Blockstream Green to Become the Blockstream App

[Pmalek]

To be honest, I am not that pleased with the Blockstream App. I installed it last month and created a wallet to play around with it a bit. The company released a Pizza Day browser game where you collect sats and could win prizes. To participate, players needed a Liquid bitcoin address from the app.

Problems began immediately when trying to generate a new seed on the Android app. It didn't work. It just kept loading in the background and the software never created a wallet. So, I downloaded the desktop version and created a wallet there without issues. I then exported that seed into the Android app.

The second issue was opening and connecting via Tor both on Desktop and Android. At times it didn't work at all. In other cases I needed to restart the app two/three times before I got connected.

Blockstream still has work to do. The way things stand now, I would never use the Blockstream App as my go-to mobile wallet.

[satscraper]

To be honest, I am not that pleased with the Blockstream App. I installed it last month and created a wallet to play around with it a bit. The company released a Pizza Day browser game where you collect sats and could win prizes. To participate, players needed a Liquid bitcoin address from the app.

Problems began immediately when trying to generate a new seed on the Android app. It didn't work. It just kept loading in the background and the software never created a wallet. So, I downloaded the desktop version and created a wallet there without issues. I then exported that seed into the Android app.

The second issue was opening and connecting via Tor both on Desktop and Android. At times it didn't work at all. In other cases I needed to restart the app two/three times before I got connected.

Blockstream still has work to do. The way things stand now, I would never use the Blockstream App as my go-to mobile wallet.

In my view Blockstream app suits Jade owners best. If you don’t have this hardware wallet you should consider the universal client. My choice is Sparrow, but it doesn’t have mobile version, so on my Android  I use Tangem, which has proven very convenient for everyday use. BTW recently it helped me recover money that were stuck in Starknet account ^{I thought they were gone forever, as other wallets I tried didn’t help at all}.

[Pmalek]

In my view Blockstream app suits Jade owners best. If you don’t have this hardware wallet you should consider the universal client. My choice is Sparrow...

I have a Jade airgapped signer but I didn't even consider Blockstream Green (as it was called back in the day) when I was looking for companion apps for my Jade. I wanted to use it with Sparrow on my desktop from day one. The setup with the QR signings was an awful experience though. Eventually it worked, but it took a lot of time and I was close to giving up. There have been many Sparrow updates and a few new firmware upgrades for Jade in the meantime, so I hope they fixed this. On my Android I have coupled Jade with Blue Wallet.

[Pmalek]

After Boltz exchange went offline a few days ago, it was expected that someone else would step up and offer a similar swap service that connects Bitcoin's layer 1 to different layer 2 networks, particularly Liquid and the Lightning Network. Blockstream seems to be the one that might do that soon. The company has announced that they are beta testing its own swaps platform. Looks like they will name it Blockstream Swaps. It will be interesting to see how this will play out.

First announcement of Blockstream Swaps:
https://x.com/Blockstream/status/2085099313378508803

[satscraper]

Blockstream's app was just elevated to v3.5.0, with the Lightning support finally showing up They also added Jade QR Connect (unlock/connect Jade via QR codes) and airgapped signing with Jade on watch-only wallets, plus AMP2 accounts on testnet.

On the downside, they had to temporarily disable the new swaps feature (Bitcoin/Liquid and Liquid-Bitcoin-via-Lightning) due to a service interruption — funds are safe, just swaps paused.

[Pmalek]

On the downside, they had to temporarily disable the new swaps feature (Bitcoin/Liquid and Liquid-Bitcoin-via-Lightning) due to a service interruption — funds are safe, just swaps paused.

Another L2 Bitcoin swap service that's been disabled in recent days. We are running out of them. To be honest, I don't remember ever reading about Blockstream App's internal exchange but I am not surprised they have one considering that the company launched the Liquid Network.

Another route that could work and that doesn't require third-party connections to Boltz or similar services is using Electrum and it's built-in submarine swaps to get bitcoin on the Lightning Network.

[nc50lc]

Another route that could work and that doesn't require third-party connections to Boltz or similar services is using Electrum and it's built-in submarine swaps to get bitcoin on the Lightning Network.

Just for disclosure,
Electrum's swap/reverse-swap feature is provided by third-party Nostr swap providers that's not directly associated with Electrum.

So it's still subjected to each provider's availability and reliability.

And since you've recommended it:
It's very important to use the latest Electrum version 4.8.1 for those who want to use those service due to some related bugs found in the older versions.

[satscraper]

Blockstream App 3.5.1 has been released

This release  fixes several crashes, namely, on exit while  wallet is logged in, during Jade hardware wallet login, when checking Jade firmware, when plugging/unplugging devices while using the QR scanner, and a couple of internal ones. Also improves logging for Boltz swap errors.

In my view this is recommended update if you're running Green with a Jade or doing lightning swaps.

[Pmalek]

Blockstream App 3.5.1 has been released

This release  fixes several crashes, namely, on exit while  wallet is logged in, during Jade hardware wallet login, when checking Jade firmware, when plugging/unplugging devices while using the QR scanner, and a couple of internal ones. Also improves logging for Boltz swap errors.

In my view this is recommended update if you're running Green with a Jade or doing lightning swaps.

My guess is that the Blockstream App still has a lot of problems that the developers have not addressed and fixed yet. Based on my limited experience with it, if someone asked me if I would recommend the software to them, I would say no. The Tor connection doesn't always work and the app required multiple restarts when I tested it before it finally connected. I couldn't generate a seed using the Android app at all. The desktop version isn't lightweight and also suffers from connection issues via Tor.