Bisq 2 has just been released. I am a Bisq contributor AMA about Bisq or Bisq 2 \ stacker news ~AMA

Bisq 2 has just been released. I am a Bisq contributor AMA about Bisq or Bisq 2

16.9k sats \ 48 comments \ @solomon1923 17 Mar AMA

I am contributor for Bisq. An open source peer to peer bitcoin exchange.

Bisq has recently released Bisq 2 to make it easy for users to get no kyc bitcoin in a peer to peer exchange. Bisq 2 will have multiple trading protocols the first of which is Bisq Easy.

For an overview of Bisq 2's roadmap see this video:

Bisq Easy, is the first trading protocol that allows bitcoin buyers to buy up to 0.01 BTC per trade with no security deposit. Benefits of Bisq 2 over Bisq 1 for small trades are:

No trading fees
No miner fees for bitcoin buyers
No security deposit requirements

Useful links about Bisq:

Website: https://bisq.network/ GitHub: https://github.com/bisq-network/ Wiki: https://bisq.wiki/

I am happy anyone has about Bisq in general or the new Bisq 2 release.

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274 sats \ 3 replies \ @TonyGiorgio 17 Mar

Congrats!

For more advanced power users, what advantages are there for bisq 2? Is it interoperable with bisq 1? Why should I switch if I'm still quite happy with bisq and have a very long and reputable profile.

1451 sats \ 2 replies \ @solomon1923 OP 17 Mar

Thanks for the question.

Here is a list of the main differences that come to mind with Bisq 1 and Bisq 2 (Bisq Easy).

Feature	Bisq 1	Bisq 2
Security deposit requirements	Yes (min 15% of trade amount)	None
Trade size	up to 0.25 BTC for fiat trades	up to 0.01 BTC for fiat trades
Trade fees	0.15% for maker and 1.15% for taker	None
Miner fees	maker pays one on-chain transaction, taker pays for three on-chain transactions	Seller will pay for one on-chain transaction
Risk of seller running off with fiat	Pretty much zero due to bitcoin multi-sig	None zero chance. Security is is based on seller reputation
Lightning trades	No	Yes, if buyer and seller agree
Multiple profiles	No	Yes

Bisq Easy is more focused towards on boarding no-coiners or those wanting to get their first no KYC bitcoin.

Assuming a power user will be someone already familiar with bitcoin, no KYC, peer to peer trading, and be buying or selling over 0.01 BTC at a time then Bisq 1 will will be a much better fit for them.

Is it interoperable with bisq 1?

No, but you can import your Bisq 1 account age / signed status to give you some additional reputation if you anticipate being a seller.

Why should I switch if I'm still quite happy with bisq and have a very long and reputable profile.

No need to switch. Eventually the Bisq 1 multi-sig trade protocol will be incorporated into Bisq 2. At this point you would need to switch over, but this is a while away.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @TonyGiorgio 17 Mar

Appreciate that! Lightning will be cool but for now I'm glad to know I should stay on 1 for now. Thank you!

358 sats \ 0 replies \ @solomon1923 OP 17 Mar

Yes, a native Lightning protocol for Bisq is very much needed, as is Bisq being accessible on mobile devices. Bisq 2 brings both of these a little closer. Glad you are a happy Bisq user.

234 sats \ 3 replies \ @davidw 17 Mar

Can you talk about some of the user research that went into pivoting the product?

(From a niche tool for technically minded people to a tool for newbie normies?)

187 sats \ 2 replies \ @solomon1923 OP 17 Mar

Thanks for the question.

I would not describe Bisq 2 as being a pivot as the original Bisq 1 trade protocol will continue to exist. I would describe Bisq Easy as being an additional trade protocol that might be suitable to some users.

The roadmap for Bisq 2 is to have multiple protocols that will suit various use cases.

The reasons for the change from Bisq 1 to 2 are:

Bisq 1 software was becoming a little bloated. Hard for new devs to work on.
Bisq 2 is designed from the ground up to support multiple trade protocols. It will make it possible for new contributors to focus their efforts on a trade protocol rather than worrying about understanding the entire code base.
Bisq 2 will be easier to make accessible via mobile than Bisq 1.

The reasons for the addition of Bisq Easy are:

Bisq 1 requires new users to have bitcoin to buy bitcoin. This is a barrier to no-coiners. Also getting some no KYC bitcoin to start the process was in itself a barrier and users where often directed to methods and platforms away from Bisq.
Bisq has been operating a Get your First Bitcoin room on Matrix (and previously Keybase) for a while now. It has worked well but it was not promoted due to the risk of attracting scammers. Bisq Easy provides more security for buyers than can be achieved on a Keybase or Matrix room.

142 sats \ 1 reply \ @davidw 17 Mar

Makes sense, thanks for clarifying. Can definitely see the new protocol setup opens so many doors.

I also see how the user experience has changed from a trading setup to more of a chat interface and I wondered how that came about.

71 sats \ 0 replies \ @solomon1923 OP 18 Mar

The idea was for Bisq Easy to be a little more social. The experience from the Keybase and Matrix rooms was that of a friendly chat room where users could buy and sell bitcoin.

Bisq Easy seller's will hopefully create a positive experience for new bitcoin buyers. Likely there will be a little hand holding needed for a user that might have questions about bitcoin wallets, differences between on-chain and Lightning etc. The sellers will charge a markup but some of that is because they are expected to create a positive on-boarding experience.

Bisq being peer-to-peer means it will never be the easiest platform to use. But hopefully it can stand out in terms of the overall experience it provides; friendly community, self custody, private, no need for kyc, environment for uses to learn from others.

122 sats \ 2 replies \ @BlokchainB 17 Mar

For bisq 2 do you need to keep your computer on while buying and selling?

118 sats \ 1 reply \ @solomon1923 OP 17 Mar

No, you can go offline and your offer remains available. This is different to Bisq 1. Once the offer has been taken obviously both users need to be online at some point to complete the trade.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Ribbit 7 Apr

What enabled this change ? Are you relying on an always on server infra that B1 did not ?

142 sats \ 2 replies \ @sdf 17 Mar

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117 sats \ 1 reply \ @solomon1923 OP 17 Mar

Will there ever be Bisq mobile app or web app in the future ? (Thinking about making it more accessible to the masses)

I am bullish on there being a mobile version of Bisq in the future. One of the issues is Bisq is a decentralized peer to peer network. This makes it a lot more difficult to have it running on a mobile. As technology improves I am sure this will make the translation to a mobile a lot easier.

Is this feeless trade & 0 security deposit only applies to Bisq Easy protocol or is this policy applies to all of the upcoming protocols ?

It is for the Bisq Easy protocol. The trading fees for the future protocols have not been decided yet but I imagine there will be a fee of some sorts.

How does the devs make money if there are no more trading fee ?

Bisq Easy will run at a loss for Bisq, but it gets revenue from the trading fees from Bisq 1.

Feeless trade effectively kills one of BSQ utility (trading fee reduction) was this already well-thought before ?

As feeless trades are just for Bisq Easy I do not think this will be much of a concern. Bisq did not make any revenue from Get Your First Bitcoin Matrix room to help on-board new users. Bisq Easy is essentially a development of this concept (small more convenient trades for new users).

Will Bisq ever consider to add supports for some other type of Bitcoin in the future ? (Fedimint, Cashu, Ark, Mercury )

Maybe. Personally I like the idea of a Bisq Fedimint that could form part of a trade protocol. Bisq likely has the reputation to achieve this but there are also regulatory issues to consider and Bisq's general dislike of providing any sort of custodianship.

One of the advantages of Bisq 2 is it allows developers to create new protocols that can be integrated into Bisq without taking on all the complicated codebase of Bisq 1. It is designed for trade protocols to be modular in that sense.

How resilience is Bisq in general against the potential gov attacks ?

The protocol is very resilient. Contributors and users would be the easier options for any attacks.

How does Bisq attracts liquidity ?

Good question. I think not being a mobile application and replying on on-chain transactions have been a big barrier to adoption. Also people like convenience. I think more adoption will come when more bitcoiners understand the benefits of stacking no KYC sats, and likely have more difficulty doing it via a centralized entity. Users that have experiences issues with banking and exchanges often turn to solutions such as Bisq. I expect more and more people to run into these issues in the future.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @sdf 18 Mar

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111 sats \ 0 replies \ @TheWildHustle 17 Mar

Smooth UI/UX

I'm surprised I haven't checked out Bisq earlier.

171 sats \ 0 replies \ @BitcoinIsTheFuture 17 Mar

Awesome great work! No kyc bitcoin in a peer to peer exchange and a the future! Keep building!

171 sats \ 2 replies \ @ch0k1 17 Mar

How safe is to trade on BISQ?

75 sats \ 1 reply \ @solomon1923 OP 17 Mar

Bisq 1 is very safe due to how both the buyer and seller putting bitcoin into a security deposit. This essentially functions as an escrow. If the buyer or seller does not follow the trading rules then a penalty can be imposed and their peer can be compensated.

Bisq Easy is for smaller trades, and does not have the same security guarantees as Bisq 1. It sacrifices some security for more convivence (no bitcoin needed to trade). The security model for Bisq Easy is based on seller reputation. Here are some tips on how to trade safely on Bisq Easy.

71 sats \ 0 replies \ @ch0k1 17 Mar

Thank you for the detailed explanation 🙏 I have to try it soon

171 sats \ 1 reply \ @jeff 17 Mar

Do you, or anybody on the team, worry about state overreach implicating you with liabilities should a user get scamed?

1137 sats \ 0 replies \ @solomon1923 OP 17 Mar

Personally, the scenario described it is not something I have worried about. But state overreach comes in many forms and is something I have concerns with. It is one of the reasons I contribute to Bisq.

100 sats \ 2 replies \ @Coinsreporter 18 Mar

What has been the main idea after naming it 'Bisq'?

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @stopfeds 18 Mar freebie

The old name is Bitsquare and due to trademark conflicts, the network needed to change it to Bisq. Bitsquare is derived from the name Satoshi Square, a face-to-face meetup where people also traded.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @solomon1923 OP 18 Mar

https://bisq.network/blog/bitsquare-becomes-bisq/

100 sats \ 1 reply \ @026180d3a3 18 Mar

Do you remember any contentious trades made on Bisq? How did they resolve and does Bisq 2 provide a way to avoid similar misunderstandings?

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @solomon1923 OP 18 Mar

Nothing contentious comes to mind. Banks are probably the biggest reason that trades might need assistance. For example:

Bank rejects payment to the payee
Bank rejects payment to the payer
Bank holds payment from the payee for extra checks and either credits it or returns it

I use bank to refer to any financial services provider; eg Zelle, Strike etc.

Similar to Bisq 1, Bisq 2 provides mediation support should traders need assistance.

100 sats \ 1 reply \ @premitive1 17 Mar

How many of the developers of bisq 1 have moved over to bisq 2? is this the same as the misq project? is bisq a business?

130 sats \ 0 replies \ @solomon1923 OP 18 Mar

How many of the developers of bisq 1 have moved over to bisq 2?

There are only a small number of devs working on Bisq. AFAIK most of the Bisq 2 devs joined to develop Bisq 2.

is this the same as the misq project?

Yes, I think the M in Misq was for multiple, as in multiple trade protocols. Misq was proposed as an idea This was changed to Bisq 2 relatively early on when development started. Here is the original Misq proposal.

Is bisq a business?

Bisq is a DAO. It is a business in the sense is an organization involved with the development and running of a bitcoin exchange.

100 sats \ 1 reply \ @cryotosensei 17 Mar

Welcome!

Looks like I need to update my quick guide here

My question is: any plans for Bisq to follow in RoboSats’ footsteps n initiate a Federation Coordinator program or something like that?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @solomon1923 OP 18 Mar

Thanks for writing the guide. Bisq does not really to any marketing so it very much relies on users to share their experience with others.

Robosats is great, I think the Federation Coordinator is to increase the decentralization of Robosats whilst also keeping offer books on different instances accessible. I think this is needed for Robosats as it is domain based (accessible from an onion address). I am not very familiar with the program though. Just what I have learnt from browsing their GitHub.

Bisq is software and as such all Bisq users are network peers, they broadcast and share the offer books with their network of peers.

Not sure if that answers your question. Please let me know if you would like me to expand on the answer.

100 sats \ 3 replies \ @Coinosphere 17 Mar

How will Bisq Easy keep trades safe when it removes the deposit requirement?

43 sats \ 2 replies \ @solomon1923 OP 17 Mar

The Bisq Easy protocol users the bitcoin seller's reputation as the security mechanism. This is not as secure as the bitcoin multi-sig used for Bisq 1, which is why the 0.01 BTC limit for trades exists.

Seller's will invest in their reputation so they have an incentive not to scam users as if they do they will lose their reputation. Ideally buyers will end up trading with users that have high reputation to avoid being scammed.

If a buyer takes an offer from a user with no or low reputation the risk of them being scammed will be a lot higher.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Coinosphere 18 Mar

So like localbitcoins then. Is there any recourse for if & when they get scammed anyway? Any kind of arbitration at least?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @solomon1923 OP 18 Mar

Bisq 2 has both moderators and mediators. If a user is scammed then the seller's profile would be banned from Bisq and the associated reputation they built would be lost. As there is a cost to develop a reputation for sellers it is in their interest to act honestly during the trade process.

Bisq 1 has arbitration because the funds are deposits into the multi-sig by the buyer and seller prior to the trade taking place. This is not the case in Bisq Easy.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BlokchainB 7 Apr

I hate the new order book

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Ribbit 7 Apr

That roadmap is absolutely captured by Liquid. I liked everything up to the later transition goals.

No one uses liquid. No one wants liquid. But your team is no doubt close to the technical brain thrust behind it or funded by people that want Liquid to happen.

it's not going to happen.

Skip all those steps and just prioritize Monero swaps.

Like lightning, liquid is over designed and worse, a mishmash of acronyms with unclear objectives (all with third party risk and legal liability) a branding crisis if you will.

Imagine being a new user that wants to send money to someone in another country or even in the same country. All the pain points for getting from fiat to btc, to lightning/liquid, finaly to that person in a private, secure way, are far above basic Monero use.

Wallet security, lightning and bitcoin node self custody, now add whatever liquid is trying to do with its litany of projects. Each point along this is a learning curve with diminishing returns on sending a few dollars to cover last sundays brunch with friends, or pay for a house.

Liquid has designed itself into a pocket universe no one wants to live in, and others are doing it better.

That being said, Kudos to you and the team on delivering Bisq V2, having a functioning DOA and inheritance process, i will test and hope its an improvement on the slow mess of V1. We all benefit from your success in this space.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Ribbit 7 Apr

bit sqare square, sweet

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Signal312 1 Apr

Looks interesting, I'm playing around with it now.

Say that I'm looking for help specifically on Bisq 2 (Bisq Easy), and you go to https://bisq.wiki/, it looks like it searches through both the Bisq 1 and Bisq 2 information? How can I find info specifically on Bisq 2? For instance, say I'd like info on notifications in Bisq 2?

Also on this page: https://bisq.wiki/Bisq_1, at the bottom there's a "Community" section, where twitter, https://bisq.community/, and other resources are mentioned.

However, the telegram group Bisq is not mentioned. It seems pretty active and helpful. Is it not recommended? Are there "official" support people hanging out there? Some people there seem very helpful.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Coinsreporter 18 Mar

Why didn't you create an Android app? I only have an Android phone. I want to use bisq but I can't. Tell me what can I do?

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @solomon1923 OP 18 Mar

A mobile app would be great. It is technical difficult to get a peer to peer network app running on a mobile. It is something Bisq is striving towards.

In the meantime you can use a mobile Matrix client to access the Bisq room for people looking to buy and sell bitcoin: https://bisq.wiki/Getting_your_first_BTC

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Coinsreporter 18 Mar

Thanks, I will try it. It's something very new for me. However, I will try to learn it ASAP.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @jeff 17 Mar

Why is there an "up to 0.01" constraint?

1003 sats \ 0 replies \ @solomon1923 OP 17 Mar

It is due to the lower level of security a buyer gets by relying on the reputation of a seller. Larger trades are much more suited to Bisq 1 where the bitcoin multi-sig protocol provides a very high level of security.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @OT 17 Mar

It says LN coming soon

How soon?

122 sats \ 0 replies \ @solomon1923 OP 17 Mar

For Bisq to be accessible to as many users as possible it needs to be mobile friendly and enable trading to take place off layer 1.

Receiving bitcoin over Lightning is available now on Bisq Easy if the buyer and seller agree.

Lightning trade protocols are being worked towards:

Bisq Easy Lightning (likely end of year - but not a native lightning solution)
Lightning <-> BTC (Q1 of 2025)
Lightning <-> Fiat (Q4 of 2025 - native lightning solution)

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @lumbembajohn4 24 Mar freebie

C’est génial ! Quels sont les nouvelles fonctionnalités intégrées ?

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @tomo_koo 23 Mar freebie

I downloaded bisq2 Mac version for my M1 mac. Could not open the app. Do you have any idea why this is the case.