Crypto mixers’ relevance wanes as regulators take aim

cointelegraph.com:

Cryptocurrency mixers have been an interesting topic of discussion ever since the advent of cryptocurrencies and their adoption by retail investors around the world. 

Cryptocurrency mixers are services that essentially focus on one feature of a blockchain network: privacy. 

Cryptocurrency mixers, also known as tumblers, provide anonymity so no one can trace the sender or receiver of a transaction. This can help protect the identity of individuals who want to be completely anonymous and non-traceable. How cryptocurrency mixers work is that they break down the funds sent using the mixer and scramble them with other transactions. They break the link which associates the holder’s identity to the crypto they own.

A process used to anonymize cryptocurrency transactions is known as CoinJoin, created initially back in 2013 by Bitcoin (BTC) developer Gregory Maxwell. In the thread on the Bitcointalk forum, Maxwell elaborated on how these transactions are structured and how the privacy of the transitions can be significantly enhanced without making huge changes to the network. Essentially, this concept involves a mixing block box from where users get their transactions and comprises hundreds of transactions from various wallets. CoinJoin is one of the most popular cryptocurrency mixers on the market.

There are primarily two kinds of mixers, centralized and decentralized mixers. Centralized mixers receive cryptocurrency from users into the mixer and send back different cryptocurrencies by charging a fee. The transaction addresses of the several users who deposit their cryptocurrency into the mixers are managed by a program. Cryptocurrencies returned to users are not the same as those initially deposited, and they may be returned to the