Many people have been asking how to swap sats between Onchain and LN, there are different ways to do it, and this article will walk through two of my favorite tools for swapping:
🔧 Boltz.exchange
Features
- NO-KYC
- No sign-up
- Non-Custodial
- Low amount of requirement, min: about 50K sats
Downside
The fee could be pretty high sometimes - payment includes network and Boltz service fees: Boltz fee is usually 0.1% ( from Onchain to LN ) or 0.5% ( from LN to Onchain )
How to Swap from Onchain to LN
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Decide how many sats you would like to swap.
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Create and paste an LN invoice or LN address to receive the sats.
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Download refund file.
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Send the sats to the provided BTC address.
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You then receive the sats over LN once the Onchain transaction reaches one confirmation.
How to Swap from LN to Onchain
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Decide how many sats you would like to swap.
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Enter BTC address.
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Copy the LN invoice and pay, then check the Onchain transaction and wait till it reach one confirmation.
🤔 Review
-Swapping from Onchain to LN is generally smooth, but it happened to me a few times that I needed to refund for different reasons, but all have no problem reclaiming the funds.
Refund Process:
a. wait after the lock time and go to refund page
b. upload the refund file
c. input a Bitcoin address for refund, done.
Again, choose a low-fee time for a refund because the fee would be deducted from your refund sats!
-Swapping from LN to Onchain is quite fast, once the LN invoice is paid, the Onchain transaction is automatically triggered, and I haven't had any problems so far.
The art of using Boltz.exchange
- Choose low-fee time to do the swaps.
- Always download the refund file in case something happens.
- Ideally, using custodial wallets in these swaps:
- a. without exposing any of the node IDs
- b. without worrying about any route, whether there is enough inbound liquidity or online or not.
Many people are too paranoid about using custodial or non-custodial wallets, but learning how to make the most of each is the way.
🔧 Robosats
Features
- NO-KYC
- No sign-up
- Tor Only
- PGP encrypted chats
Downside
It might require users to have more technical skills, such as how to use Tor.
How to Swap from Onchain to LN
- Create a robot avatar, save the token ( this is your login )
- Click the swap icon on top 🔃 and Swap in.
- Offers generally 0 to 2%; choose the one that fits your need, and ideally, choose an active peer to avoid long waiting times.
- Input the sats amount that you want to swap, and pay the first LN invoice ( lock bond ): usually about 2-3% of the swap amount - you will see this bond percentage when choosing the offer, and it will be charged only if you cancel or lose a dispute.
- Provide an LN invoice with the actual amount of sats you want to be swapped to.
- Enter an encrypted chat and send the BTC to the address provided by the other party.
- Wait for the transaction to reach one confirmation and once the other party confirms received, then the actual LN invoice will be paid, and the sats charged for the lock bond will be unlocked back to your LN wallet.
How to Swap from LN to Onchain
- Create a robot avatar, save the token ( this is your login )
- Click the swap icon on top 🔃 and swap out.
- Offers generally 0 to -2%, choose the one that fits your need, and ideally, choose an active peer to avoid long waiting times.
- Input the sats amount that you want to swap, and pay the first LN invoice ( lock bond ): usually about 2-3% of the swap amount - you will see this bond percentage when choosing the offer, and it will be charged only if you cancel or lose a dispute.
- Pay the second LN invoice - the actual amount of sats you want to swap.
- Enter an encrypted chat and provide an address for the other party sending BTC to.
- Wait for the transaction to reach one confirmation then confirm received, and the sats charged for the lock bond will be unlocked back to your LN wallet.
🤔 Review
I haven't had much negative experience with it so far, but I have had experience swapping with inactive peers who took a long time to complete the swaps.
The art of using RoboSats
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Choose low-fee time to do the swaps.
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Do not reuse the same robot ID for better privacy.
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Always mark down the token.
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Choose an active peer to avoid a LONG waiting time.
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Ideally, using custodial wallets in these swaps:
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a. without exposing any of the node IDs
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b. without worrying about route problem, whether there is enough inbound liquidity or online or not.
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One more detail to share: If you happen to click another offer while having an active offer in Robosats, you can select your avatar in the left corner and then go back to the active order; otherwise, it will stuck at the "new order being created process " if you go to the order page, even if you refresh it, not sure is this a feature or a bug...
Which tool to choose?
Both of them are great tools, and my practice is as follows, ideally I would do the swaps during relatively low fee time, then It depends on whether I am in a rush or not:
- If yes - go directly to Boltz
- If no,
a. Check RoboSats first, choose the swap on top, and check offers, generally a good offer is when the premium is 0% or close to 0% and fair for both parties.
b. if there is no good offer, then go to Boltz.
Enjoy swapping and I look forward to learning from your practice. ⚡️