Xmr.to claims to facilitate fully anonymous bitcoin transactions. The websites receives monero (XMR) from users, and in return sends a corresponding quantity of bitcoin on behalf of the user, obscuring the origin of the payment.
Also Read: Hackers Use NSA Exploit to Mine Monero Using Victims’ Computers
Xmr.to purports to offer total anonymity by obscuring the path taken
Xmr.to claims to allow its users to send fully anonymous bitcoin transactions by using its service. The company will send payment on behalf of a user in exchange for monero – an altcoin that claims to offer privacy capabilities that are superior to bitcoin’s pseudonymous ledger.
Xmr.to purports to offer total anonymity by obscuring the path taken by funds in between destination and origin, as well as the medium of exchange employed. The company claims that the record between the sender and xmr.to is untraceable owing to monero’s protocol, and that there is no record associating the sender with the recipient of a transaction created during a transfer. Said anonymity would, however, appear to be exclusively enjoyed by the sender and not the recipient of a transaction, as the recipient will have a pseudonymous record of the transaction sent from an xmr.to wallet recorded on the bitcoin blockchain.
The Decision to Receive Payment in Monero May Be Largely Motivated by the Self-Interest of Xmr.to
The decision to receive payment in monero may be largely motivated by the self-interest of xmr.to. With the company’s operations comprising that of a basic bitcoin ‘tumbler’, the choice to accept xmr has likely been made in order to protect the anonymity of xmr.to.
Information surrounding the origin xmr.to is extremely scant, which is unsurprising given that the company’s business model circumvents the traditional money transmitting industry and regulations. New users of cryptocurrency seeking to utilize the privacy benefits of virtual currencies are advised to exercise due diligence and conduct independent research regarding the different cryptocurrencies and services available to them, and should strive to be able to manage one’s virtual currencies independently, and without reliance on third parties.
Do you think that xmr.to’s purported fully anonymous bitcoin transactions offer unique privacy benefits when compared with conventional bitcoin transfers? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Images courtesy of Shutterstock