Does anyone know much about bisq?

[jackg]

I'm looking for any information or past experience trading on the decentralisted bisq exchange. It was suggested to me a few months ago and I've had it downlaoded but now I want to look more into it and see if I can trade on it.

Are there any security concerns I need to be aware of other than the fact that it seems fairly new (and wehen I downloaded it there was no GBP volume at all)? Is there a practice for remaining anonymous on the exchange and is it possible to withdraw funds directly to a bank account (I'm assuming their fee might go into providing this service) or do you get a stable coin you have to cash out elsewhere?

If possible please link videos as all I'm doing at work at the moment is reading huge reems of text...

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[Pmalek]

I haven't used it personally but just in case you didn't read their ANN one user posted some positive comments about the exchange.

An ANN page for Bisq at last - great! This is well over due.

I've been using Bisq since long ago when it was previously called Bitsquare. I lost faith/trust in all centralised exchanges long ago & only used localbitcoins for trading up until when they required the dreaded KYC - that killed it for me, but as there was no other exchange that I trusted I was stuck with it. Then I discovered Bisq (or Bitsquare as it was called then) & I've been using it ever since without a hitch, as well as recommending it to anyone who asks. The amount of development going on behind the scenes on github is astounding with constant improvements being made to the platform - it seems every time I fire it up there's a new & improved update - great stuff indeed.

Swearing never to use a centralised exchange again wasn't easy, but now that Bisq are going mainstream at last with this ANN, there's no excuse for anyone to use a centralised exchange again. It might seem strange to use for the first few times to those who are used to centralised exchanges but believe me, once you get used to it you'll never use a centralised exchange again. No bots, no scams, you're in control of your coins on your machine & no KYC shit to deal with. What's not to like?

Game changer. Keep up the great work all those at Bisq.

Edit: I do have one concern - the amount of shitcoins that are finding their way onto Bisq. I know they get delisted if there's no trading, but what's the point of listing so many of them in the first place? 99% of them are worthless scams anyway.....lol

There are some negative news as well. The exchange was hacked at the beginning of April. A total of 3 BTC and 4000 XMR were stolen from 7 different users. More about that here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5230289.msg54184522#msg54184522

[o_e_l_e_o]

Are there any security concerns I need to be aware of other than the fact that it seems fairly new (and wehen I downloaded it there was no GBP volume at all)?

No platform is ever going to be 100% safe. As Pmalek pointed out, there was a vulnerability exploited recently which led to 7 users losing money, although Bisq are planning to cover their losses. There are no currently known security vulnerabilities, but that's not to say none exist, which is the same for everything from your OS to Bitcoin Core.

Is there a practice for remaining anonymous on the exchange

It runs over Tor. If you want to remain completely anonymous, then you will need to use anonymous fiat methods such as cash or money order, and well anonymized bitcoins.

and is it possible to withdraw funds directly to a bank account

Yes, absolutely. See their fiat payment methods here: https://docs.bisq.network/payment-methods

If possible please link videos as all I'm doing at work at the moment is reading huge reems of text...

Bisq have their own YouTube channel, which includes video tutorials. Here's their video playlist of how to get started on Bisq: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTfM4AsxNHY&list=PLFH5SztL5cYOBvV3_TZJlFi14_65AbMwi

[20kevin20]

I have used Bisq many times before. It worked flawlessly with all my txs, I fortunately have not been a victim of the latest exploit.

To be honest, I do not know for sure but I believe that Bisq connects to Tor automatically upon launch. IIRC, I had issues 2 or 3 times with the Tor connection through it but maybe it's my mind playing games on me.

One thing that scared me in the beginning was the long time I had to wait until the transaction was done. Due to the fact that both of you have to create & confirm the transactions and you probably live in different timezones, you first have a little uncertainty whether it's going to fail or succeed. If you have used wallets with console and so on before, I'm sure you'll get the hang of the Bisq interface after 1-2 txs.

Most of my transactions took ~10-15hrs to finish if you're wondering. If the transaction fails due to the other peer's fault, you'll get their security deposit as a recompensation.

However, I have only done crypto-to-crypto transactions over there so I can only speak from my crypto-to-crypto experience.

[buwaytress]

I use Bisq, a lot less these days than I would have preferred to, but there was a time last year when volume was actually picking up well for Monero trading. So I vouch only for as much as I would vouch anything I use and trust =)

True, the hack happened, but that was a vulnerability that was homed in on and fixed, and to be fair, it could happen to anyone.

I reached out to the founders in 2018 and they were very responsive. I like what they did, I think we got to support these platforms as much as possible. The newer versions are much better than in 2018!

[o_e_l_e_o]

One thing that scared me in the beginning was the long time I had to wait until the transaction was done. Due to the fact that both of you have to create & confirm the transactions and you probably live in different timezones, you first have a little uncertainty whether it's going to fail or succeed.

This is compounded if are trading to or from fiat. Depending on which fiat payment method you are using, you may end up waiting a couple of days for your chosen method to process/clear/confirm/etc., especially over a weekend. To begin with this made me a bit uneasy, but if you stick to trading with trusted parties you should be fine. Much like if you trade a lot on the forum, over time you will build up a history with a couple of individuals and you will be more comfortable doing larger and larger trades with them.

Bisq removed payments methods which allow chargebacks such as PayPal to reduce the chance of fraud from that perspective, and as 20kevin20 says, both parties pay a security deposit to incentivize honesty and speed.

[mocacinno]

The security deposit always throws me off... I have been following the development for a long time, i've compiled bisq on my server and i open it up every time i want to do an exchange. But then i remember the security deposit and i use binance or some on-the-fly exchange instead.

[20kevin20]

The security deposit always throws me off... I have been following the development for a long time, i've compiled bisq on my server and i open it up every time i want to do an exchange. But then i remember the security deposit and i use binance or some on-the-fly exchange instead.

I have to admit that the security deposit was a turn-off recently for me too .. On the positive side though, I have verified a few of my old Bisq seeds and found ~$50 sitting there from my security deposits, feels good! But if you want to launch 5 txs and have to pay security deposits for each of them, it's going to cost you quite a lot and that's annoying..

However, it wouldn't be so annoying if the transactions fail and we receive the free compensation. Of course - it's only annoying 'till it's to your advantage..

[jackg]

Thanks for all the replies - I didn't expect it to be mainstream already!

The security deposit always throws me off... I have been following the development for a long time, i've compiled bisq on my server and i open it up every time i want to do an exchange. But then i remember the security deposit and i use binance or some on-the-fly exchange instead.

I have to admit that the security deposit was a turn-off recently for me too .. On the positive side though, I have verified a few of my old Bisq seeds and found ~$50 sitting there from my security deposits, feels good! But if you want to launch 5 txs and have to pay security deposits for each of them, it's going to cost you quite a lot and that's annoying..

Do I have to stay online for the whole thing and leave my node running? Another user above said it can take 15 hours for a tx to confirm, that seems like a very long time...

Both bitcoin and banking transactions are fast here but maybe it's worth testing with bitcoin to litecoin or something just to check I understand everything...

Some advice :
1. If you have Bitcoin full node client (e.g. Bitcoin Core) installed, make sure it's installed and running when you use Bisq. Bisq will connect to your full node rather than other full node.
If you have serious privacy concern, make sure your Bitcoin Core use Tor connection as well.

My privacy concerns hinge more on the other party getting my IP information and not on the main network operators gaining access to any PII. Tor's pretty slow these days and I don't like the idea of passing 250GB of data through a network I don't contribute to.

This is compounded if are trading to or from fiat. Depending on which fiat payment method you are using, you may end up waiting a couple of days for your chosen method to process/clear/confirm/etc., especially over a weekend. To begin with this made me a bit uneasy, but if you stick to trading with trusted parties you should be fine. Much like if you trade a lot on the forum, over time you will build up a history with a couple of individuals and you will be more comfortable doing larger and larger trades with them.

So trading a low volume fiat currency could be more risky or not?
I could still use it to conver to something like dash or xmr before putting it into a standard exchange. I'm after a bit of a proof of concept here at minimum, if I lose something then it will be a smallish amount I'm testing with (at first anyway).

The security deposit always throws me off... I have been following the development for a long time, i've compiled bisq on my server and i open it up every time i want to do an exchange.

I'm guessing this is just some sort of contract that is enforced much like the lightning network's one (where you both sign the other's output and send it to them and only sign your own when ready).

[o_e_l_e_o]

Do I have to stay online for the whole thing and leave my node running?

If you are making an offer, you need to keep your Bisq client open and connected until your offer is accepted. If you go offline, your offer will disappear from the order books until you go back online. If you are accepting someone else's offer, then obviously you will be online anyway to be browsing offers to accept. Once your offer is accepted (or you have accepted an offer) and the trade has been initiated, there is no requirement to stay online permanently, but obviously you need to check back regularly to keep updated regarding your trade.

See here for more info: https://bisq.network/faq/#why-keep-bisq-online

So trading a low volume fiat currency could be more risky or not?

I wouldn't say it would be inherently more risky just because there is low volume, just that it might take longer to find an offer, have an offer accepted, or actually transfer the fiat. If you want to test it out first, then BTC/XMR is definitely the best market to do so.

I'm guessing this is just some sort of contract that is enforced much like the lightning network's one (where you both sign the other's output and send it to them and only sign your own when ready).

It is a 2-of-3 multi-sig escrow. If the trade is completed successfully, then the relevant deposit is returned to each party. If the trade is disputed (I've never had this happen), then an arbitrator who holds the third key steps in to resolve the dispute.

[LeGaulois]

The problem comes from me but the only thing I dislike is it makes my laptop super slow and lagging. It has 4 or 6 Gb RAM but when I open Bisq it's horrible. Even using a browser becomes a  nightmare. For sure, my 1 Gb Ram VPS with Ubuntu server/Openbox is faster.
When I try to close the program I get a Microsoft pop up with "the process does not respond"

[jackg]

I'm running an old version, just about to update but: is your machine normally pretty fast or is it somewhere in between? Mines normally pretty slow and I couldn't spot the difference. I have 4gb ram and a dual core 2.3ghz running win7...

[LeGaulois]

I'm running an old version, just about to update but: is your machine normally pretty fast or is it somewhere in between? Mines normally pretty slow and I couldn't spot the difference. I have 4gb ram and a dual core 2.3ghz running win7...

It's average, it's not an old machine, perhaps 2 years old. Running Win 10 running with Intel Core i5 @2.2 Ghz 6 gb Ram.
But once Bisq is open it's like if I have a laptop from the 90's and better to not do something else. I was supposed to try on a Linux OS to see but lack of time recently

[jackg]

Mine does that as sson as it opens but then it starts to stabalise and work I think...

Although I seemed to have 16 instances of Firefox so that could've been the problem (only one window open).

I managed to select the wrong option on bisq so now I have to convert... oops. Be a good experiment still though.

I also decided there wasn't much traction on the £ when I checked it because it was probably very early in the morning, so...

[jackg]

They don't seem to have support for sending to native sefgwit addresses which is pretty annoying since it's all I use now (had to reroute via an exchange)...


Managed to complete all 4 trades successfully and sell some coins (I meant to buy but it was a good first try )...

The initial conf took a while and I think the faster system (the 1 hour one window one) would be quite sttressful (although so was waiting the time it took them to confirm to check that I'd sent my funds right).