🚢 Just launched Buoy — a free, independent Bitcoin-only tool to compare wallets, exchanges, merchant tools, and more by country.
Inspired by Jeff Booth’s call to spend more of our time on Bitcoin, I put that advice into action.
Even in Bitcoin-only, there are so many services it’s hard to know how they differ. Buoy makes that clear and saves you time.
This is an early MVP — still missing services and features — so your feedback now will shape what comes next.
⚡ I’ll zap the first 10 constructive feedback comments. 🔗 https://buoybitcoin.com/stacker
A lot of cool info here!
One note is to consider adding Bisq to the Buy Bitcoin> without KYC options.
Also, when going through the flow after answering questions, the user is presented relevant options, but it's unclear what tapping the circle in the upper right corner of each card does. It turns orange, but what does it do?
Hey Scoresby, thanks for leaving feedback! I will add Bisq this weekend.
Good point on tapping the circle, perhaps i should clarify it, especially if you only tap it once nothing happens. However, if you tap two different services, the compare button should turn orange :)
I probably should have figured that out...
...but the compare button is really cool! Great work!
I just added a visual cue to tapping a circle in the upper right corner of each card Scoresby. Every other circle will ripple once and the compare button will pulse to hopefully nudge users to click another circle :)
Pretty cool! I definitely noticed the compare button this time ('course, I was looking for it).
I've added Bisq to the site! Let me know if anything is missing or incorrect, I will adjust it.
Took a quick look and noticed there’s no dark mode! Props on the project though, nice work!
It now has dark mode 0xbitcoiner! I will tweak it a bit more because some elements could have better visibility.
Worked on darkmode a bit more. Logo's should have better visibility now.
You know what, i'm going to implement Dark mode right now
Thanks for checking it out. Dark mode is on the "to do" list.
Wrong! Bitcoin is Lightning and Lightning is Bitcoin. By presenting as 2 separate things you are misleading noobs into believing there are 2 separate things. And are NOT.
And btw... Muun and Aqua are NOT LN options. Are fake.
And Lightspark? Are you fucking kidding? Lightspark is the enemy of Bitcoin!
Who really is Lightspark and their goal: https://unlimitedhangout.com/2024/10/investigative-series/the-chain-of-command-how-facebooks-libra-bank-regulators-and-paypal-built-a-new-world-currency/
To my knowledge, Lightning is an L2 layer on top of Bitcoin to facilitate easy transactions. Sending native Bitcoin on Lightning and vice versa won't work, that's why the distinction.
LOL you have so much to learn about Bitcoin... Please read what is a HTLC and submarine swaps. LN is THE payment network for Bitcoin. Onchain is THE final settlement.
Oh I definitely have a lot to learn about Bitcoin! I will read about HTLC and submarine swaps.
You need to remove Muun because they pretend to be lightning but use submarine swaps. A lot of people said they lost their funds, fees are way too high, etc. Have you used it yourself?Also add RoboSats as well: https://learn.robosats.org/
They even have the app available on Zapstore and F-Droid.
Thanks for your feedback NovaRift.
I thought Muun had an established reputation? I've downloaded it but haven't used it much. RoboSats will be added this weekend as well.
I think noobs fell for it. The wallet works, but I've seen experienced bitcoiners on forums like Reddit and here saying to just move away from it and secure your funds. Even if you wish to add Muun as a choice, please do mention that they're not lightning but use submarine swaps. I'm an Android user and there are a lot of well maintained Bitcoin apps on Zapstore and F-Droid all of them are open source, so you should take a look there as well.
Read this guide from Darthcoin about LN wallets Choose wisely your LN wallet you want to use
I will read up on it, thanks.
RoboSats has been added!
Thanks
Hey, good job building the MVP. While I agree with DarthCoin’s points, I believe that Muun and Lightspark should be there, they just require a detailed explanation of the negative sides of their approach. Newbies should see that these options exist and have a way of figuring out why they should avoid them. Nice to see the project being open source. This means people can conveniently contribute to the knowledge base.
My guide on lightning wallets may be helpful: https://21ideas.org/en/lightning-wallets/
Nice addition Tony! I will do some research and add the negative sides. I wanted it to keep this project aligned within the Bitcoin ethos.
I've bookmarked your guide!
It has all the potential to become an important source of information for the newcomers and even seasoned bitcoiners. Not everyone has time to stay up to date with new projects.
From my own experience it’s hard to juggle development and content in such projects, but it’s important to not have one overshadow the other — balance is key here. The website already looks and feels really good. I feel like the info about the projects is what needs your attention now.
Also, you should probably add cursor rules to gitignore 😅
Haha thx for that catch! I'm not a professional programmer as you can tell ;)
Thank you for the kind words, it means a lot. As someone who is relatively new to Bitcoin, I was struggling to find a single platform with a visual side-by-side comparison of all the service and product options within Bitcoin so I just started to build this tool.
I think the challenge will be to inform people with relevant information without overwhelming them. As Bitcoin adoption grows, new people don't want to compare services, they just want an easy way of finding the right service that fits their needs.
You’re right. Balance is key here - too much info and people will dismiss your tool as overly complicated, too little, and they won’t be able to make the right decision. I guess the solution could be having minimum info in the comparison view and then separate more detailed pages for each wallet/platform. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.
Here’s another website that you will most certainly find useful: https://walletscrutiny.com/
I myself am a “non-developer”, who is leveraging AI to build a bitcoin-only platform, aimed at preserving and sharing Bitcoin history. So I know how important healthy feedback is.
Check out https://bitcoin-calendar.org/en if you have a chance and let me know what you think.
Good luck with your endeavor!
We're on the same mission then! I had a look and replied in your bio.
Just added some nuance to Muun and Lightspark on their pro/con features and their company description:
Muun "However, some note that Muun doesn't support Lightning addresses and that Lightning transactions may route via on-chain swaps. This means unpredictable fees, especially when onchain activity rises."
Lightspark "These tools have already seen traction with big regulated partners and typically involves KYC via the partner."
For user experience, can you make it such that I can compare and close any wallet comparison rather than going back start over again.
What do you mean exactly? You want to compare more than two wallets at a time? Due to limited space on mobile, I am restricted to two. On desktop you can compare three services at a time.
I mean a close button. Let say I compare Strike and Relai, I can close Relai then add Breez to still compar with Strike
Ah i see what you mean now, so you can keep comparing Strike to other services. It's not a bad idea. I will make a note of it and see have a look how to implement it. Thanks!
Great start!
Here's some specific Bitcoin resources in Australia:
There are 5 bitcoin-only Australian exchanges for buying and selling BTC which are:
There is an Australian billpay service at livingroomofsatoshi.com
There are two quality node builders in Australia:
Hope your project grows and prospers!
I made a note of your suggestions @anon. Thanks for the feedback!
Wow ! What a beautiful website with most of the important details available about Bitcoin in the internet history 🙏
Thanks a lot! That's quite the praise haha
Why is there no Wallet of Satoshi here?
The project is still in it's infancy so I had to make a selection of services. Wallet of Satoshi will be added if people find the site useful enough :)
I find the app super useful
I'm glad to hear that!
Good site but odd name
Thank you BlokchainB! The name Buoy is meant to refer to the navigational wayfinding platform that it is, just like Bitcoin is in a sea of money printing. Hence the logo that resembles a chain of buoy's but turned sideways looks like an abstract Bitcoin symbol.
Ahh Okay. I was lost
Can you create a table of all the wallets and their features too where comparison can be done at a glance
You mean compare all the wallets at the same time? I'm open to suggestions but I don't think it will work because of limited space on mobile where most users will use the site. On desktop you can compare up to 3 services.
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TL;DR: Buoy helps you discover & compare Bitcoin-only services by country.
▶ Watch the 60s demo inline here (plays on SN): https://buoybitcoin.com/video/buoy-demo.mp4?sn=1
Full site: https://buoybitcoin.com/stacker