Meet Bestmixer, the Bitcoin Tumbler Trying to Outwit Chainalysis

Bitcoin tumbling service Bestmixer has added a slew of new features designed to enhance anonymity. A triple-tier service provides varying levels of privacy, all geared around outsmarting the blockchain forensic tools deployed by companies such as Chainalysis.

Also read: Bitcoin’s Chance at the $20 Trillion Offshore Tax Haven Market

Bestmixer Ups Its Privacy Game

Bitcoin tumbler services and blockchain analysis firms have been engaged in a cat and mouse game, with each trying to outwit the other. Blockchain forensics companies have the full weight of law enforcement behind them and the deep pockets of government funding their bitcoin deanonymizing efforts. Tumbler services, in comparison, have little more than some open source code and a desire to reclaim the privacy that’s been gradually eroded from the web over the years, with crypto users among the worst affected.

Bestmixer.io launched in March of this year, and has just issued a major update to its privacy features. Users of BTC, BCH, ETH, and LTC can feed their coins through the service, with the ones that emerge on the other side promised to be untainted and unlinkable. Platforms such as Chipmixer offer a similar service, which can be accessed from the clearnet or deep web, providing a means of obfuscating activity on darknet markets and anywhere else where privacy is desired.

Beating Chainalysis at Their Own Game

In a post on the Bitcointalk forum, the Bestmixer team announced the introduction of a new module containing reserves for mixing, writing:

Not so long ago a New York blockchain startup ‘Chainalysis’ announced the launch of a real-time transaction analysis tool. A new tool called ‘Chainalysis KYT’ (Know Your Transaction) allows real-time transaction analysis. In particular, the new functionality allows cryptocurrency companies to find out instantly how reliable their counterparty is, and whether it operates with funds that were previously used in illegal financial transactions. In connection with this news, we decided to divide our reserves into three pools, each of which will fulfill its goals.

The Alpha, Beta, and Gamma pools offer different degrees of privacy, with the latter two commanding an increased fee commensurate with the cost of maintaining them. Explaining the importance of privacy for all cryptocurrency users, the Bestmixer team said: “Everyone who has ever participated in a transaction with you has an opportunity to find out the addresses of your wallets, their balances, and can determine the origin of your coins and the destination address. Apart from disclosing the details of your private life, it also makes you an easy target for cybercriminals.”

Chainalysis have become unavoidable in the world of cryptocurrency, particularly when it comes to KYC and KYT. Many ideologues regard them as “enemies of bitcoin” due to their efforts to deliver cryptocurrency users into the hands of the state that bitcoin was arguably designed to counter. In addition to being used in criminal investigations, Chainalysis is deployed to detect pooling with ICO private sales, something that most ICOs are publicly against but which is rampant. Services such Bestmixer and Chipmixer play a small but vital role in protecting the privacy of those who cherish it the most.

Do you think bitcoin tumblers can be trusted to thwart forensic services like Chainalysis? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, and Chainalysis.

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