On the 23rd of Nov 2022, a Twitter user, FatManTerra, announced that the popular Bitcoin mixer, ChipMixer, is actually a United States government honeypot.
🧵 Today, I'm sharing my long-standing theory behind a US government covert operation designed to partially crack Bitcoin privacy and deanonymize transactions. I believe that popular Bitcoin mixer ChipMixer is actually a United States government honeypot. Here's why.
— FatMan (@FatManTerra) November 23, 2022
The anonymous Twitter watchdog took to Twitter to expose a long-standing theory behind a US government covert operation designed to partially crack Bitcoin privacy and deanonymize transactions.
He explained that his conviction stems partly from the fact that the US has a number of similar covert operations, such as their warrantless internet surveillance rooms to intercept private telephone conversations, which remained secret for years until the public found out.
If, apparently, the US government is willing to go to great lengths to have access to flows of online information, certainly, they can do it again.
Interestingly, ChipMixer’s financial model generates no profit for the makers. It was released with a “pay what you want model”, featuring high marketing costs and no fees – surviving only on donations which is uncommon among mixers and is certainly not a viable business model.
After looking at ChipMixer’s history, it is safe to assume that they are being bankrolled by an extremely wealthy entity that has lots of money to burn. It has made purchases with expenses in tens or hundreds of bitcoins, all completely without revenue. FatManTerra believes that $10 million is a lot of money to most, but to the CIA or NSA, it’s a rounding error.
Running a centralized Bitcoin mixer is illegal, and such a person risks years in prison for violating anti-money laundering laws making it hard to imagine anyone offering this for free.
Several recorded high-end criminals have also employed ChipMixer.
Many large mixers have shut down due to legal action or bankruptcy. So why is ChipMixer still running in normalcy without regulatory action being taken? also considered that despite the availability of privacy tech, the operator of ChipMixer has complete access to every transaction deanonymized!
The answer is clear – ChipMixer is the US government’s ace in the hole. A secret weapon that nobody knows about and can be used when necessary.
