Paying trading fees with BSQ

This short guide will show you how to use BSQ to pay lower trading fees. Using BSQ also compensates Bisq contributors, making the Bisq network a sustainable free software project.

Bisq’s token is a bit different from most other exchange tokens: its primary reason to exist is to enable the decentralized operation and management of the Bisq network. That means no central wallets or accounts to accumulate funds, and no legal entity or leadership team to control strategy. See more details in this doc or in these videos.

For you, as a trader, discounted trading fees are a practical result of this approach: the mechanisms above require that trading fees be paid in BSQ, so the software encourages traders to pay fees with BSQ by making them cheaper than plain BTC fees.

Let’s see how to take advantage of this.

Acquire BSQ

Although BSQ is technically bitcoin, it’s colored bitcoin that must be kept in a Bisq wallet, separate from plain bitcoin.

To help you do this, and to avoid mistakes, Bisq automatically generates a separate BSQ wallet for you with its own address prefixed with a 'B'—so you can be sure when you’re sending or receiving from a BSQ address.

Retreive your BSQ address

You can find your BSQ wallet address in DAO > BSQ wallet > Receive.

Create BSQ payment account

To trade BSQ on Bisq, you need to set up an altcoin account using your BSQ address.

{{Admonition_Note|What is instant trading?
For altcoins, Bisq offers instant trading, which shortens the trade period to a maximum of 1 hour. Everything else about instant trades is the same as non-instant trades.

Instant offers are marked as Altcoins Instant in the order book, and you can only accept those offers with an instant altcoins account. Non-instant payment accounts can only be used for non-instant offers.