In this guide we tell you how to use one of the longest-lasting and most trusted Bitcoin mixers around, providing step-by-step instructions on how to send, mix, and cash out your BTC.
What is ChipMixer?
Opening for business in May 2017, ChipMixer is a Bitcoin mixer (also known as a “tumbler”) that allows anyone to anonymize their BTC. It does this by taking your BTC and giving you “pre-mixed” BTC in return that cannot be traced back to your old coins. This is great for those who value their privacy and want to break the blockchain links in their Bitcoin transactions, allowing their coins to regain fungibility. Another great thing about ChipMixer is that it is a donation-based service, meaning they never charge a fee – regardless of the amount being mixed.
ChipMixer link – chipmr5szekl6matkngioeepex7z4gc42wo7pbaoehlsywm2cvrk6zyd.onion
Though its exact mixing methods remain a proprietary secret, ChipMixer accomplishes its goals by providing customers with pre-made “chips” consisting of mixed BTC in pre-specified denominations. These chips can be combined or split apart and cashed out at different times. There is no wait time involved after your initial deposit has been confirmed. This means that once you withdraw a chip and receive the private key for its BTC, you can move it right away, or at your convenience. ChipMixer’s chips are also guaranteed to be fungible, meaning each chip is indistinguishable in its BTC content from the others.
Is ChipMixer Safe to Use?
Though it is a centralized entity – run by a group of individuals as opposed to being a fully-automated system – ChipMixer has a great track record in their business and is generally regarded as the best at what they do. When sending coins to ChipMixer to be mixed, you can rest assured your coins won’t be stolen, misappropriated, or somehow lost. They have handled literally thousands of BTC over the last five years and show no signs of closing shop any time soon. They also have terrific customer service that can be contact via email or by posting a question in their Bitcointalk thread.
ChipMixer does not retain any sort of user logs, and there is no account creation or login system. Instead, users are provided with a session ID that expires after seven days. If you need longer than seven days to claim the private keys of your chips, you can request a voucher that will let you withdraw them whenever you see fit. They also provide customers with the option to receive a signed source of funds to prove that the BTC in their chips is actually under their control.
Note that ChipMixer is a BTC-only mixer. Sending coins to it other than Bitcoin (such as Bitcoin Cash) will result in the loss of your funds.
Another important thing to keep in mind is that ChipMixer only has two different URLs: one for the clearnet, and one for the darknet (Tor). There are countless ChipMixer phishing sites that dominate the Google search results, so make sure you are using one of the two legit ChipMixer URLs before sending any coins.
To maximize the level of privacy in your mixing experience, we recommend always using the Tor version of the ChipMixer site.
How Do I Mix Coins on ChipMixer?
Here are the steps required to mix your coins:
1. After landing on the ChipMixer site (one which you know for sure is legitimate), and your Bitcoin is ready to be mixed, press the “Start Mixing” button on the right-center of the home page. You will be required to solve a captcha before proceeding. After doing so, you will then be brought to the initial Session page, which looks like this:
2. Per the instructions presented on-screen, be sure to save your session token, which is the long alphanumeric string that, in this case, begins with a lower-case “w”. This serves as your login credentials, and you will need it to gain access to your chips. Highlight it, copy it to your clipboard, and save it. After saving the session token to a secure location where you will remember where it is, press the red bar button that says “I have saved my session token and want to continue.”
Note that you will have seven days to complete your session before it expires. There is a clickable link beneath this button, at the end of the text, which will allow you to extend your session if need be.
3. Next, you will be brought to Step 1 – Deposit. Make sure that the session token displayed on this page matches the session token you just saved. If it does not, save the currently-displayed session token as well. Beneath the text box that says “Waiting for confirmed transaction…” you will see a BTC SegWit deposit address:
Note the information provided beneath your deposit address. You must send a minimum of at least 0.001 BTC, and you must deposit BTC in denominations of mBTC (milli-bit, or 0.001 BTC). For example, if you deposit 0.0025 BTC, you will only be credited with 0.002 BTC as chips do not come smaller than 0.001 BTC in size.
Copy the BTC address and send to it the BTC which you wish to be mixed. If you are mixing less than 20 BTC, your transaction will be credited after it has received one confirmation (larger amounts require six confirmations).
4. After the transaction has been confirmed, refresh the page. You will see a new message that says “Deposit received. Please go to [Step 2 >>]”. Click the Step 2 button to proceed (unless you want to make additional deposits, which you can do so now – just remember to keep them in denominations of 0.001 BTC).
Note there is often a slight delay between when the transaction is actually confirmed and when it is marked as confirmed by ChipMixer’s servers. Do not be alarmed if your deposit is not immediately credited after the first confirmation. It could take five minutes or even longer to reflect the fact that is has been confirmed.
5. (Optional) You will now be asked if you’d like to donate some of your BTC to ChipMixer. Donating any amount is good, and for the purposes of this guide we will be donating 0.001 BTC, which is 1 mBTC (the minimum donatable amount).
We then click “Donate” to process the donation. Keep in mind this is not necessary, but we are doing it anyway.
6. Next we are greeted by a nice “thank you” message that informs us that our donation has been processed. Beneath this are the series of “chips” that have been provided to us, which consist of the following:
We have received three chips: 1 x 0.004 BTC, 1 x 0.002 BTC, and 1 x 0.001 BTC. If we were to click “Withdraw all chips”, we would be provided with three BTC addresses and their corresponding private keys. We also have the option to withdraw only one or two chips. If you want to leave them all where they are for the moment, click on the “Leave chips and get voucher” option. This will allow you to withdraw your BTC at your convenience by redeeming the voucher at a time of your choosing.
7. (Optional) The biggest two of our chips can be split. In this example, we will split the 0.004 BTC chip in half by pressing the corresponding Resize button.
After clicking “Split in half”, we now have 3 x 0.002 BTC chips and 1 x 0.001 BTC chip.
8. Notice there is an option to split the 0.002-sized chip again, or merge two together back into 1 0.004 chip if we wanted. Instead, let’s withdraw one 0.002 BTC chip by pressing on that button under the Private Key column.
After clicking the button, we are greeted with a new message that says “Chip withdrawn. Please check private key at Step 3.” We now possess 2 x 0.002 BTC chips and 1 x 0.001 BTC chip. There is also a new row added after Total Chips, which is labeled Private keys.
For the sake of this guide, we will be leaving in the remainder of the chips in for now and choosing to receive a voucher.
9. Pressing that button brings us to the private key reveal and voucher code page, which looks like this:
Private Keys: The top row (next to the 0.002 BTC amount) contains the Bitcoin private key for our withdrawn chip (starts with “L” or “K”). Import this key into your Bitcoin wallet in order to redeem your BTC. If you don’t want to import it right away, save it in a very secure location for the time being. ChipMixer provides instructions on this page for how to import a private key into Electrum, Bitcoin Core, or exported as a JSON file that can later be imported by a number of wallet applications.
Vouchers: The second row (next to the 0.005 BTC amount) is the voucher code to be retained to cash out remaining chips (starts with “1”). Keep this code in a secure place – you will need it after your session ends to claim your chips. For further explanation, ChipMixer describes vouchers as the following:
“They are ChipMixer IOUs (I owe you). Usually you receive voucher when Chipmixer chip pool is not enough to handle your deposit. You can also exchange some (or all) of your chips for voucher to withdraw them from ChipMixer later (and merge them with another deposit).”
10. Finally, in this last step, we will redeem our voucher (this is not necessary if you have already claimed all your chips via private key). Vouchers can be redeemed at any time, even after your original session has expired. To do this, we first revisit the ChipMixer site (on Tor, naturally).
– If it has been less than one week since the creation of your session, select “Restore your session”, input your session token, and click “Restore session”.
– If it has been more than one week since the creation of your session, select “Start Mixing”, save your new session token, and click “I have saved my session and want to continue.”
Next, scroll down to where it says “Redeem Voucher” and input your voucher code. It will look something like this when properly entered:
Press “Redeem” to continue. You will then be greeted with a new message that says “Voucher redeemed, xxxx BTC received.” In our case the amount is 0.005 BTC received, because:
- We started out with 0.008 BTC.
- We donated 1 mBTC to ChipMixer.
- We withdrew one 0.002 BTC chip via private key from our earlier session.
- We are now left with 0.005 BTC.
Our two remaining 0.002 BTC chips have been recombined into one 0.004 BTC chip.
You now have the option to donate again, split chips, or withdraw some or all of your remaining balance via private key.
ChipMixer URL – chipmixer.pro