Whirlpool - Samourai Wallet mixer
As digital currency is spinning up across the globe, bitcoin holders have become more conscious about the confidentiality of their transactions. Everyone was of the opinion that a sender can remain incognito while depositing their digital currencies and it turned out that it is untrue. Because of public administration controls, the transactions are identifiable which means that a user’s electronic address and even personal identification information can be revealed. But don’t be worried, there is an answer to such public administration controls and it is a cyber money mixer.
To make it clear, a crypto tumbler is a software program that splits a transaction, so there is a straightforward way to mix different parts of it with other transactions used. In the end a sender gets back the same number of coins, but blended in a non-identical set. As a result, there is no possibility to track the transaction back to a sender, so one can stay calm that identity is not revealed.
As maybe some of you realize, every cryptocurrency transaction, and Bitcoin is no different, is embed in the blockchain and it leaves traces. These marks are important for the state to track back illegal transactions, such as buying weapon, drugs or money laundering. While a sender is not connected with any criminal activity and still wants to avoid being traced, it is possible to use available bitcoin mixing services and secure sender’s identity. Many digital currency owners do not want to inform everyone how much they gain or how they use up their money.
There is a belief among some internet users that using a tumbler is an illegal action itself. It is not entirely true. As mentioned before, there is a possibility of cryptocurrency mixing to become illegal, if it is used to disguise user’s illegal actions, otherwise, there is no reason to worry. There are many platforms that are here for cryptocurrency owners to mix their coins.
However, a crypto holder should pay attention while picking a crypto mixer. Which service can be relied on? How can one be sure that a tumbler will not steal all the sent coins? This article is here to answer these questions and assist every bitcoin holder to make the right decision.
CryptoMixer
Let’s first figure out which options need to be considered to ensure that a sender trusts their money to a reliable service:
- 1) there is typically a fee which is usually negligible (around 1-3%).
- 2) no logs are kept. This implies that no information about your online actions is gathered. This feature is extremely important.
- 3) various outgoing addresses can be added which help to diversify risks and send cleaned coins to multiple destinations. These addresses are used as a final destination for the sent coins.
- 4) types of digital coins involved. There are mixing services that enable to mix some other cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin.
- 5) such services usually require confirmation, and the least confirmations it requires, the better.
- 6) If a mixer gives you a Letter of Guarantee, it means that you can use it as a confirmation of your participation in the transaction and it keeps safe your coins in case of scams. Generally it looks like a text file digitally signed using PGP technology. The defined options are important to decide which cryptocurrency mixer to use. There are some more aspects that also need to be pointed out and all of them are included into the below table of the top crypto tumblers.
The crypto scramblers presented above are among the best existing tumblers that were chosen by clients and are highly recommended. Let’s look closely at the listed coin tumblers and describe all options on which attention should be focused.
Surely all mixers from the table support no-logs and no-registration rule, these are critical aspects that should not be overlooked. Most of the mixing services are used to mix only Bitcoins as the most common digital money. Although there are a few coin scramblers that mix other cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. Additional currencies provide a sender with more opportunities, some mixing services also allow to combine coins between the currencies which makes transactions far less trackable.
There is one feature that is not displayed in the above table and it is time-delay. This feature helps a user and a transaction itself to remain anonymous, as there is a gap between the sent coins and the outgoing transaction. In most cases, users can set the time of delay by themselves and it can be a couple of days or even hours and minutes. To get a better understanding of crypto tumblers, it is necessary to review each of them independently.
Blender has a easy interface, it is easy to use and straightforward. Time-delay option can be set up to 24 hours. With regard to the fee, there is an additional fee of 0.0005 % per output address. As one of the few, this mixer provides a user with a special mixing code which assures that fresh crypto coins are not mixed with preceding deposits. Additional URL (Blender) is also here to ensure that users can get to the scrambler, even if the main link is not available.
As well as others, CryptoMixer has both a clear-web (CryptoMixer). This mixing platfrom is noteworthy for accommodating extremely large-volume transactions. After public verification of their reserve of 2000 BTC there is no doubt that users can trust this mixing service and their deposits will not be taken. The number of needed confirmations depends on the deposited amount, e.g. for depositing less that 25 BTC there is only 1 confirmation required, in case of depositing more than 1000 BTC a user needs to gather 5 confirmations.
To use this platform, a CryptoMixer code needs to be invented. A user should note it, so it is easy to use it next time. After entering a CryptoMixer code, users need to enter the outgoing address or several of them and then set a time-delay feature. A delay time is defined automatically and a user can modify it if needed. A service fee can be also selected from the table depending on the sent sum. Every transaction requires additional fee of 0.0005 BTC. Also, a calculator on the main page helps every user to understand the number of coins sent and got back after mixing.
Based on the experience of many users on the Internet, PrivCoin is one of the top Bitcoin tumblers that has ever existed. This mixer supports not only the most popular cryptocurrency, but also other above-mentioned cryptocurrencies. Exactly this mixing service allows a user to interchange the coins, in other words to deposit one type of coins and get them back in another currency. This process even increases user’s anonymity. Time-delay feature helps to make a transaction hardly traceable, as it can be set up to 24 hours. There is a transaction fee of 0.0005 for each extra address.
One absolutely special crypto mixer is ChipMixer because it is based on the totally another idea comparing to other mixers. A user does not simply deposit coins to clean, but makes a wallet and funds it with chips from 0.01 BTC to 8.192 BTC which a user can break down according to their wishes. After chips are added to the wallet, a wallet holder can forward coins to process. As the chips are sent to the mixing platform prior to the transaction, next transactions are nowhere to be found and it is not possible to connect them with the wallet owner. There is no standard fee for transactions on this mixer: it uses “Pay what you like” feature. It means that the fee is randomized making transactions even more unidentified and the service itself more affordable. Retention period is 7 days and each sender has a chance to manually clear all logs prior to this period. Another mixing platform Mixtum offers you a so-called free trial period meaning that there are no service or transaction fee applied. The process of getting renewed coins is also quite unique, as the mixer requires a request to be sent over Tor or Clearnet and clean coins are obtained from stock exchanges.
There are 3 phases of this mixing process that include:
- 1. pre-mixing coins and then mixing them with other coins;
- 2. forwarding coins to stock exchanges where they are mixed with coins of other traders;
- 3. new coins are returned back to the original sender.
it is noteworthy that random sums are sent in two and more transactions to make them less trackable.
Another reliable mixing platform is BitMix which supports two cryptocurrencies with Ethereum to be added in future. The mixing process is relatively typical and similar to the processes on other tumblers. There is a possibility to set a time-delay option up to 72 hours and a sender has an opportunity to divide the transaction, so the funds are sent to several addresses. Thus, sender’s funds are more secured and undetectable.
Two cryptocurrencies are also supported on SmartMix.io platform. This scrambler is on the list because it works quickly and it is trusty. The transaction fee is quite low, only the amount of 0.0001 BTC needs to be added for each additional address. Splitting deposited coins between 5 addresses is also greatly helpful for keeping user’s anonymity. Every user is able to select an additional option of delaying the payout meaning that the transaction is becoming even more anonymous.
Let’s take a look at another one of the top bitcoin mixers which is really easy to operate. Bitcoin Laundry (Bitcoin Laundry) has a user-friendly interface and it is worth mentioning that the service fee is the smallest possible, it is 0.0% with 0.0002 BTC per extra address. Retention period is 7 days when it is easy for a user to manually delete all the logs which are stored for this period because of any future transaction-related problems. There is a time-delay feature, however, it is not possible to be controlled by a user but the mixing service only.
Being one of the earliest crypto coin tumblers, BitBlender (BitBlender) remains a simple and usable crypto coin mixer. It is possible to have two accounts, with and without registration. The difference is that the one without registration is less manageable by a user.
The mixing process can be performed and the transaction fee is charged randomly from 1% to 3% which makes the transaction less traceable. Also, if a user sends more than 10 BTC in a week, the platform reduces the fee by half. Using a time-delay feature the transaction can be delayed up to 24 hours. A Bitcoin holder should be afraid of security problems as there is a 2-factor authentication when a sender becomes a holder of a PGP key with password. However, this service does not have a Letter of Guarantee which makes it challenging to turn to this tumbler in case of scams.
And last but not least, there is a mixing service with many cryptocurrencies to tumbler named SmartMixer (SmartMixer). For now, there are three currencies and Ethereum is going to be represented in future. This mixer offers a very friendly user-interface, as well as the possibility to control all phases of the mixing process. A user can set up a delay not just by hours, but by the minute which is extremely useful. The mixer gives the opportunity to use a calculator to understand the amount of funds a user finally gets. The service fee is from 1 % to 5 % with fees for extra addresses (0.00045529 BTC, 0.01072904 LTC, and 0.00273174 BCH). Having funds from many resources helps the mixing platform to keep user’s identity undiscovered. This last mixing platform does not offer its users a Letter of Guarantee.
All cryptocurrency mixers introduced in the article are reported to be reliable having all transactions anonymous. It is important to choose a mixing platform wisely, as a sender has no chance to address any authority in case of scams. By all means, processing your deposits online can be unsafe, however, using coin tumblers that are introduced in the article will help every user to minimize risks and be sure of success of the transaction.