How to use ostbro
Four routes, and what each one hides
Every order is one of four shapes. Pick the shape first — it decides more than any switch does. The switches come after, and they are explained further down.
Start here
I hold a coin and want Monero
3–3.5%
Send the coin, receive XMR. The payout is Monero, so the payout
side hides itself: only three switches are offered, and two of
them are about timing.
How this one works →
I hold Monero and want a coin
3–3.5%
Send XMR, receive the coin. The deposit hides itself, the payout
does not — so the payout-side switches are the ones that matter,
and six are offered.
How this one works →
I want coin A to become coin B
4–5%
Two legs with Monero between them. Your coin and the coin you
receive never meet. Both sides are visible, so all eight switches
are offered.
How this one works →
I want to break the link between my own addresses
4–5%
Coin A in, the same coin A out, Monero in the middle. BTC and ETH
only. The old address and the new one stop being provably the
same person.
How this one works →
The four shapes
Any coin
you send
XMR
you receive
XMR
you send
Any coin
you receive
Coin A
you send
XMR
Coin B
you receive
Coin A
you send
XMR
Coin A
you receive
The two ends never touch. Monero sits between them, and the line stops on both sides of it.
01
of 08
Coin in, Monero out
You send BTC, LTC, USDT — anything on the list — and Monero arrives at your address. One rate, 3–3.5%, taken from the spot price.
The payout is Monero. Monero hides amounts and addresses on its own,
so measures that scatter the payout have nothing left to hide here.
What stays visible is the relationship: someone paid in at
one moment, and something left ostbro shortly after. That is why the
switches offered are delay and split — both are about time — plus
the one that shortens ostbro's own record.
What is still visible after this
Your deposit is on a transparent chain and stays there. Anyone
watching that chain sees an amount leaving your address towards an
ostbro address, and can tell that you used a swap service. What
they cannot follow is where it went, because the next hop is Monero.
If you later spend the Monero in a way that ties it back to you —
sending it to an exchange account in your name, for instance —
you rebuild the link yourself. ostbro cannot prevent that and does
not pretend to.
02
of 08
Monero in, coin out
You send XMR and receive BTC, USDT, or another coin. Same rate, 3–3.5%.
Mirror of the one above, and the mirror matters. Your deposit is
invisible — nobody can see which Monero came in. The payout is on a
transparent chain, and that is where every measure now goes: how many
addresses receive it, in what amounts, at what moment, and out of
which pool. Six switches are offered, and five of them shape the
payout.
The mistake worth avoiding here
Receiving the whole amount at one fresh address, in one payment, at
one moment, looks exactly like what it is: one person cashing out
of Monero. The address is new, but the shape is not.
Splitting across your own addresses helps only if you keep them
apart afterwards. Spending from three addresses in one later
transaction merges them again, and that merge is permanent and
public.
03
of 08
Coin to coin
BTC becomes LTC, USDT becomes SOL. Two legs with Monero between them, 4–5% — higher because there are two legs, and the estimate is wider for the same reason.
Your coin and the coin you receive never meet. Between them is
Monero, and the movement is under ostbro's control until the payout
leaves. Both chains are transparent, both ends are visible to whoever
watches them, and the piece that used to join them is gone.
Why this costs more than the Monero routes
Two conversions instead of one, two network fees instead of one, and
twice the exposure to price movement while the order is open. The
time estimate is wider for the same reason: confirmations are
waited for on both sides.
If Monero on one side is acceptable to you, the cheaper route is
the better one. Coin to coin is for when you need a specific coin
out and a different specific coin in.
04
of 08
The same coin, in and out
BTC in, BTC out. ETH in, ETH out. Monero in the middle. Priced as coin to coin, 4–5%, because that is what it is.
This one exists for a single purpose: the address you paid from and
the address you receive at stop being provably the same person. Both
are on the same transparent chain, and normally a path between them
can be traced. Here there is no path — the chain ends at one ostbro
address and begins again at another, with Monero in between.
What it costs and when it is worth it
You get back less of the same coin: the rate applies both ways, so
expect to receive roughly
95–96 per cent of what you sent, minus one network fee. Nothing about this route
makes money; it buys a break in a link.
Offered for BTC and ETH only, with their own minimums — the price
of the break does not make sense on small amounts. Other coins are
not offered for the same-coin route.
05
of 08
The switches, and what each one breaks
Eight in total, independent of each other, all off by default. Which ones appear depends on the route, because a measure that hides the payout is pointless when the payout is Monero.
Read them this way
Each switch breaks one specific link. Ask which link, in your
situation, someone would actually look for — and turn on the ones
that break those. Turning on all of them is not the answer: it costs
the most, and it makes your order look like everyone else's who did
the same.
Delayed payout
—
Breaks
The match between when you paid in and when the payout appeared.
Does not break
The amount. One payout of an unusual size still stands out whenever it lands.
Split payout
+0.25%
Breaks
The amount, and the timing with it: unequal parts spread over the window.
Does not break
Parts landing on one address are still one cluster to anyone reading that address.
Payout addresses
+0.3%
Breaks
Parts arriving at one address of yours and forming a single cluster.
Does not break
Anything, if you later spend from those addresses together.
Odd payout amount
no fee
Breaks
Matching by value. The rate lands on a figure like 88.3721 XMR, and a number that exact is a fingerprint that survives any delay.
Does not break
The link if the amount you deposited is itself unusual.
Separate source
+0.45%
Breaks
Being clustered with other ostbro customers: the payout does not come out of the common pool.
Does not break
Nothing at all towards ostbro. ostbro knows the whole order either way.
Deposit addresses
no fee
Breaks
Your own sources meeting at one point: pay in from several places, to several ostbro addresses.
Does not break
Anything on the payout side, and nothing at all if you fund them all from one wallet.
Deposit range
+0.2%
Breaks
Payments that all look alike. With an exact amount every ostbro deposit has the same shape, and the shape says the service was used.
Does not break
The fact that you sent to an ostbro address. The address is on the chain.
Forget immediately
no fee
Breaks
The seven-day window shrinks to nothing. The record goes when the payout goes.
Does not break
That ostbro knew the link while the order was running.
Each one is described in full, with its parameters, on the Separation page.
Thinking about combinations
Switches that break the same link do not add up. Splitting the
payout across several of your own addresses and then spending from
them together undoes both at once. Delaying a payout that is also
an exact round number leaves the number as the marker.
Switches that break different links do add up, and that is where
combinations earn their cost: one that breaks timing, one that
breaks amount, one that breaks clustering. Three chosen for three
different reasons beat eight chosen for none.
There is no recommended set here on purpose. A published set would
make every order that followed it the same shape, and sameness is
the thing these switches exist to remove.
06
of 08
What each coin allows
Minimum and maximum per order, and how many confirmations a deposit waits for. Confirmations are the network's, not ostbro's — they are why one coin takes minutes and another takes an hour.
| Coin | Network | Minimum | Minimum, two legs | Maximum | Confirmations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BTC | Bitcoin | 0.0033 | 0.00659 | 2.7651 | 2 |
| ETH | Ethereum | 0.105 | 0.209 | 93.797 | 65 |
| USDT | Ethereum | 250 | 500 | 180105 | 65 |
| USDT | Tron | 250 | 500 | 180105 | 2 |
| USDT | Solana | 250 | 500 | 180105 | 150 |
| USDC | Ethereum | 250 | 500 | 180105 | 65 |
| USDC | Solana | 250 | 500 | 180105 | 150 |
| SOL | Solana | 2.57 | 5.14 | 2332.21 | 150 |
| TRX | Tron | 749 | 1500 | 546046 | 2 |
| LTC | Litecoin | 4.89 | 9.78 | 3908.79 | 17 |
| BCH | Bitcoin Cash | 1.14 | 2.28 | 85 | 7 |
| DASH | Dash | 4.94 | 9.87 | 1075.6 | 50 |
| XRP | XRP Ledger | 192 | 384 | 172910 | 0 |
| XMR | Monero | 0.1 | 0.1 | 452.034 | 20 |
Amounts are in the coin itself. Two legs means coin to coin, where
neither side is Monero — it costs more, so it starts higher. A greyed
row is not being handled at the moment.
The same coin in and out is a separate case and runs on its own
minimums: 0.01 BTC and
0.1 ETH. No other coin is offered for it.
Why the same coin has different networks
USDT and USDC exist separately on several chains. They share a name
and a price and nothing else: an address on one network cannot
receive from another, and coins sent across that gap are gone.
ostbro asks which network you mean, both for what you send and for
what you receive, and the two do not have to match.
The networks also differ in how long a deposit waits. Tron confirms
in a couple of blocks, Solana wants a hundred and fifty. That is
the network's rule, and it is the main reason two orders of the
same size finish at different times.
07
of 08
Where the rate comes from
With Monero on one side: 3–3.5%.
Coin to coin: 4–5%. Taken from
the spot price, with no separate fee underneath it. Privacy is
inside the rate, not sold on top of it.
It is a range and not a number because a fixed number would let
anyone reading a payout work backwards to the deposit. The exact
figure is drawn when your deposit addresses are issued, printed
there with them, and does not move afterwards.
Switches add to it, each by the amount shown next to it. Nothing is
charged and nothing is locked until you send.
Other services quote well under one per cent, and they are not lying — they are selling something else. That price buys one hop through liquidity that is not theirs, and the network behind it screens the swap before it starts. Here the payout is served from hybrid liquidity, so it does not hang on a single hop that can be screened, nobody looks at where your coins have been, and the separation measures exist at all. Compare what arrives, not what is advertised — and if a plain hop is all you need, a cheaper service is the right one.
08
of 08
If this is your first order
Send a small amount first. Not because ostbro expects to fail, but
because a first order teaches you the shape of the thing: how long
a deposit takes to confirm, what the status page shows, where the
identifier lives. That knowledge is worth the fee on a small amount.
Keep the identifier. It is the only key — there is no account, no
email and no password, and nothing else can reopen your order.
It travels in the URL, so it lands in browser history: clear that
if the machine is not yours.
Give a refund address you control on the sending side. It is asked
for before you pay because afterwards there is no way to ask. Late
deposits, wrong amounts and orders that cannot be completed go back
there.
Read both addresses through once before continuing. Nothing is
checked in your browser, and a payout goes to the address exactly
as it is written.
ostbro does not make you invisible. It is one step in a chain, and
the rest of it is yours.