BISQ was one of the motivations for a new(er) laptop. Of course, it was still slow as anything, and you have to keep the bloated client online just to provide liquidity, so it didn't work out. And that laptop doesn't even work anymore, and I have no idea what role BISQ may have played in that.
I wonder if what you build could be structured like an API.
[...]
If you built the bare bones building blocks, then it could open BISQ up so widely, and so many cool tools could be built for people everywhere. A lot of technical bitcoiners would build their own tools.
I think what you want is a Bisq protocol library. In the past, I would’ve said a C library; now, I will say “either a C library, or a Rust crate with
cbindgen C bindings”. Almost every other language can link to C.
For the reference client, an
MVC GUI design’s model can then hook into the library’s API.
Compare how
the Tor network’s new daemon, Arti, is a Rust crate that’s designed to be
linked into other applications. Incidentally, this embedding helps to solve the Bisq issues with its problematic Tor embedding.
If the Bisq library or crate is liberally licensed for embedding in other projects, that would promote wider usage—and thus, the liquidity and volume that an exchange needs for long-term success and stability. For instance, if I ever write my own wallet, I might like to add a Bisq plugin so my users have handy in-wallet access to P2P exchange. Or someone may want to make a headless Bisq daemon to run 24/7/365 on a low-energy Pi, plus a web app frontend to control it from their phone. The possibilities are limitless when a protocol can be embedded into many projects.
Please think in terms of composable software, and the Unix philosophy.
I have further ideas for how to improve what I’ve seen of Bisq, but such discussion is premature if there’s no good implementation of the existing protocol.
My perspective: I’ve never used Bisq. I tried, way back in 2017. The Bisq program was huge, slow, and flaky. I couldn’t disable its
ad hoc embedded Tor, for use with my network-isolating Tor gateway; under a throwaway alt, I
asked for help on the Bisq forum and
then on Github. If a program insists on spawning its own Tor instead of using mine, that’s strictly a dealbreaker—and it raises questions about the developers’ understanding of security. I gave up. I briefly glanced at it a few years later; from a distance, it seemed by then more like a way to promote a BISQ token, which didn’t interest me.
Today, P2P exchange is more important than ever. If Bisq had a solid implementation, perhaps I may wish to get involved. I code, but not Python.
What is the status of this project?
1.25 BTC were spent; unless I missed something on a skim, 3.75 BTC remain. No one even bumped this thread for over a year. Is this project alive? Are its backers interested in rebooting it, and perhaps in taking it in a new direction?
