OrangeFren and
eXch are happy to announce the public project aiming to initiate development of Bisq 1 light client in order to make it lightweight and usable for everyone.
Why?Bisq 1 is the
only existing fully decentralized Bitcoin exchange with meaningful volumes, which makes it a very valuable project.
The current state of the whole Bisq 1 project development is almost fully stale without addressing very important issues, and unfortunately we believe it has a very dubious future without such initiatives, while there is still a chance it can see a bright future if users are provided with a light client that does not require extreme specs and user efforts to run and maintain it. This is a list of some of its current issues:
- constant UI lags
- random application hangs
- recurring connectivity issues
- extremely long launch times
- lack of trust in complex Java software builds that can't be verified causing many to run it in VMs which makes it even slower
We have also reviewed many messages on this and other forums/socials containing brief feedbacks on Bisq which showed us that people like the project and its concept but don't like its Java software stack realization, which causes most users prefer to CEX and other platforms to trade just to avoid running heavy Java software full of bugs and random issues due to its code complexity and lack of optimization.
We believe that the current Bisq implementation is its current entry barrier for both developers and users due to being based on Java, thus it needs an alternative client that:
- is fast
- is lightweight
- doesn't take ages to sync (but still with an option to use a self-hosted node)
- provides a variety of options to manage user identities (add/remove/swap) without having to close and resync the client
- comes with absolutely necessary reproducible builds
Therefore we are volunteering to develop the concept, curate and sponsor the whole development roadmap at its initial stage until the first fully featured release.
How will it be done?We will use
Electrum as the core concept base for the implementation of the Bisq Light Client, since Electrum is one of the best light clients that were ever made and we think that the whole Bisq functionality can fit fully into Electrum-alike interface.
Here are some core concepts we wish to implement:
- The client will be written in Python using same concept Electrum has - being the GUI, the command-line interface and the RPC API in one piece of software, using the absolutely same GUI framework Electrum uses (Qt).
- It will have its own SPV servers for faster data synchronization of the BSQ chain, while still leaving an option to do it in a Bisq way for hardened privacy.
- It will use Electrum SPV servers for faster synchronization of Bitcoin data as a primary method (which might be penalizing for privacy), while still offering options to use full remote and local Bitcoin Core nodes.
These three points are core anchors to solve the performance issues that are present in the current Bisq 1 implementation. Once there is a protocol fully implemented in Python and a working CLI, the development should become easy and straightforward, enabling the FOSS community from the whole world to contribute.
Who will develop it?We will wait for interested developers to contact us in order to distribute tasks and launch the initial development.
We also expect some current Bisq 1 core developers and contributors to attend and participate in this project development.
OrangeFren and eXch teams will also perform code security review at the first development stages since we have expertise in Python.
The Github repository will be managed by OrangeFren, eXch and current core Bisq 1 developers/contributors who will manifest interest in helping with its maintenance. An independent security audit will also be performed once there is a full featured release.
What is the funding?The initial current project funding is
5 BTC (but not limited to) provided by eXch, whose team will also distribute the funds across all the contributors after each project stage completion based on their participation.
The distribution of funds evaluation will be performed by OrangeFren, eXch and any interested parties who wish to contribute into this project.
We also accept donations at the following addresses to be distributed across the contributors:
BTC: bc1q852fnqadh9w4fssnsh8jnh0ranqnrj2qn8pe7k
LTC: ltc1qrfvaw3y3rax4rz9420jffkuvatw3p6sc4gqjrg
ETH: 0x1087D9f292BD2148dAec878b0F383AeC4c63E0A7 (if stablecoins, please avoid USDT and USDC, while DAI is preferred)
XMR: 45JxXNs3AJYEyVNsT6TJWLYJKttw6b8yoSRBSXu3AgWEUys1oxiuFDL6VHMVaMDVUnBXtbCSCS4QfaT
ymryniM4KGQ1vq6v
(These addresses belong to OrangeFren who will be responsible for proper distribution of donated funds)
How to participate?If you are dev who is interested to make the part of this project, please send an email to
bisqproject@mail.orangefren.com and inform us which part of the project you are interested to work on so we can add you to the initial core team.
Devs who wish to make the part of the core team are required to have good Python skills and experience in network application development and basic Bitcoin concepts.
Non-devs who wish to make the part of the team on other concepts (such as marketing, accounting or research) can also email us or simply joins our SimpleX Chat group.
The first development roadmap with a separate taskforce group for each point, which is considered STAGE 1:- Full implementation of Bisq 1 protocol
- Research and development of public BSQ SPV server along with its synchronization model (either per address sync or per height sync)
- The client command line, GUI and API functionality development to be able to view, take and create Bisq offers. The first GUI concept will be based on Electrum interface tabs and menus.
We accept a possibility that Electrum wallet repository might be forked for development of the initial concept.
Once STAGE 1 is complete, the 5 BTC will be distributed across all the developers fairly.
We accept suggestions.
Please join our SimpleX Chat group to talk on topic:
SimpleX Group url
Email for any questions:
bisqproject@mail.orangefren.com (currently forwarded to OrangeFren and eXch reps, but we also invite all the core Bisq 1 developers and contributors to be added to the forward list)
IMPORTANT: This project is not related to Bisq 2 thus any mentions of it will be considered offtopicThis post will be updated once the basic development team pops up meanwhile we are awaiting for proposals.
