Those who want to buy or transact ETH/”Ethereum” anonymously have a problem, blending services are often centralized or scams but now there is a new tool called Tornado Cash. I personally don´t use such recommendations if they don´t come from trustworthy sources. For me it was an interview with Vitalik Buterin, where he mentioned Tornado Cash. I time-stamped you the part of the interview – in crypto you should never trust anything you find on the internet without any approval by more than a few sources.
Basically Tornado Cash is a mixer/blender. Blending in crypto means making your crypto anonymous by using cryptographic methods like zero-knowledge-proofs.
Why you could need something like Tornado-Cash
Lets assume you bought your Ether with your real name/ real identity. But now you want to make a anonymous purchase, the way we by things anonymously with cash. The problem with public blockchains is that anyone who knows your initial address can follow all your transactions you will ever make. This means you have to cut the information-chain, you have to introduce randomness. This is where the mixer like Tornado Cash comes into play.
What Tornado-Cash actually is
Tornado.Cash is a web service using smart contract (so directly interacting with the blockchain). However, mixers are a single point of failure. Never put huge amounts of crypto in such a service. Even though Tornado.Cash seems to be a legit service, you can still be wrong and use a site which looks similar. Crypto is wild-west, always keep your eyes open.
Be careful!
The site we are looking for is tornado.cash (no .com or anything else but .cash). Use a VPN, use the Brave-Browser and go into Tor-Mode. If you have not downloaded the privacy focused Brave-Browser yet, you can check out this post.
So go into your Brave-Browser and…
Now your IP should be changed. However hiding your deposit ID is less important than hiding your withdrawal ID!
Make sure to avoid these anonymity mistakes
First you need to understand which information you involuntarily share. It is not only your IP or Ethereum Address but also the amount you put in and take out.
Imagine you put in 2.3456 ETH and you pay a fee and take out a very similar amount are you still anonymous? No. This is why there are pools. When everybody is putting in 0.1 ETH than everybody can take out 0.1 ETH after is was mixed. This is why you will find fixed size pools.
For a full tutorial you should check out this very well done video tutorial.
Get the Brave-Browser
make a checklist of points where you think that could expose your identity (deposit and withdrawal IP, using the same Ethereum-address as always, by using the same amount over and over again)
Have fun with your freedom and privacy.
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