Introduction - Revision history

Strayorigin: Add Bisq 2/multi-protocol context; clarify v1 trade example vs. newer protocols; refine security mechanisms description; add TOC & internal links (DAO, v1/v2, Easy, Security Deposit, etc.); improve flow.

2025-04-17T04:30:47Z

Add Bisq 2/multi-protocol context; clarify v1 trade example vs. newer protocols; refine security mechanisms description; add TOC & internal links (DAO, v1/v2, Easy, Security Deposit, etc.); improve flow.

Show changes

M52go at 03:14, 24 August 2021

2021-08-24T03:14:47Z

M52go at 03:00, 24 August 2021

2021-08-24T03:00:53Z

Willygoldman: /* Why Bisq exists */ decapitalized Bitcoin to bitcoin

2021-08-23T02:18:36Z

Why Bisq exists: decapitalized Bitcoin to bitcoin

Willygoldman at 02:16, 23 August 2021

2021-08-23T02:16:19Z

Willygoldman: /* How trading with Bisq is different */

2021-08-23T02:14:28Z

How trading with Bisq is different

Willygoldman: /* Why Bisq exists */

2021-08-23T02:13:05Z

Why Bisq exists

Willygoldman: /* How Bisq keeps funds secure */

2021-08-23T00:27:21Z

How Bisq keeps funds secure

Willygoldman: /* A typical transaction */ Switched to EUR from USD given that EUR offers accounts for 4x the volume of USD offers in BTC right now (2.73 BTC vs 0.74)

2021-08-23T00:25:12Z

A typical transaction: Switched to EUR from USD given that EUR offers accounts for 4x the volume of USD offers in BTC right now (2.73 BTC vs 0.74)

Willygoldman: /* In a nutshell */ Slang will be unfamiliar to those that are not English as a first language.

2021-08-23T00:20:10Z

In a nutshell: Slang will be unfamiliar to those that are not English as a first language.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Bisq is a decentralized bitcoin exchange network best understood in terms of its major attributes:
+Bisq is a decentralized bitcoin exchange network best understood in terms of its major components:
 # Bisq is a cross-platform '''desktop application''' that allows anyone to buy and sell bitcoin in exchange for national currencies or other cryptocurrencies.
@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 # Bisq is the '''peer-to-peer network''' formed by Bisq applications discovering, connecting to, and working with one another to implement the Bisq trading protocol. The Bisq network is fully peer-to-peer in that it requires no centrally-controlled servers and has no single points of failure.
-Bisq is not a company—it is '''free/libre software''' released under version 3 of the GNU Affero General Public License. Bisq is built by individuals around the world who choose to work together. Bisq is used by individuals around the world who choose to trade with Bisq rather than any other Bitcoin exchanges.
+Bisq is not a company—it is '''free/libre software''' released under version 3 of the GNU Affero General Public License. Bisq is built by individuals around the world who choose to work together. Bisq is used by individuals around the world who choose to trade with Bisq instead of other bitcoin exchanges.
 The project itself is organized as a [[decentralized autonomous organization]].
@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 Bisq’s mission is to provide a '''secure''', '''private''' and '''censorship-resistant''' way of exchanging bitcoin for national currencies or other cryptocurrencies over the internet.
-When we say secure, we are referring to the safety of users' funds. Centralized exchanges take custody of the user's fiat and/or bitcoin during the trade. Worse than that, users often choose to allow this custodial relationship over their property for extended periods of time before and after the trade. The Bitcoin of thousands of users is an extreme incentive for those centralized servers to be hacked or compromised by trusted insiders. History shows these incentives are too great: the loss of user bitcoin from centralized exchanges has happened and likely will happen again.
+When we say secure, we are referring to the safety of users' funds. Centralized exchanges require users to store their bitcoins—for at least some amount of time—on exchange servers. When thousands of users do this, it creates extreme incentives for those servers to be hacked and for those users' bitcoins to be stolen. And time and time again these hacks and thefts are exactly what happen.
-When we say private, we are referring to the users' ability to control access to their own information. Most centralized exchanges require users to divulge personally identifying information in order to set up an account, which in turn links users' trading activity to their respective identities. This practice creates extreme risks for users: their personal details and financial information will be stolen, leaked, or otherwise used against their own best interests.
+When we say private, we are referring to users' ability to control access to their own information. Most centralized exchanges require users to divulge personally identifying information in order to set up an account, which in turn links users' trading activity to their respective identities. This practice creates extreme risks for users: their personal details and financial information will be stolen, leaked, or otherwise used against their own best interests.
-When we say censorship-resistant, we are referring to freedom. That is the users' ability to voluntarily trade with one another without interference from a third party. Centralized bitcoin exchanges are highly susceptible to such interference. By their nature, centralized exchanges must operate within one legal jurisdiction or another. This single jurisdiction puts them at risk of being fined or shut down if they do not comply with the laws and other rules of that jurisdiction. Almost universally there is a legal requirements to collect users' personal information. The applicable laws may include restrictions on who can trade and what can be traded.
+When we say censorship-resistant, we are referring to freedom: users' ability to voluntarily trade with one another without interference from a third party. Centralized bitcoin exchanges are highly susceptible to such interference. By their nature, they must operate within one legal jurisdiction or another, putting them at risk of being fined or shut down if they do not comply with the laws and other rules of that jurisdiction, which may include restrictions on who can trade and what can be traded, and which almost always include requirements to collect personal information as described above.
 Bisq was built to fulfill this mission: provide people an exchange mechanism where users keep control of funds, that is private by default, and that defends freedom of transaction.
@@ Line 35: / Line 35: @@
 # You browse Bisq’s offer book for existing offers to sell BTC for EUR
 # You take an existing offer, agreeing to buy the seller’s BTC for your EUR
-# You send EUR by the agreed upon method and indicate you have done so in Bisq
+# You send EUR by the agreed-upon method and indicate you have done so in Bisq
 # You and the seller wait for your EUR payment to arrive
 # The seller receives your EUR and confirms payment receipt in Bisq

@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 Bisq’s mission is to provide a '''secure''', '''private''' and '''censorship-resistant''' way of exchanging bitcoin for national currencies or other cryptocurrencies over the internet.
-When we say secure, we are referring to the safety of the users' funds. Centralized exchanges take custody of the user's fiat and/or bitcoin during the trade. Worse than that, users often choose to allow this custodial relationship over their property for extended periods of time before and after the trade. The Bitcoin of thousands of users is an extreme incentive for those centralized servers to be hacked or compromised by trusted insiders. History shows these incentives are too great: the loss of user bitcoin from centralized exchanges has happened and likely will happen again.
+When we say secure, we are referring to the safety of users' funds. Centralized exchanges take custody of the user's fiat and/or bitcoin during the trade. Worse than that, users often choose to allow this custodial relationship over their property for extended periods of time before and after the trade. The Bitcoin of thousands of users is an extreme incentive for those centralized servers to be hacked or compromised by trusted insiders. History shows these incentives are too great: the loss of user bitcoin from centralized exchanges has happened and likely will happen again.
 When we say private, we are referring to the users' ability to control access to their own information. Most centralized exchanges require users to divulge personally identifying information in order to set up an account, which in turn links users' trading activity to their respective identities. This practice creates extreme risks for users: their personal details and financial information will be stolen, leaked, or otherwise used against their own best interests.
-When we say censorship-resistant, we are referring to freedom. That is the users' ability to voluntarily trade with one another without interference from a third party. Centralized bitcoin exchanges are highly susceptible to such interference. By their nature, centrralized exchanes must operate within one legal jurisdiction or another. This single jurisdiction puts them at risk of being fined or shut down if they do not comply with the laws and other rules of that jurisdiction. Almost universally there is a legal requirements to collect personal information of the users. The applicable laws may include restrictions on who can trade and what can be traded.
+When we say censorship-resistant, we are referring to freedom. That is the users' ability to voluntarily trade with one another without interference from a third party. Centralized bitcoin exchanges are highly susceptible to such interference. By their nature, centralized exchanges must operate within one legal jurisdiction or another. This single jurisdiction puts them at risk of being fined or shut down if they do not comply with the laws and other rules of that jurisdiction. Almost universally there is a legal requirements to collect users' personal information. The applicable laws may include restrictions on who can trade and what can be traded.
 Bisq was built to fulfill this mission: provide people an exchange mechanism where users keep control of funds, that is private by default, and that defends freedom of transaction.
@@ Line 25: / Line 25: @@
 == How Bisq works ==
-=== A typical transaction ===
+=== In a nutshell ===
 Imagine you want to buy bitcoin (BTC) in exchange for Euros (EUR). In Bisq terminology, you are a ''buyer'' of BTC looking for a ''seller'' of BTC who will accept EUR as payment.
@@ Line 48: / Line 48: @@
 === How trading with Bisq is different ===
-Bisq is a desktop application and not a browser-based web application.  When using this interface, the first difference experienced traders will notice is that there is '''no automatic order matching''' on the Bisq exchange. Bisq bitcoin buyers do not "buy at market price" or "buy at this limit." Instead Bisq bitcoin buyers accept specific Bisq bitcoin sell offers of a given amount of bitcoin, price, currency and settlement method. This approach enables truly peer-to-peer trade settlement, and ensures that users are in control of all terms of the trade.
+Bisq is a desktop application and not a browser-based web application. Experienced traders will notice is that there is '''no automatic order matching''' on the Bisq exchange. Instead, Bisq users manually search for and select specific offers they wish to take directly from other Bisq users. This approach enables truly peer-to-peer trade settlement, and ensures that users are in control of which counterparties they trade with.
 Bisq is also unique among decentralized bitcoin exchanges in the way it coordinates '''out-of-band fiat payments'''. Bisq does not directly integrate with banks or other national currency payment systems in any way. Rather, Bisq’s trading protocol orchestrates the process of buyer and seller working together to settle fiat payments outside of the Bisq application, as demonstrated in steps 5-7 of the trading example above.
-These and other differences result in a key trade-off for Bisq users: trade settlement takes longer.  In exchange Bisq trading is far more secure, private and censorship-resistant for this lower speed and convenience.
+These and other differences result in a key trade-off for Bisq users: trade settlement can take longer, but transactions are far more secure, private and censorship-resistant.
 === How Bisq keeps funds secure ===

@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 When we say private, we are referring to the users' ability to control access to their own information. Most centralized exchanges require users to divulge personally identifying information in order to set up an account, which in turn links users' trading activity to their respective identities. This practice creates extreme risks for users: their personal details and financial information will be stolen, leaked, or otherwise used against their own best interests.
-When we say censorship-resistant, we are referring to freedom. That is the users' ability to voluntarily trade with one another without interference from a third party. Centralized Bitcoin exchanges are highly susceptible to such interference. By their nature, centrralized exchanes must operate within one legal jurisdiction or another. This single jurisdiction puts them at risk of being fined or shut down if they do not comply with the laws and other rules of that jurisdiction. Almost universally there is a legal requirements to collect personal information of the users. The applicable laws may include restrictions on who can trade and what can be traded.
+When we say censorship-resistant, we are referring to freedom. That is the users' ability to voluntarily trade with one another without interference from a third party. Centralized bitcoin exchanges are highly susceptible to such interference. By their nature, centrralized exchanes must operate within one legal jurisdiction or another. This single jurisdiction puts them at risk of being fined or shut down if they do not comply with the laws and other rules of that jurisdiction. Almost universally there is a legal requirements to collect personal information of the users. The applicable laws may include restrictions on who can trade and what can be traded.
 Bisq was built to fulfill this mission: provide people an exchange mechanism where users keep control of funds, that is private by default, and that defends freedom of transaction.

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 # Bisq is the '''peer-to-peer network''' formed by Bisq applications discovering, connecting to, and working with one another to implement the Bisq trading protocol. The Bisq network is fully peer-to-peer in that it requires no centrally-controlled servers and has no single points of failure.
-Bisq is not a company—it is '''free/libre software''' released under version 3 of the GNU Affero General Public License. Bisq is built by individuals around the world who choose to work together. Bisq is used by individuals around the world who choose to trade with Bisq rather than any other other Bitcoin exchanges.
+Bisq is not a company—it is '''free/libre software''' released under version 3 of the GNU Affero General Public License. Bisq is built by individuals around the world who choose to work together. Bisq is used by individuals around the world who choose to trade with Bisq rather than any other Bitcoin exchanges.
 The project itself is organized as a [[decentralized autonomous organization]].

@@ Line 52: / Line 52: @@
 Bisq is also unique among decentralized bitcoin exchanges in the way it coordinates '''out-of-band fiat payments'''. Bisq does not directly integrate with banks or other national currency payment systems in any way. Rather, Bisq’s trading protocol orchestrates the process of buyer and seller working together to settle fiat payments outside of the Bisq application, as demonstrated in steps 5-7 of the trading example above.
-These and other differences result in a key trade-off for Bisq users: trade settlement takes longer.  In exchange Bisq trading is far more secure, private and censorship-resistant for this lower speed an convenience.
+These and other differences result in a key trade-off for Bisq users: trade settlement takes longer.  In exchange Bisq trading is far more secure, private and censorship-resistant for this lower speed and convenience.
 === How Bisq keeps funds secure ===

@@ Line 55: / Line 55: @@
 === How Bisq keeps funds secure ===
-* Bisq is '''entirely non-custodial'''; users stay in control of fiat and cryptocurrency funds
+* Bisq is '''entirely non-custodial''': users stay in control of fiat and cryptocurrency funds
 * Trades include '''[[security deposit|security deposits]]''' from buyer and seller to prevent fraud
 * The bitcoin for sale and bitcoin security deposits are locked in a '''2-of-2 multisig escrow'''

@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 === A typical transaction ===
-Imagine you want to buy bitcoin (BTC) in exchange for US dollars (USD). In Bisq terminology, you are a ''buyer'' of BTC looking for a ''seller'' of BTC who will accept USD as payment.
+Imagine you want to buy bitcoin (BTC) in exchange for Euros (EUR). In Bisq terminology, you are a ''buyer'' of BTC looking for a ''seller'' of BTC who will accept EUR as payment.
 To complete a trade on Bisq, you would follow a series of steps similar to these:
 # You download and run the Bisq application on your laptop or desktop computer
-# You configure Bisq with your USD payment method details (bank transfer, money order, etc)
+# You configure Bisq with your EUR payment method details (bank transfer, money order, etc)
-# You browse Bisq’s offer book for existing offers to sell BTC for USD
+# You browse Bisq’s offer book for existing offers to sell BTC for EUR
-# You take an existing offer, agreeing to buy the seller’s BTC for your USD
+# You take an existing offer, agreeing to buy the seller’s BTC for your EUR
-# You send USD by the agreed upon method and indicate you have done so in Bisq
+# You send EUR by the agreed upon method and indicate you have done so in Bisq
-# You and the seller wait for your USD payment to arrive
+# You and the seller wait for your EUR payment to arrive
-# The seller receives your USD and confirms payment receipt in Bisq
+# The seller receives your EUR and confirms payment receipt in Bisq
 # You receive your bitcoin from the seller and the trade is complete