Re: Mixers and their reason to exist in the bitcoin ecosystem
So by me saying that bitcoin is traceable you deduct that I'm an NSA supporter? 
You're the one who's making the claim that privacy erosion is sometimes beneficial.
On a more serious note though, have you considered that passing your coins through a centralized "mixer" service isn't a real privacy enhancement?
I know. I'm a proponent of decentralized mixing, like Monero. I didn't argue about that.
I take it that it's pretty unlikely for a known service address such as from a mixer or from an exchange to be of the same ownership as a third party sending coins to it. So chain analysis is pretty real and has been quite handy for many uses, one of which has been catching criminals.
Chain analysis is based on false positives. Just because it might work sometimes, it doesn't mean it isn't dangerous to implement on a whole. Just read this topic: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5464886.0. Even the directors of chain analysis acknowledge this viewpoint:
Quote from: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/chainalysis-investigations-lead-is-unaware-of-scientific-evidence
Elizabeth Bisbee, head of investigations at Chainalysis Government Solutions, testified she was “unaware” of scientific evidence for the accuracy of Chainalysis’ Reactor software used by law enforcement, an unreleased transcript of a June 23 hearing shared with CoinDesk shows.
Quote
Bisbee said she was unable to provide the court with statistical error rates for Chainalysis’ Reactor software. She further denied being aware of any scientific peer-reviewed papers or “anything published anywhere” attesting to the accuracy of Chainalysis Reactor.
There is no evidence that it works. It is not about catching criminals. It is about controlling the Bitcoin users and discouraging them from respecting their privacy.