Bitcoin has in recent years grown as a cryptocurrency and is now being used in different places by millions of people. The distribution ledger of Bitcoin is within the public blockchain network meaning that anyone with access to the Bitcoin network is able to view all the different Bitcoin transactions made.
This then means that online attackers also have an avenue to view all the Bitcoin transactions that you make. In as much as these Bitcoin transactions are not linked to the real identity of an individual, an attacker can easily track the address and decode the link to your wallet by simply studying your Bitcoin transactions and spending patterns.
If, for example, you make a withdrawal of a Bitcoin through an exchange that contains your identity details, it means that the exchange is familiar with your address.
When you as a user move your coins from this address to another, there is a high risk of your personal information being revealed such as the number of coins you own, other wallet addresses you have, and how you spend the coins.
These links can easily be tracked by hackers. This is a potential threat. To protect yourself from such a threat, a Bitcoin mixer will come in handy.
So What Is A Bitcoin Mixer?
A Bitcoin mixer is a software that allows individuals using it to mix their coins or tokens so as to safeguard their privacy. The software serves to bring ambiguity in the ties between the Bitcoin address and the individual’s real identity. It ideally adds a level of privacy to the Bitcoin transactions that you make.
The basic role of a Bitcoin mixer is essentially to break the trail of transactions between the outgoing and incoming coins from a specific wallet. This break confuses the hacker that is attempting to decode the transaction trail. This then guarantees that you as the user have top-notch privacy for your funds.
How Does A Bitcoin Mixer Work And What Does It Do?
There are been several Bitcoin mixing strategies that have been developed for use. There are fully centralized solutions where you as a user place full trust on a mixer. There are also decentralized solutions where you as a user do not need to trust anybody.
Mixing bitcoins involves the use of a third-party service which serves to break the transaction link that exists between the receiving address and the address of the wallet sending the coins.
The Mixer mixes the Bitcoin tokens with previously sent coins and in turn, sends back different coins to the predefined address that you as the user have specified. This way, an attacker that’s monitoring the transaction trail won’t be able to keep track.
Here’s a review of the two popular Bitcoin mixer options that are commonly used;
- Centralized Mixers
These are services that receive bitcoin payments and in return send back different coins. If a huge number of people make use of a specific mixing service, it becomes really hard for a hacker to link the incoming coins with the outgoing coins. The transaction trail is ideally broken and the user’s privacy is guaranteed.
The Bitcoin Mixer carries the sole responsibility of being extremely honest, trustworthy, and reliable. He needs to ensure that he makes a return payment for every incoming payment made by the user. The mixer also needs to secure the address of the user and not share the details with any third party that would result in leaking the transaction trail which would in turn subject the user to potential threats.
- The Chaumian Coinjoin Mixers
Chaumian Coinjoin mixers are more modern and allow large groups of users to ideally come together and make a single huge payment to themselves. If, for example, 200 users each send 0.2 BTC to an address that they have control of and merge all the 200 transactions into a single huge transaction, each user will receive back 0.2 Bitcoin and no one will be able to see or identify where they got the Bitcoin from.
Why Use A Bitcoin Mixer?
Now that you know how a Bitcoin mixer works, here are the benefits of using it:
- You safeguard your wallet ID from being exposed to hackers. Ideally, your wallet address remains concealed via the use of a Bitcoin tumbler.
- If you happen to be holding Bitcoins in your wallet for the long term, a mixer will come in handy to provide extra privacy by mixing the coins and sending them to different wallets whose addresses are concealed.
Conclusion
You are now on the know with regards to what a Bitcoin mixer does. If you run transactions using Bitcoin, it’s advisable to protect your funds from attackers. You need to employ the services of a Bitcoin mixer service. Here is our recommendation for a trusted bitcoin mixer that you can work with.