Pros

  • Breaks deterministic connection between UTXOs
  • Adds forward privacy UTXO transactions
  • With tools like Sparrow and whirlpool is becoming more simple to do and allows you to automate mixing to cold storage
  • When done right very little to no risk of losing funds

Cons

  • Cost - this is related to current fee environment
  • Coin-joins are obvious on-chain
  • Possible censorship of UTXOs by exchanges (minimized by lightning)
  • Some trust is involved but differs depending on implementation
  • Requires diligence to not undo the breaking of deterministic links

Alternatives

  • Lighting but also has many caveats
  • Have fun not being private
I use whirlpool with Sparrow to break KYC of my utxos. So this:
Breaks deterministic connection between UTXOs
Wonder how the pool fees compare to just buying on p2p markets with their higher rates. But I think whirlpool fees are cheaper. Depending on the pool of course, but so far, I traded time for fees, I think. Bigger pool means less utxos means less coinjoins required means less time. But higher entry fees.
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P2P markets are sometimes cheaper to buy BTC for fiat than regular exchanges. It's usually when you do the opposite of what the market does.
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Oh, interesting, then I need to take another look
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In P2P markets you can often get better rates than centralized exchanges, even 5-10 %, if your time preference is low and you act as a market maker by providing liquidity.
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Cost - this is related to current fee environment
You can run JoinMarket yield generator bot and get paid for participating in coinjoins instead of paying for coinjoins. Although pure maker mode in JM doesn't guarantee privacy, it's better to mix maker and taker modes.
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Thanks. Wasn't aware of that. Interesting
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Did I miss anything?
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