The way i understand it, Bob wants to send 1 BTC to Alice, and Charlie wants to send 1 BTC to Dave, and everyone wishes to do so anonymously. Through the wonder of mixing Bob's coin actually ends up with Dave. Unfortunately for Dave, Alice was a drug dealer and Dave gets arrested for receiving stolen property or proceeds from crime or some such.
Except in reality the mixing is done with smaller parcels, and a larger number of users. Whether or not the feds want to go after you for receiving 27c worth of drug money is another matter entirely, but i can quickly see there being some negatives to using a mixing service.
The way i understand it, Bob wants to send 1 BTC to Alice, and Charlie wants to send 1 BTC to Dave, and everyone wishes to do so anonymously. Through the wonder of mixing Bob's coin actually ends up with Dave. Unfortunately for Dave, Alice was a drug dealer and Dave gets arrested for receiving stolen property or proceeds from crime or some such.
Except in reality the mixing is done with smaller parcels, and a larger number of users. Whether or not the feds want to go after you for receiving 27c worth of drug money is another matter entirely, but i can quickly see there being some negatives to using a mixing service.