If you’ve ever wondered how exactly bitcoin tumbler services work to protect your identity, look no further. We have a complete guide detailing exactly how bitcoin tumblers work to keep you safe.
If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably already aware of all of the reasons that bitcoin tumblers, or mixing services, are necessary to keep your bitcoin safe and secure.
For the same reasons that people don’t parade around their bank statements, this is why you’ll want to find a solid bitcoin tumbling service. In order to keep your balance away from the prying eyes of internet hackers and transactional history out of the hands of big data, you must mix your coins.
Bitcoin Tumbler Services: What is a Bitcoin Tumbler
Though they go by many names, bitcoin tumblers, mixers, and laundering services all act to sever identifiable ties to you and your bitcoin. Allowing you to continue to make purchases and transactions without heralding your accounts holding or what it is you’re buying. Even if it’s more bitcoin.
These services work by essentially breaking down your coins into many tiny parts, mixing these parts with the parts of different bitcoins provided by different clients. All of these tiny parts of the whole are then mixed up and redistributed to clients. The depositors then receive the same amount of bitcoin they originally put in (minus any applicable mixing fees), only in different coins.
Should you try and mix coins yourself, you’ll find that the task is incredibly daunting. Using a third party mixing services gives you direct access to otherwise inaccessible funds. As most mixing services cater to many depositors each day.
Not only that, but some services will go a step further, adding freshly mined coins or their own personal stores into the mix. Giving you an even greater opportunity to obscure the origin of your funds.
Bitcoin Tumbler Services: Why Do You Need a Bitcoin Tumbler
Because of the blockchain technology that is at the very foundation of bitcoin, your wallet address is directly associated with any transaction you will make, or have made. Every transaction made with bitcoin, whether it be from purchasing the coin itself, peer-to-peer payments, charitable donations, of payments for goods and services is directly linked to the wallet address for the source.
Most bitcoin wallets don’t require any personal information in order to open them. Making it seem like it would be impossible to match a wallet ID with any identifying information. However, when purchasing bitcoin, you have to enter in your name, bank account details, photo ID, and a number of other necessary information in order to convert fiat into bitcoin.
When you buy goods and services, often you will need to provide at minimum your name and address, for things like shipping. While it’s obviously necessary that you supply this type of information in order to obtain the desired goods, it isn’t necessarily difficult for crypto savvy techs to correlate this information with your wallet address.
Which means that your personal information is now associated with a wallet address. Every time any transaction occurs, it is logged within a public ledger created by blockchain. So anytime you purchase or move bitcoin, your wallet address with any details of the transaction is then locked in for all eternity. And for all interested public parties.
So you can see that it’s not hard for people to begin to track things like purchase history, or even account balances. Then, they can trace these patterns back to your name, address, and any other personally identifying information that might have been used in conjunction with a bitcoin transaction.
Bitcoin Tumbler Services: How Do Bitcoin Tumblers Work
In order for bitcoin tumblers to effectively disjoint the ongoing record of where your bitcoins came from, and where they’re going to, they have to sever the relationships between your coins and your wallet address.
Generally, when you choose to use a bitcoin tumbling service, you’ll need to create a “clean” wallet. This requires you to create a fully anonymous wallet to send whatever coins you want mixed to. It’s important that you should not only delete this wallet following the deposit of all the coins into the tumbling service, but you should also be careful not to purchase anything with this wallet. Or use your clean wallet for any other transactions outside of depositing into a tumbling service.
Once the coins have been deposited into the bitcoin tumbler, the wait is usually no more than 10-15 minutes to see your coins again. Mixing customers should then create one or more new clean wallets that the cleaned coins can be transferred to. Most mixing services will charge a small fee for any extra wallets that you choose to withdrawal your clean coins to.
Some services will provide you with a new wallet as part of the tumbling service that you’ve just paid for. Regardless of what wallet you choose to send your coins to following a thorough cleaning, it’s wise to send them to an offline storage wallet.
This storage wallet should be used only to transfer clean coins to and from, storing them offline until they’re ready to be used. Any time you receive clean coins, it’s wise to create a new storage wallet. Never make more than 1 or 2 transactions from any online wallet, creating new wallets anytime you would like to make a new transaction.
This ensures that your laundry fresh coins stay clean and shouldn’t need mixed again until you purchase or gain new coins from a new source. Essentially, any time coins are gained, they should be washed before use. This can keep you in the clear and keep the coins from being tied to your name. It also makes it more difficult for hackers to see any wealth accumulation, making you less of a target for a heist.
Remember, always make sure that you read up on any tumbling service you plan on using, and verify several times over that it is valid and well-reviewed. Many bitcoin tumblers offer incentives for returning clients, so consider choosing a service with these types of perks if you plan on needing a mixer more than once.
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