AWFUL Bisq Experience

Support
1

Dear lucky Bisquits,

nothing is going well with Bisq for me. I have a very bad experience. I’m fairly disgruntled.

Using Bisq 1.6.2

I’m the unfortunate MacOS Mojave user of Bisq. I’m a starter with Bisq. I encountered quite a few bugs. It’s indeed a bad start for me.

I took 2 transactions:

  • For the first transaction: this time, I had an issue with my bank. Yes, with French bank, it’s very complicated to make a wire SEPA Intl transfer. Especially, when we do not have a smartphone, which would be required by the bank to approve Intl transactions. The smartphone is used as a 2nd factor. For privacy reasons, I refuse to use a smartphone. So, shorting the story, I had to cancel the ongoing trade, because I did not know that I had to have a smartphone to approve Intl transactions with my French bank. I don’t really appreciated the fact Bisq will punish me because I have been ignorant of that aspect. FYI, no smartphone required to send domestic/national money with this bank. That’s why I took later a new transaction (buy BTC) with a French national, this time.

  • For the second one, I’ve been asked to open support while in the midst of a trade (after re-opening Bisq later). In other words, for no reason, at the opening of Bisq, I had many pop-ups to click on asking me to take a decision. I did not know what was going on. I clicked OK here, cancel button there. In short, I panicked. In the end, while the trade was going very well, the trade suddenly interruped, because I accidently ask for a mediator. Damn it! It will take even longer.

Furthermore, my first two trades with Bisq, each facing a fine when meeting with a mediator.

I’m wandering whether I’m going to use Bisq in the future. Because, the prospect of being punished (loosing a part of locked funds) due to a banking issue, really puts me off. Especially, when I really want to act honestly in the Bisq platform.

Now, I’m facing with some bug.

WhatBug
WhatBug1268×1095 112 KB

What bug? What error? Unfortunately, it was simple this time. I just need to close the CLOSE button.

Finally, attempted to update to 1.6.5, but did not do it, because there’s signature mismatch for the JAR file. You will understand that I will not upgrade to 1.6.5 until this thing is not sorted out.

Finally again, when launching Bisq, I can no longer connect. It keeps trying connecting to Bitcoin network. So, I’m in total despair and stressed!

So, how am I going to talk with the mediators?

A disaster experience for me with Bisq!

What can I say about my poor experience:

  1. I attempted to act honestly and yet I will be punished financially due to a banking issue. Even though we do not act in a rogue way, we can be punished.
  2. Will I be punished if I call accidently a mediator?
  3. Bug (sudden opening of windows at Bisq start) leading me to ask accidently for a mediator even though I did not ask for it. There shouldn’t be any such pop-up window at Bisq start as I have not asked for them. I just wanted to re-open Bisq to view the state of the trade workflow. I never asked for support with regard to a successful trade workflow.
  4. The fact that I’m gonna lose part of my locked funds for both trades.
  5. It’s a pity we need a mediator to cancel a trade. There should be a mean to close the trade if the payment has not been made yet.

I do not agree to lose part of my locked BTC funds to buy BTC! I acted in a honnest way. This is a terrifying experience. I came on Bisq to buy BTC and the result is I’m going to lose some. Thats kinda strange experience.

Using Bisq with a potential stick to punish me is unbearable.

2

So your first issue is that you’ve never made an international payment before and didn’t know how that worked. I don’t see how that is a software problem.

And your second issue is that you failed to operate the software properly and accidentally did something bad.

If anything, the disaster is that you tried to “be your own bank” and you failed. Now you know why banks exist and cost fees to use - the have professionals, people with the practise that you lack.

To go forward from here, I suggest you read the instructions thoroughly, so that you know how Bisq (and your own bank!!) works.

Proper
Preparation
Prevents
Piss-
Poor
Performance.

1 Like
3

Yes, because Bisq threw, for no reasons, many pop-up windows (one after the other, possibly 4 or 5 windows) at the start of Bisq in connexion with an “issue” with BOTH the trades inexplicably. There was not a single problem with both trades themselves and my counterparties (the two of them under Portfolio) did not notice anything. And yet, Bisq triggered warnings for no apparent reasons. Why the warnings while my counterparties did not notice anything? Obviously, if Bisq does not operate correctly, it does not help either.

I reckon bugs are a fact and will happen again. I understand dedicated people work hard to make Bisq one of the best (and strictest) solutions. I am absolutely grateful to all the contributors of Bisq. Thanks to them, we have a solution to buy BTC while preserving our privacy. However, when a feedback is shared on a forum, I think it’s best to avoid first judging the person creating it. If the people with great knowledge and years of experience with Bisq and Bitcoin deem the comment insignificant from a random user and think it won’t improve, even slightly, Bisq, then just not bother to reply and the thread is closed. That’s all. Reminding that user they are a perfect novice just does not help.

I did not try to be my own bank since I’m into cryptos since 2014. I’m already my own bank and a hodlr since 2014. I always firmly believed in Bitcoin. Unfortunately, I still have some leftovers on my savings. And I live, today, as much as I can on cryptos. I know what it takes to be one’s own bank. I’m perfectly aware of the risks and took as many precautions as possible.

You should not make a guess that the person who made that comment lacks practice. You do not know me. You’re judging someone you do not know and I don’t find your comment constructive.

FYI, I always, as much as I can, read the documentation. I watched videos and read the doc. So, I’m not using Bisq with zero skills on how to properly handle Bisq. I already know Bisq (you seem to guess, again, I do not know), at least, theoretically. Also, I paid the Bisq fees in BSQ. Interestingly, not many Bisq novices do that! Now, I’m into Bisq practice.

All I did is sharing my own experience. Take it as a feedback.

My advice to you, since you gave me some: on this community, never judge people you do not know and never presume they are inexperienced in cryptos by simply reading their comment.

Below, I present to you what you thought about me being “someone who lacks skills”. Also, see for yourself the doc I read in order to have a good start with Bisq.

MyBisqDoc

Thanks for your help nonetheless.

I’m done with this thread. I shall let you conclude with the last word.

4

I am also a new user, and have had several problems now with 10 trades. However, I also know that it was up to me, and you just have to accept a certain learning curve. I wouldn’t think of blaming the software, which is also a community-driven project. Yes, the support is sometimes a bit slower, but you always get help. You seemed to be a bit more resistant to advice though, and looking for a system that will fix absolutely EVERY mistake the user makes. There is no such system. Therefore, I can only advise you to be more self-critical, then you will also have fun with Bisq.

2 Likes
5

Thanks for sharing your feedback, it’s even harder to come here to give constructive criticism after a bad onboarding experience since you already have lost some time (and money, in your case) and don’t want to lose any more time posting something.

There’s not much Bisq can do for the first transaction. Banks suck, and that’s why we use Bitcoin. You weren’t used to make international SEPA transfers and found an issue that you can’t solve since you are not using a smartphone. The problem is that mediators can’t know if it’s really your first time, and also they need to keep in mind your counterpart which is waiting for your response.
I would like you to share how much was the penalty. I personally think that a small penalty for this cases makes sense, otherwise datamine Bisq users would be too cheap and incomplete trades could become a problem. Defining a “small” penalty is not easy though. For a protocol violation like yours, a 20% of the trading fee could be substracted. Table of penalties - Bisq Wiki
This table was developed recently to make mediator’s decisions easier and more reliable.

At the second one, I take in mind the “panicked” part. It’s normal to feel alone at your first trades and there are many pop-ups. Specially if one of them has the word “error” or similar. That’s why we try to give more personal support through Keybase. Unfortunately people realize about this usually too late. But I don’t know how did you open mediation, the only way to open mediation should be to use the shortcut Ctrl+O, and the button to open it is not displayed until the end of the trading window, which for SEPA is specially large (6 or 7 days). Was it an instant sepa trade?

What bug? What error? Unfortunately, it was simple this time. I just need to close the CLOSE button.

The first you should do, if you haven’t already, is to update to last version. Bisq releases a new version every month, sometimes even earlier for bug fixes. Being updated is very important since compatibility between versions is very low and bugs appear. Releases · bisq-network/bisq · GitHub

This is the first time I see the message on the image and, as you point, it’s not self explanatory. What were you doing before being displayed this message?

Connectivity issues are frequent, specially for slow connections. Application start issues - #2 by MnM
You can contact mediators directly using Keybase if this issue stays for long. Finding your mediator - Bisq Wiki
Remember that after 20 days, trades go to arbitration. Dispute resolution - Bisq Wiki
Point this issue when you get to contact mediation for the second trade.

6

Welcome to Bisq, sorry you had a bad first couple of experiences.

Bisq can be a steep learning curve and it a little rough round the edges when it comes to user experience.

I would recommend popping over to Bisq Keybase: Keybase

Users are a friendly bunch and will happy to answer your questions to help you trade successfully.

7

Thanks for your encouragement and for staying neutral. I’ll keep using Bisq even though I had an unfortunate start.

1 Like
8

Thanks for taking the time to read/answer parts of my feedback. Everything’s been sorted out. I shall systematically upgrade to latest Bisq release.

9

Last updates have been very close to “mandatory” since not updating generated many bugs, or they fixed critical bugs.
We probably should encourage always to update to last version as soon as they’re released since there is no real compatibility.

1 Like