Bitcoin users looking for some more anonymity have very few options at their disposal. The so-called mixing services can prove to be a valuable ally in this regard, as they effectively add anonymity to bitcoin funds. We have taken a look at some of the more popular tumbling solutions and how they compare to one another. The coin mixing ecosystem is far more diverse than most people give it credit for.
3. BitMixer
The BitMixer platform has proven to be quite an intriguing bitcoin mixing service so far. With a large amount of bitcoin in reserves at all times, the BitMixer team can guarantee fast transaction processing without unnecessary delays. After all, no one wants to wait hours or even days before their mixing transaction is complete. Adding more anonymity takes some time, but the process should not be dragged out by any means.
What is rather intriguing about BitMixer is how the platform will not use any incoming funds for new mixing transactions. This is done to prevent “tainted coins” from leaving digital breadcrumbs blockchain analysts can follow. Moreover, the company provides a Letter of Guarantee, which act as provable proof of the company’s obligations. All things considered, this platform has proven to be quite interesting and successful so far.
2. CoinJoin
Users who want to achieve anonymity while using bitcoin can use a feature called CoinJoin. On paper, this protocol acts like a mixing service, although it works slightly differently. CoinJoin requires peer-to-peer cooperation between multiple parties, as the transactions would need to correlate. Moreover, users can make a joint payment, which will obfuscate the input and outputs of that particular bitcoin transfer. In fact, the CoinJoin protocol has spawned various new anonymity protocols, including PrivateSend and Dark Wallet.
CoinJoin is an effective mixing service that provides additional privacy for everybody. To be more specific, this also includes the people who are not actively mixing their bitcoins, which is never a bad thing. After all, if there’s one major thing bitcoin lacks, it is privacy. Since there is no need to trust the operator of a centralized service, CoinJoin is often a more preferable bitcoin mixing solution.
1. Helix
Those bitcoin users who take bitcoin privacy and anonymity very seriously will go to great lengths to keep their transactions private. Helix, a bitcoin mixing platform residing on the deep web, has gained quite a lot of popularity over the past few months. Although the concept of a darknet bitcoin mixing service may sound illegal at first, rest assured there is nothing wrong with using such a service.
To be more specific, Helix likes to advertise itself as a “bitcoin cleaner”, rather than a mixer. The objective is to issue coins which have never been used on the darknet before. Keep in mind this service is only accessible through the Tor browser, which adds more privacy and anonymity for users. Although Helix keeps logs of transactions, they are deleted after seven days. Users can also force the logs to be deleted once the withdrawal has been completed.
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