Why Bitcoin Mixing Is Important

Cryptocurrencies have been around for quite some time, and even those who aren't tech-savvy in the first place are becoming more interested in joining into the new market trend. However, one question will always remain, "Is it safe?" First of all, there is no such thing as guaranteed success when it comes to investments, no matter how secure and transparent the operations are. With anything that has to do with banking and computers, financial security is one thing, and data security is another. Cryptocurrency is no exception to this general rule.

Over the years since the existence of banking and finance, people have tried ways to conceal their transactions away from the watchful eyes of the people in power. This is understandable since we are entitled to our right to privacy, and the same thing could be said about cryptocurrencies.

What then happens when a transaction is done fully digitally? Much like how physical records of them can be discovered by a third party if it happens that the record keeper operates without reliable security measures, it's not hard to imagine that digital transactions leave some sort of footprint as well.

While it's true that records of cryptocurrency transactions don't outright list people with their real-life details like names and location, it's still pretty easy for an outsider to track how a user's money is being moved by tracing their address that is displayed publicly in the blockchain. This will lead to the hacker being able to dig the user's IP address. In a way, the trustless system of blockchain is a double-edged sword that prevents people from counterfeiting and double-spending the currency, but it also offers very little anonymity.

In this article, we are going to try and break down the reasons why cryptocurrency tools such as a Bitcoin mixer are an essential part of the industry to prevent tracing and compromising the users' data.

Collective anonymity

There is a concept that was developed shortly after blockchain technology was first introduced. Chaumian CoinJoin, also known as "coin mixing," is a tool for users to add a layer of security to their transactions by pooling together their coins into one big transaction before it's sent out to the wallet according to their respective destinations. By breaking down and merging the individuals' coins with others, they are able to obscure the trail of the transactions through randomization, making it incredibly difficult to trace.

This is helpful for a lot of people since popular coins like Bitcoin are one of the early platforms to use blockchain technology, and that means that they are also highly analyzed and identified by outsiders.

Coin mixers cover the tracks of one user at a time and multiple users all at once, depending on the server's capacity. It is also important that more people are to join into the mix, since that translates to a higher level of anonymity.

There are also other types of coin mixing , such as the traditional method where people will use a program that shuffles their coins for them. Although it is a viable method, it's not as effective and safe as the completely trustless method of peer-to-peer coin mixing. This is because there's a risk of the mixing service turning out to be a scam and that it's just an elaborate way of stealing other people's cryptocurrencies.

Of course, since only one server holds all the coins, making one huge transaction with so many individuals will risk overloading the network, making the process slow and therefore not cost-efficient. Another thing to note is that if an outsider manages to access the program's records, the mixing will be pretty much useless. Unijoin’s Coinjoin service allows you to optimize your coin mix as it prevents the risk of unauthorized access to your records. The risk is thwarted and you get to experience complete anonymity.

Meanwhile, users often prefer decentralized mixers because they are essentially making their multiple networks blind-signing servers. Another huge advantage of this method of the single server method is the fact that it can easily fend off denial-of-service attacks. It works by simply blacklisting an input that fails to sign (the one being potentially controlled by the attacker) from joining into the mixing process again.

Essentially speaking, the function of the Bitcoin mixer comes down to this simple idea: it breaks the connection and traceability of the user sending money to another, and vice versa.

Reasons to use a Bitcoin mixer

There are limitless reasons why a person should use a coin mixer, be it for personal or business reasons. Here, we are going to explore these reasons and how coin mixing can help maintain a user's identity safely hidden.

Buying goods and services that are not acceptable to the norms

Let's face it. Some countries still have reservations about certain things, especially the very conservative ones. In the Philippines, for instance, it is deemed embarrassing for a person to buy a sex toy because it's taboo. An individual can use coin mixing to buy such products online without the transaction being traced back.

In the first place, names are not displayed in the public ledger during a cryptocurrency transaction, only the wallet address. This breaks any potential suspicions that the user buys a certain product, and this anonymity gives the user a sense of security.

Although Bitcoin has been known to be housing a few darknet markets that sell illegal drugs and other criminal activities, there's no denying that the anonymity it can offer could also be used simply for privacy purposes.

Avoid scams and fraudsters

This is by far the main and most important function of Bitcoin mixers. Some people mainly generate their income by investing in cryptocurrency, and it's not that easy to conceal large amounts of money given that they are essentially moving them through a public platform. This makes them a constant target of fraudsters when their transactions are easily traceable.

There have also been reports of kidnapping because of people making large profits in cryptocurrency but failing to protect themselves from being identified by criminals.

Preparation for unfavorable regulations

Not many policymakers saw cryptocurrency becoming a huge market back in the 2000s. However, now that it's basically taking over the banking industry, we can expect that there's a good chance that regulations are going to be imposed.

This is pretty much the same way the US stock market is dominated by neoliberal standards of economic practice and the government being alerted to the manipulation of prices. The GameStop scandal in January 2021, for instance, saw a number of Reddit users team up to buy stocks of a bricks-and-mortar company called GameStop so they could prevent hedge funds from short squeezing the company.

This resulted in hedge funds losing billions of dollars as they called for the government to impose regulations so this kind of market manipulation wouldn't happen again.

This is where coin mixing comes into place. This method can hide a person's transaction volume, ensuring safety if the government imposes taxes on cryptocurrency. Suppose this happens and the governments are finally able to come up with a plan to regulate the cryptocurrency market. In that case, it defeats the purpose of cryptocurrency transactions being of much lower fees compared to traditional banks.

Avoid hacking

Hacking not only endangers the user of identity theft but can also be used to steal money and destroy important data. When trading, selling, or buying cryptocurrencies, the user has to have an active wallet on his chosen platform to store their money. That digital wallet is considered a hot wallet because it's connected to the site's server and, ultimately, to the internet.

It's general knowledge among the cryptocurrency community that hot wallets aren't as secure as cold wallets, stored offline or in physical form. When a hacker knows the address of a user doing the transaction, they can find ways to hijack the wallet and steal the cryptocurrencies stored there. The choice of service becomes crucial, then, to avoid these upsets. Innovations in technology, similar to what Unijoin offers, can break the connection between your identity and wallet address, ensuring the anonymity of your transactions.

Coin mixing's role of protecting the user from the invasion of privacy is that it conceals and obscures their identity and wallet address, making it harder for hackers to find any information about their IP address and website accounts.

Keeping both good data and transaction security, then, is an essential part of an individual's efforts to keep themselves safe.

Conclusion

Coin mixing can protect people from undesirable elements inside and outside the web. Unlike the usual misconception of coin mixers being a tool for criminals to hide their illicit activities, most of the people who use them don't do so to conceal their crimes but solely for privacy.

Keeping a low profile in the cryptocurrency industry and the internet is becoming increasingly difficult with blockchain analysis companies constantly improving. There are also the algorithms of big data companies picking up on the individuals' digital habits to pick products to advertise accurately.

It might not be much of a deal for most people, but the seemingly unstoppable march of computer-related problems most of the time continues to be a concern of privacy. For example, when protecting one's data, one needs a service like VPNs to hide their IP addresses. Cryptocurrencies are no different, and just like VPNs, coin mixers are the way for users to stay anonymous.

For veterans and beginners in the platform, it's equally important to consider their security and anonymity online because of the existence of digital footprints. Coin mixing revolves around the idea that people have the right to privacy, especially when it comes to money.