Aqua wallet - Bitcoin, Lightning, Liquid

[dkbit98]

I just got my hands on a brand new mobile wallet for bitcoin called Aqua wallet.

Aqua wallet is non-custodial wallet created by Jan3 company and it is using Liquid and Lightning layer two in addition to regular Bitcoin main net.

After selecting Layer 2 Bitcoin option I can click Receive button and choose between Lightning and Liquid:



I think this could be useful wallet especially in time when fees are high, and I would much rather use this when I need to receive stable coins USDT or EUR in more private way.
One more interesting is that you can accept payments from other chains like ethereum or tron and receive them as USDT.
If we compare fees we can see that transactions are much cheaper than most other alternatives available today, and transactions can be confidential:



I don't see any links for github, so I don't know anything about license but I would love to see this being open source soon.

Aqua wallet is not yet approved and available on g00gle play and app store, but APK file is available for testing on their website.
Just make sure to backup your seed words in safe place after wallet creation.
I think there is a space to improve this wallet, maybe with adding Tor switch, dark theme, releasing source code, but it's not a bad start for first version.


https://aquawallet.io/

Important note:
Aqua wallet is using BIP84 derivation path for Bitcoin and BIP49 for Liquid_BTC.

Have you tested Aqua wallet and what do you think about it?

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[btczar]

I just installed it and received some lightning bitcoin sent from muun wallet.

I think the aqua lightning wallet is also on the liquid network, so not sure of the mechanics going on in the background, but it seems like sending lightning from regular lightning wallet to one on liquid network is no problem. I did get hit with a $6 transaction fee on the Muun wallet side, but that was expected because of the way they do lightning transactions and was a reason for me moving my balance to a new wallet with cheaper fees. I dont think the high fee was because of liquid network, but maybe someone else has more info on that.

[dkbit98]

I think the aqua lightning wallet is also on the liquid network, so not sure of the mechanics going on in the background

Yes it has LN, Liquid and Bitcoin onchain.
I think they are using something similar like Breeze wallet for lightning, and for swaps they are using Boltz and Sideswap.
Good news that source code for Aqua wallet will be open source and released in public soon, but let's wait for confirmation of that.

So far I am really impressed with this wallet and how easy and simple is to use it, but expect to have few bugs in first few releases.
This could easily become one of my main spend mobile wallets... and no more need to use other wallets for stable coins.
Few improvements I would like to see is hardware wallet support, desktop app, and showing sats and or mbtc value.

[Pmalek]

I wonder how they do it and where the liquidity comes from? If I receive USDT on Tron and can spend it without owning any Tron tokens, someone must pay the network fees for me in TRX, while there is a conversion in the background of some of my assets in an equivalent amount. I have never owned any assets on Liquid layer.
The link to the App Store for AQUA Wallet is working now with a notification that the app is only available for iPhones.

[dkbit98]

I wonder how they do it and where the liquidity comes from?

Liquidity is coming from Boltz and Sideswap.

If I receive USDT on Tron and can spend it without owning any Tron tokens, someone must pay the network fees for me in TRX, while there is a conversion in the background of some of my assets in an equivalent amount. I have never owned any assets on Liquid layer.

You are going to pay some fees when using USDT from tron blockchain, but you would do the same thing even if using tron crap, unless you are messing around with staking, voting, and energy bullshit.

The link to the App Store for AQUA Wallet is working now with a notification that the app is only available for iPhones.

It's available for Android with APK file, until g00gle play store approves it.

Nice video to watch with Samson Mow and Prince Filip talking abotu Aqua wallet:
https://youtu.be/yi7a2n6VMH4

Short video review by theBTCcourse:
https://youtu.be/9b_VYjKAc-s

[Pmalek]

You are going to pay some fees when using USDT from tron blockchain, but you would do the same thing even if using tron crap, unless you are messing around with staking, voting, and energy bullshit.

I guess the fees are deducted from the currency you are sending, similarly to how centralized exchanges do it. You send a certain amount of USDT tokens and pay the fees in USDT. When we are on the topic of Tron, all addresses have a certain amount of daily energy they can use to move TRX for free each day. That means free transactions with 0 fees. But since USDT tokens are considered smart contract interactions, they require more "energy", which is usually not enough for free transactions unless you have a significant amount of staked coins. 

[bitmover]

I just got my hands on a brand new mobile wallet for bitcoin called Aqua wallet.

Aqua wallet is non-custodial wallet created by Jan3 company and it is using Liquid and Lightning layer two in addition to regular Bitcoin main net.

After selecting Layer 2 Bitcoin option I can click Receive button and choose between Lightning and Liquid:

Isn't aqua wallet an old blockstream wallet?

There is a 2020 topic here.

So Blockstream just recently released their new Aqua Wallet, that apparently supports Bitcoin and "all assets issued on the Liquid Network". And apparently, you can buy bitcoin through the Aqua app(through Apple pay) with no KYC required. Quite intriguing, so I downloaded the app with plans of testing this specific functionality.

Maybe they broke apart from blockstream? But they are still using Liquid, like green wallet.

Aqua is not in blockstream.com website anymore.

Edit:
I need to receive an LN payment.. downloaded this wallet to give a try
Aqua wallet LN is a bit frustrating.

It says "don't leave screen until payment is received " when I generated the invoice.

We are still so far from mass adoption...

[Kruw]

I don't see any links for github, so I don't know anything about license but I would love to see this being open source soon.

Closed source is a non starter for me.  The fiat shitcoin integrations show their priorities are way off. 

Also, what's up with people posting self moderated topics?   

[Pmalek]

Isn't aqua wallet an old blockstream wallet?

You are right, it is.
Here is a press release announcing the wallet back in September 2020. It's a wallet created by the Blockstream and Blockstream Green developers, probably meant to popularize the Liquid network. Even the logo is almost identical. Same style and font, but with the addition of a new color.

Also, what's up with people posting self moderated topics?

As the name suggests, to self-moderate them the way they think is right without having to report unwanted spam to mods, hoping they will remove it. There is no controversy with self-moderated topics unless they are opened in boards like Reputation or for the purpose of preventing the truth.

[JayJuanGee]

Isn't aqua wallet an old blockstream wallet?

You are right, it is.
Here is a press release announcing the wallet back in September 2020. It's a wallet created by the Blockstream and Blockstream Green developers, probably meant to popularize the Liquid network. Even the logo is almost identical. Same style and font, but with the addition of a new color.

Also, what's up with people posting self moderated topics?

As the name suggests, to self-moderate them the way they think is right without having to report unwanted spam to mods, hoping they will remove it. There is no controversy with self-moderated topics unless they are opened in boards like Reputation or for the purpose of preventing the truth.

The last few days, BTCSessions (Ben Perrin) had been talking about Aqua Wallet, and in his latest episode of "Why Are We Bullish?," he had Samson Mow as one of the guests who had been involved in Aqua Wallet from the start (during time that Mow was still at Blockstream - as is shown in that above 2020 press release), and seems to still be involved with Aqua wallet, and Mow mentioned that the source code would be released as open-source within a few days, a week or at least a relatively short-period of time^tm - even though Mow seemed to be poo-pooing the importance of open-sourcing (and usually I like Mow - but I found his poo-pooing comment to be kind of irritating and patronizing).

I still have not used Aqua Wallet, yet I downloaded it and created a wallet - and I was looking at the Aqua assets page.



It shows three kinds of Tether (Liquid, Ethereum and Tron), and I am wondering what is "Liquid Tether"?  Is Liquid Tether the same as BTC Tether?  or is there something different about Liquid Tether as compared with BTC Tether?   Maybe it is just naming and I have to play with some of it more and I might be able to answer this particular question.

[Pmalek]

It shows three kinds of Tether (Liquid, Ethereum and Tron), and I am wondering what is "Liquid Tether"?  Is Liquid Tether the same as BTC Tether?  or is there something different about Liquid Tether as compared with BTC Tether?

When you say BTC tether, I assume you mean the asset on the Omni layer, right? Both Omni and Liquid are layer 2 solutions for Bitcoin that allow the creation and transfer of different tokens (in this case the tether token). They are not the same protocol. I think Omni layer was the first network where the tether token resided. The Liquid network came later.

[Saint-loup]

It shows three kinds of Tether (Liquid, Ethereum and Tron), and I am wondering what is "Liquid Tether"?  Is Liquid Tether the same as BTC Tether?  or is there something different about Liquid Tether as compared with BTC Tether?   Maybe it is just naming and I have to play with some of it more and I might be able to answer this particular question.

If by BTC Tether you mean Tether on Omni layer, you have to know that Tether is discontinuing its support and it might be hard or even impossible to exchange them after next September. So it's better to use Tether from other blockchain/network for now, you can find the current balance of each ones(currently 14) here : https://tether.to/en/transparency/#usdt

Following the news Tether Makes Strategic Transition, to Meet Community Demands and Foster Innovation on 17th August 2023, Tether discontinued support for the Kusama, Bitcoin Cash SLP and Omni Layer implementations.

The transition process will move forward as follows:

Tether ceased minting USD₮-Omni, USD₮-Kusama, and USD₮–BCHSLP from 17th August 2023

Tether will continue to redeem USD₮-Omni, USD₮-Kusama, and USD₮-BCH-SLP as normal until September 2024. Tether may evaluate and announce further changes around that time.

Users can also swap USD₮-Omni, USD₮-Kusama, and USD₮-BCH-SLP for other chains on platforms that support these assets, such as Bitfinex.

https://tether.to/en/supported-protocols
And as Pmalek said above it's not the same protocol and not the same token as the Liquid one.

[JayJuanGee]

It shows three kinds of Tether (Liquid, Ethereum and Tron), and I am wondering what is "Liquid Tether"?  Is Liquid Tether the same as BTC Tether?  or is there something different about Liquid Tether as compared with BTC Tether?

When you say BTC tether, I assume you mean the asset on the Omni layer, right? Both Omni and Liquid are layer 2 solutions for Bitcoin that allow the creation and transfer of different tokens (in this case the tether token). They are not the same protocol. I think Omni layer was the first network where the tether token resided. The Liquid network came later.

I guess that is what I meant, and you answered my question because I did not realize or consider what layer I might have had been on in the past.

I have never transacted in Tether in any kind of way except being on the exchanges.. although I think that when I had a Bitfinex account between about 2016 and 2017, I had Tether on that account, but I don't know what form of Tether, because when they forced all USA users off of their platform, I am pretty sure that I just converted all of that to BTC to transfer my BTC off of that account.

From about 2018 to 2021, I had a Binance account that used Tether (but I don't recall which type), and when they forced me to stop using their service in 2021, and per their recommendation, I decided to move all of my then Binance balances over to a new account that I created on their BinanceUS branch, and I am pretty sure that I transferred the Tether, but I had not remembered whether that was on Ethereum, even though it appears that the Tether that I currently hold on BinanceUS is ethereum based.. that seems to be the default.    But if I go to withdraw Tether it gives me the below six options



Note: Avax C-Chain, BNB Smart Chain (BEP20), Ethereum (ERC20), Polygon (unavailable), Solana and Tron (TRC20).  There is not even a Bitcoin option of apparently Omni or Liquid.


By the way, I recall that BinanceUS made me switch from Tether to dollars in 2021 (or maybe I did it on my own), and then earlier this year, they discontinued dollars, so I chose to switch to Tether, and I have been using Tether on BinanceUS ever since, even though I had not realized it was the Ethereum based on. .or maybe it does not really matter which one of the bases it is since they are holding it.. but if I am going to transfer it, then I have options to use either the ethereum or the tron version if I were going to move it over to Aqua... since neither Liquid nor Omni seems to be available with BinanceUS... which is all news to me.. if I am not repeating myself a bit too much on this point. hahahaha

[Saint-loup]

I guess that is what I meant, and you answered my question because I did not realize or consider what layer I might have had been on in the past.

I have never transacted in Tether in any kind of way except being on the exchanges.. although I think that when I had a Bitfinex account between about 2016 and 2017, I had Tether on that account, but I don't know what form of Tether, because when they forced all USA users off of their platform, I am pretty sure that I just converted all of that to BTC to transfer my BTC off of that account.

From about 2018 to 2021, I had a Binance account that used Tether (but I don't recall which type), and when they forced me to stop using their service in 2021, and per their recommendation, I decided to move all of my then Binance balances over to a new account that I created on their BinanceUS branch, and I am pretty sure that I transferred the Tether, but I had not remembered whether that was on Ethereum, even though it appears that the Tether that I currently hold on BinanceUS is ethereum based.. that seems to be the default.    But if I go to withdraw Tether it gives me the below six options



Note: Avax C-Chain, BNB Smart Chain (BEP20), Ethereum (ERC20), Polygon (unavailable), Solana and Tron (TRC20).  There is not even a Bitcoin option of apparently Omni or Liquid.


By the way, I recall that BinanceUS made me switch from Tether to dollars in 2021 (or maybe I did it on my own), and then earlier this year, they discontinued dollars, so I chose to switch to Tether, and I have been using Tether on BinanceUS ever since, even though I had not realized it was the Ethereum based on. .or maybe it does not really matter which one of the bases it is since they are holding it.. but if I am going to transfer it, then I have options to use either the ethereum or the tron version if I were going to move it over to Aqua... since neither Liquid nor Omni seems to be available with BinanceUS... which is all news to me.. if I am not repeating myself a bit too much on this point. hahahaha

As of now, it seems that only few exchanges are offering deposits and withdrawals for Tether on Liquid network actually, and except Bitfinex they are mostly small or local. I hope some bigger exchanges will accept it soon, otherwise we will need to open another account on another exchange with likely another KYC requirement to address if we want to deal with it.
https://help.blockstream.com/hc/en-us/articles/900005355626-How-do-I-get-Liquid-based-Tether-USDt-
Fortunately, it seems that there are more exchanges supporting Liquid BTC https://help.blockstream.com/hc/en-us/articles/900000629383-Which-platforms-support-the-Liquid-Network-

[bitmover]

It shows three kinds of Tether (Liquid, Ethereum and Tron), and I am wondering what is "Liquid Tether"?  Is Liquid Tether the same as BTC Tether?  or is there something different about Liquid Tether as compared with BTC Tether?

When you say BTC tether, I assume you mean the asset on the Omni layer, right? Both Omni and Liquid are layer 2 solutions for Bitcoin that allow the creation and transfer of different tokens (in this case the tether token). They are not the same protocol. I think Omni layer was the first network where the tether token resided. The Liquid network came later.

I think omni is not exactly a second layer. They are on chain transactions.

They are more likely 1st layer token, like ethereum tokens.

Liquid Tether is probably some 2nd layer (liquid) token.

Tether on omni were on chain transactions

Built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain

Omni is a platform for creating and trading custom digital assets and currencies. It is a software layer built on top of the most popular, most audited, most secure blockchain -- Bitcoin. Omni transactions are Bitcoin transactions that enable next-generation features on the Bitcoin Blockchain. Our reference implementation, Omni Core is an enhanced Bitcoin Core that provides all the features of Bitcoin as well as advanced Omni Layer features.

https://www.omnilayer.org/

This is how I understand it, I might be not 100% correct but I think it is different than 2nd layer  transactions.

[JayJuanGee]

I guess that is what I meant, and you answered my question because I did not realize or consider what layer I might have had been on in the past.

I have never transacted in Tether in any kind of way except being on the exchanges.. although I think that when I had a Bitfinex account between about 2016 and 2017, I had Tether on that account, but I don't know what form of Tether, because when they forced all USA users off of their platform, I am pretty sure that I just converted all of that to BTC to transfer my BTC off of that account.

From about 2018 to 2021, I had a Binance account that used Tether (but I don't recall which type), and when they forced me to stop using their service in 2021, and per their recommendation, I decided to move all of my then Binance balances over to a new account that I created on their BinanceUS branch, and I am pretty sure that I transferred the Tether, but I had not remembered whether that was on Ethereum, even though it appears that the Tether that I currently hold on BinanceUS is ethereum based.. that seems to be the default.    But if I go to withdraw Tether it gives me the below six options

Note: Avax C-Chain, BNB Smart Chain (BEP20), Ethereum (ERC20), Polygon (unavailable), Solana and Tron (TRC20).  There is not even a Bitcoin option of apparently Omni or Liquid.

By the way, I recall that BinanceUS made me switch from Tether to dollars in 2021 (or maybe I did it on my own), and then earlier this year, they discontinued dollars, so I chose to switch to Tether, and I have been using Tether on BinanceUS ever since, even though I had not realized it was the Ethereum based on. .or maybe it does not really matter which one of the bases it is since they are holding it.. but if I am going to transfer it, then I have options to use either the ethereum or the tron version if I were going to move it over to Aqua... since neither Liquid nor Omni seems to be available with BinanceUS... which is all news to me.. if I am not repeating myself a bit too much on this point. hahahaha

As of now, it seems that only few exchanges are offering deposits and withdrawals for Tether on Liquid network, and except Bitfinex they are mostly small or local. I hope some bigger exchanges will accept it soon, otherwise we will need to open another account on another exchange with likely another KYC requirement to address.
https://help.blockstream.com/hc/en-us/articles/900005355626-How-do-I-get-Liquid-based-Tether-USDt-
Fortunately, it seems that there are more exchanges supporting Liquid BTC https://help.blockstream.com/hc/en-us/articles/900000629383-Which-platforms-support-the-Liquid-Network-

Thanks for that further explication (or explanation). 

With that, I am thinking that Aqua Wallet is going to need to be added to Blockstream's list of places to get or swap into or out of Liquid Tether and/or Liquid BTC. 

With so many different tokens (or seeming tokens), no wonder some of us (maybe just me?) get(s) confused about which things are shitcoins (or attached to shitcoins) and which ones are more pegged to bitcoin and bitcoin principles (even if there tend to be various centralizing tendencies in some of the ways that we might want to interact with Tether, versus Liquid versus Lightning Network.. in contrast to how many layers we might be away from bitcoin's main chain).

[Agbamoni]

~

You gave us a summary what we should expect when we download the new Aqua wallet. But you forgot one thing. How have they increased security in the Aqua wallet app. I see that the main focus of the team is to improve the speed of transaction and ease the process of using mobile wallet. However, its essential we to place security as priority. Since the App is on testing i would a little amount and see how it works tomorrow.

Isn't aqua wallet an old blockstream wallet?

There is a 2020 topic here.

So Blockstream just recently released their new Aqua Wallet, that apparently supports Bitcoin and "all assets issued on the Liquid Network". And apparently, you can buy bitcoin through the Aqua app(through Apple pay) with no KYC required. Quite intriguing, so I downloaded the app with plans of testing this specific functionality.

Absolutely. This is what i have been thinking. It seems they rebranded from Blockstream and changed a few of the UI, Colors and functionality. Of which they introduced some new features in the App. This is because I noticed they use the same codebase. In conclusion it's just a product under the Blockstream company that was excluded to be a product on its own.

Oh i see its closed source 

Just checked on x now and saw this reply

[Pmalek]

<Snip>

Exchanges like Binance allow you to decide the network you want to use when you withdraw your USDT. Regardless of what type you deposited, you can withdraw a different one. They don't care. What's important is depositing the correct type of asset into the right address. The Omni layer USDT has lost its importance because you have blockchains like Tron and Ethereum that are quicker and cheaper to use. I didn't know that Binance doesn't even list the Omni layer one, but that tells you everything you need to know about its popularity.   

[FinneysTrueVision]

According to a review published on Stacker News, they originally had terms which stated that Aqua Wallet had the right to collect KYC information.

"AQUA may sometimes be required to collect personal information in addition to Identification Information, such as identity documents (including passport, driver's license, national identity card, state ID card, tax ID number, passport number, driver's license details, national identity card details, visa information, etc.), proof of address, source of fund declaration, purposes of fund documents, and source of wealth."

That has since been removed and replaced with the following: ”AQUA Wallet does not collect, process or store any personal information or documents.”

The target audience for this wallet seems to be USDT users on altcoin blockchains and people who want to use Lightning with minimal risk. By the looks of it, Liquid still has a long way to go in convincing users they should adopt it.

[JayJuanGee]

According to a review published on Stacker News, they originally had terms which stated that Aqua Wallet had the right to collect KYC information.

"AQUA may sometimes be required to collect personal information in addition to Identification Information, such as identity documents (including passport, driver's license, national identity card, state ID card, tax ID number, passport number, driver's license details, national identity card details, visa information, etc.), proof of address, source of fund declaration, purposes of fund documents, and source of wealth."

That has since been removed and replaced with the following: ”AQUA Wallet does not collect, process or store any personal information or documents.”

The target audience for this wallet seems to be USDT users on altcoin blockchains and people who want to use Lightning with minimal risk. By the looks of it, Liquid still has a long way to go in convincing users they should adopt it.

I sill have not deposited any value onto Aqua, yet part of my curiosity also includes how they might allow for swapping between assets, and it appears that the "market place" has not gone live yet, and I was wondering if that was the main place to swap between assets, and then if there were local laws, then they might have initially been considering ways to comply to various local jurisdictions, but maybe they are still trying to figure out how they might want to activate some of the swapping features that might cause some regulatory attention from various jurisdictions.

We can see that their marketplace interface includes:  "coming soon" announcements for buying, swaps, paying bills and debit cards.^**  



**Note that for illustrative purposes, the App allowed me to choose El Salvador  (you can see by the flag on the upper right corner of the screenshot) as my jurisdiction.  I chose with the consideration that maybe El Salvador might not have any jurisdictional regulatory obstacles.... but still I am not actually in El Salvador at the moment

I cannot see any other place to carry out the swaps (for example to swap from BTC or from one of the forms of Tether into lightning network tokens) that are actually active rather than in the "coming soon" category.  

Maybe one of the shortest term objectives would be trying to figure out ways around (or to minimize) various kinds of onchain bitcoin fees during periods in which it is experiencing high fees, yet to attempt to do so without necessarily giving any support to shitcoins.. .. so maybe once BTC is on the Aqua wallet, then it could be converted into lightning network tokens for way less fees than it might cost to do so through other onchain ways during high fee times?