they take their business seriously. This in itself deserves respect.
Being interactive with the community and answering customers inquiries is one of the most important keys to business success.
I know it might sound improper, but it would be more interesting if you asked some questions about their financial activity/performance (such as how profitable running a mixing service is, expenses, annual turnover...). I doubt any of them would answer this, though.

In practice, it is very difficult to find the right questions.
I had a lot of questions about server security, Signature campaigns on the forum, but I did not want to ask about crime, because mixers are already accused of many crimes.

I will wait for an answer from representatives of other mixers.

This is the sort of stuff that could be done via a Bitcoin podcast. Get in contact with Bitcoin businesses, and see if they would like to answer a few questions about their operation, as well as the difficulties of accepting Bitcoin for a service. It would be a great way to promote Bitcoin, and I think would be a hit if done correctly.

It would likely be along the lines of; our business is for privacy reasons, and therefore we are not encouraging illegal activity, and we don't have the resources or the required data to investigate whether users are misusing their service. They would likely need to make the comparison with cash, and how criminals use cash just as much as Bitcoin, and cash is hard to track when its exchanging hands. As far as I'm aware though, most people using mixers are for privacy reasons, and not for buying illegal goods or laundering money.

German translation finished: Interview mit Bitcoin-Mixern [Juni 2020] von zasad@

I've also asked in my German version if someone can provide more interesting questions for a second part if you are planning to do one.
Very good idea to do such an interview.

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But what does this mean:

Maybe we can get a clarification in a possible second part.

And I didn't know about FoxMixer, it's active since 2017 but I've never heard of it.  

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A question why they started a mixer and information about their previous activities would also be interesting but most likely that's revealing too much about the owners...

Good for you and good for them! To be honest I only know of the 2 mixers and only 1 of them is in that list. It makes me feel good as a user who has never mixed before that if I was to choose one, at least I know who to use. IT doesn't mean I will never lose funds with them but I know I can trust them to a certain extent.

ChipMixer is one of the best options for mixing bitcoins, and presence in bitcointalk forum for years proves that,
but there are also wallets with privacy options like Wasabi and Samourai Wallet.

Is there any website traffic comparison for all mentioned mixers website?
 

We do not ask the Federal reserve system or American and other banks what they think about criminals who use dollars
Maybe next time

Nice interview, but it'd be better if you ask hard questions such as :
1. Their views on criminal who use mixer
2. Their thoughts about research to de-anonymize mixers

Thank. Users are most interested in the safety of the mixer and the absence of fraud. When a stranger asks you about the turnover of funds or location, it looks suspicious.
I will take your advice in the future

To be fair, questions were very simple and basic. Also there was non question asked where darknet and mixers could be linked to each other (second article that inspired you was about it). Personally, I was looking for an interview similar to this one: https://themerkle.com/interview-with-the-owner-of-bitmixer-io-a-high-volume-bitcoin-mixer/

Still nice interview, good luck!

I plan to wait for the response of other representatives of the mixers on the forum. If they answer me, I will probably add their answers to the article.

Don't be sad if you received what you thought is a low response rate. I think it's okay, I'm not surprised by this.
If you told us that no one answered you, I wouldn't be surprised too. The less they say and the less they appear in public places, the better. It's a kind of cover.

Your questions were ok as long you didn't ask their secret sauce, that's why those replied to you. Otherwise it's like asking for the Nutella recipe, Ferrero will never reply.

reserve

Preamble
The idea of this project was 2 articles:
1. 2020 List Bitcoin Mixers Bitcoin Tumblers Websites
2. Darknet Use and Bitcoin — A Crypto Activity Report by Crystal Blockchain

Based on analytics, the popularity of mixers in the market is growing and they have good profit
On the forum I found representatives of many mixers and decided to contact them.
With disappointment, I discovered that many representatives have not appeared here for a very long time.
I tried to contact them via email and contact forms on their sites, wrote them my contacts, links, and most importantly wrote in bold that the article would be completely free.
For 2 weeks I did not receive answers. It's hard for me to say why this happened, but I made a promise that the article would be published.
The order in writing the answers is taken from the List Bitcoin Mixers.

I managed to get an answer from 3 representatives of the mixers: ChipMixer, MixTum Mixer, FoxMixer

After studying a lot of forums, claims and user questions, I chose 5 main ones that I often met.
Correspondence was conducted in English, and I received permission to publish answers on this forum.

Let's start

1 question
1. How long has your mixer been running?

ChipMixer:
"1. ChipMixer has been operating since May 2017."

MixTum Mixer:
"1.MixTum Bitcoin Mixer was launched on August 27, 2018. In three months we are going to celebrate our 2nd anniversary."

FoxMixer:
"1. FoxMixer has been running since early 2017. We listen to our users and have continuously improved our service and features by the feedback we got from email messages and forum posts. Our long time in the market and the absence of critical issues is a huge source of trust for many of our users."

2 question
2. What qualities should have the best bitcoin mixer?

ChipMixer:
"2. Trust is the most important. Best mixer should be honest and show how anonymity is achieved. No "secret sauce" and "trust our patented mixing techniques"."

MixTum Mixer:
"2. First of all - security, including IT infrastructure, transaction processing, strong anonymity and service independence.
Second - honesty and openness. Reputation is very important in our field. You need to put customers at the heart of your business if you expect to have a long-lived enterprise. Clean reputation and word of mouth is what you want."

FoxMixer:
"2. A good mixer needs to be reliable. And reliability has been our top priority since our start. All the best features are worthless if the mixer is not reliable.
On top of a rock-solid software and infrastructure framework we built our sophisticated mixing algorithms and advanced privacy features.
Another key element in our philosophy is automation. There are a lot of other services that require manual forum posts or emails to administrators in case something is broken.
We don't like that. Our team critically analyzes possible failure cases and finds an automated fix for everything that can potentially go wrong.
Our goal is: It just works! Any time. Every time."

3 question
3. How is transaction security and anonymity achieved on your mixer?

ChipMixer:
"3. Anonymity is achieved by destroying deposit-withdrawal causality. If you want to track 1 BTC mixed with other mixers, you have to record all blockchain transactions for next 24 hours, because that is the limit of trust of other mixers users.  
If you want to track 1 BTC mixed with ChipMixer, you have to record all ChipMixer-like transactions for next months and never be 100% sure if you recorded correct one, because once user receive private key they can spend it any time they want."

MixTum Mixer:
"3.First, we don't use personal accounts or mixing IDs, nor do we store logs or retain any info about a mixing operation after it is completed. Second, the coins you get back don't come from another customer like yourself but directly from reputable stock exchanges. The mixing algorithm itself is also much hardened compared to conventional mixing: the time delay is chosen randomly (instead of being user-defined), the commission is also somewhat randomized, clean coins are returned in multiple transactions, and other improvements behind the scenes."

FoxMixer:
"3. These are two distinct aspects that one clearly needs to address each on its own:
Transaction security is achieved via our "Letter of Guarantee". It is a certificate that guarantees the return of coins in any case. Even in the unlikely event of an issue, the Letter of Guarantee will help our support team to trace down the problem.

The other aspect you mention is transaction privacy.
The "mixcode" feature allows for risk-free mixing, even in the long-term. We did a lot of research and developed several unprecedented features. "Deep Mempool Analysis" and "Payout origin randomization" are just some of them."
 
4 question
4. Haters of bitcoin mixers say that "all mixers transmit data to the special services, or they will be closed very quickly." What do you say in response ?

ChipMixer:
"4. If you had power to close any service very quickly, would you start with privacy tools or law breaking services?

MixTum Mixer:
"4. Such things are untestable by an outside observer, but we at [banned mixer] know that at least one exception exists. And, again, we have been running for almost two years. I guess whether this is achievable depends on where your team and your infrastructure is located."

FoxMixer:
"4. The data FoxMixer requires is as minimal as it can be. No accounts, no passwords. We don't even require clearnet access - our site can be used entirely via Tor interface. All mixes are deleted after 7 days."

5 question
5. Why should we use your mixer?

ChipMixer:
"5. We reinvented mixing. No other mixer offers premade chips and privacy it offers."
( chips more detail: https://chipmixer.com/faq )

MixTum Mixer:
"5.Because your privacy really matters to [banned mixer]. We have an irreproachable reputation. We have operated continuously for almost two years. [banned mixer] uses a fundamentally different approach to mixing that entails the highest level of anonymity. At the same time we offer a variety of mixing modes - customers can choose the level of anonymity they prefer. Some people point out that our services are more expensive compared to other mixers, but when we are talking about security/anonymity we strongly believe quality should come to the forefront."

FoxMixer:
"5. Our long time in the market and the trust in our user base speaks volumes.
The thoughts and experience that manifest themselves in the design of our site and the features FoxMixer offers are simply second to none.
If you are looking for a reliable choice that protects your privacy, FoxMixer is the way to go."

Instead of conclusions
Please draw your own conclusions, I am not an expert on mixers and cannot give you advice.
It’s very sad that only 3 mixers answered my interview, but I hope you enjoy this article.
I spent a lot of time on this material, your feedback is very important, they help work on bugs and give strength to new projects.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. Do not consider this material as advice for action!

If you liked the article, you can translate it for you local board.
Translations:
Russian
German

Cheers.