Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: Mixers and their reason to exist in the bitcoin ecosystem
by
zabzob
on 15/04/2024, 10:08:24 UTC
Tell me how you are going to trace and link the 0.001 I sent Joe to the 0.005 you sent me.

It's completely traceable, the mixer is 100% aware of the link between the 0.005 you deposited with them and the 0.001 you withdrew from them.

If you want to become anonymous trustlessly, you have to use a coinjoin transaction:

For everyone looking to improve their privacy, I highly recommend checking out Wasabi, especially over centralized "mixers".


I think coinjoin is preferable to old-school "mixers" (is anyone still using those??), but I wonder to what extent anonymity can be compromised due to use of centralized servers for coordinating mixes. Can these servers connect original coinjoin inputs to the mixed coins you get back? Or is there something in the code that makes that impossible? Whirlpool and WabiSabi protocols are both centralized, but JoinMarket is P2P with no central server. The thing about JoinMarket is it's relatively difficult to use and as a result it has very low liquidity.