What Is a Bitcoin Mixer? Complete Guide 2020
The idea of Bitcoin is to decouple the government from finance ensuring that each system performs its functions independently. Bitcoin is thus a system that functions on the ideals of independence, decentralization, and privacy.
By leveraging a transparent ledger, the protocol continues to shape finance. However, for its transparency, BTC transactions are unfortunately traceable.
To break the trail and confuse trackers, a Bitcoin mixer is used to anonymize transactions.
What Is A Bitcoin Mixer?
Bitcoin mixers are solutions that let users “mix” their coins with a goal of anonymizing transactions and securing personal information.
This is because Bitcoin, as aforementioned, is a public blockchain whose addresses are pseudonymous. While they are written in alphanumeric and don’t immediately reveal the identity of transactors, the blockchain’s transparency means addresses can be analyzed and tracked.
Once broken–often due to a transactor’s weakness (like using their addresses more than twice), these public Bitcoin addresses can be linked and tied to real-world identities.
After third-party decryption of the sending address, the next time a Bitcoin user moves coins, he/she risks revealing personal information including their spending habits and even the number of coins under their custody.
However, this can be broken and personal information sealed if a Bitcoin mixer is used.
Also, Read This:- What is a Blockchain?
How the Bitcoin Mixer Works
Since the idea of a Bitcoin mixer is to prevent trackers from collecting personal information and exposing the real-world identity of the person behind the transaction, Bitcoin mixers don’t store a user’s logs. Besides, the service doesn’t collect users’ email addresses or personal data.
Bitcoin mixers are automated and operate without human intervention. This means once after a transaction has been mixed and posted on the Bitcoin blockchain, the transaction’s related details are automatically deleted, usually after 24 hours.
In exchange for their mixing services, they charge a random fee of anywhere between 2-5 percent.
Other than mixing Bitcoin, these mixers also offer ETH and LTC anonymizing services.
To get started and anonymize a transaction, all you have to do is to post the receiving address of any of the three supported coins and choose the custom delay time whose minimum is set at 30 minutes.
After that, BTC is mixed and sent to the receiving address without compromising the privacy of the sender. On the other side, the receiver gets clean coins that can’t be traced to a specific address.
Conclusion
Bitcoin is not as private as many people think. The rise of blockchain analytic firms makes tracking of crypto transactions even easier considering the level of investment sunk into availing such services. Therefore, a Bitcoin mixer comes in handy especially for individuals who don’t want firms to harvest their details.
