NOTE: before you start tumbling your BTC, you need a few things first. These are:
- Tor Browser Bundle (can be downloaded here: https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en)
- The ability to buy bitcoins online with i.e. localbitcoins.com
- You must be able to create new online bitcoin wallets on Tor and on the clearnet. Using Electrum bitcoin wallet https://electrum.org will be a very safe wallet way since all it's traffic is routed through the TOR network.
- This guide assumes the reader already knows how to send bitcoins from one adress to another.
Warning: always make sure you are using the correct .onion links and get them from a safe and trusted website (like the link in this post).
Well now, the actual guide.
The steps
Step 1. You must first create a bitcoin wallet on the clearnet. In the rest of this guide, we will call this wallet #1.
Step 2. Buy bitcoins from a trusted website like the earlier mentioned localbitcoins.com and send them to wallet #1.
Step 3. This time, create a bitcoin wallet over the Tor network, preferably Electrum. This wallet will be referred to as wallet #2.
Step 4. Now send your bitcoins from wallet #1 to wallet #2.
The reason for creating 2 wallets is simple. Because the bitcoins were sent from wallet #1 to wallet #2, wallet #1 can no longer be linked to a final transaction (i.e. to a darknet market). If Law Enforcement would ever investigate you, you can just say you (the owner of wallet #1) sold the bitcoins for money and sent them to the owner of wallet #2. There's now way LE can ever know wallet #2 belongs to you too.
Step 5. Create another wallet, also over the Tor network. We'll call this wallet #3.
Step 6. Now decide which mixer you will be using. We strongly recommend using Helix Light by Grams as it has proven to be a very reliable and fast bitcoin tumbling service. Any other service may fail to send you back the bitcoins you paid for. Do NOT use any coinjoin product as your mixer as they will not hide your complete trail.
Helix Light .onion URL: http://uqawhirnxwzymge4.onion/helix/light/index.html (only open this in TOR browser)
NOTE: turn off JavaScript in Tor browser via the 'S!' button in the top left corner. Click the button and then Forbid Scripts > Globally. This is very important since JavaScript could be used to trace down your real IP adress.
Step 7. Fill in your wallet #3 adress at the tumbling service homepage and click Enter.
Step 8. Send the bitcoins from wallet #2 to the adress generated for you by the bitcoin tumbling service (in this case probably Helix).
Step 9. Watch your bitcoins arrive at wallet #3 from the tumbling service by filling your #3 adress in at blockchain.info
Step 10. Now send your bitcoins from wallet #3 to the adress of your desired darknet market. Happy spending!
Following this guide should keep you pretty damn anonymous from LE trying to track you down via blockchain analysis. The only weakness remaining is the fact that the mixing company has records of your transactions, and although they all claim to delete them shortly after the transaction is complete, it is possible they could have a trail of where your coins went. You can negate this risk by repeating the process with a second mixing service.
All this probably sounds way too complicated, but trust me: it isn't. The complete process can easily be done within 20 minutes and when it comes to protecting your privacy at all costs: that isn't much time. Also, when you have practiced bitcoin tumbling a couple of times it will become a very standard thing for you to do, not hard at all. Happy spending!
