Changing your onion address

You may want to change your onion address from time to time for privacy. If your Bisq instance still uses Tor v2, you will want to change your onion address so it uses Tor v3 before Tor v2 becomes unsupported in July 2021.

Note that this article is about the Tor address that your Bisq instance itself uses. This is different from the Tor address of other hidden services that Bisq connects to, such as Bitcoin nodes. Connecting to Bitcoin nodes running Tor v3 is not supported yet, because bitcoinj doesn't support it yet, but work is underway to enable it.

Things to consider beforehand

If you have any open trades or open disputes, do not change your onion address. Doing so will make you unreachable, and thus incapable of ever completing those items and losing funds.

It is fine to have open offers, as Bisq will adjust your offers to become available with the new onion address upon starting up.

This is also why it's so important to back up your hiddenservices folder—it will allow you to revert to your old onion address just in case you need to re-open a dispute.

Also take note that changing your onion address will clear your local reputation, since local reputation is based on onion address.

Determine which Tor version Bisq is running

If you're interested in upgrading your onion address to a Tor v3 address, but not sure which version your Bisq instance is currently running, you can check by going to Settings > Network Info. Scroll down to the section titled "Bisq network", and there you'll see your onion address.

If it's a long 56-character string, then your Bisq instance is already using Tor v3. If it's a shorter 16-character string, then your Bisq instance is still using Tor v2 and should be upgraded.

Check which Tor version your Bisq instance is running.

Back up your hiddenservice directory

Make sure to back up your Bisq data directory before changing your onion address.

At the very least, make sure the btc_mainnet/tor/hiddenservice directory is backed up, since changing your onion address requires deleting that folder.

Change your Bisq instance's onion address

With all the preparatory considerations out of the way, actually changing your Bisq instance's onion address is very easy.

With Bisq closed, simply delete the hiddenservice folder in your data directory. Then start restart Bisq. During the next restart Bisq will create a new hiddenservice folder with new keys and a new Tor v3 onion address. This process using a lots of RAM so close down other applications before starting. It might take up to 10 mins and Bisq might be unresponsive during this process, but be patient and leave it running. Once complete you will have a new Tor v3 onion address!