Electrum – Bisq – LN

We are going to explain another particular case: let’s say that we want to exchange EUR for BTC in the P2P Bisq exchange and then use these BTC with an LN wallet, with the lowest possible costs and fewer movements.

Well, the process is easy and it would be as follows:

  1. Exchange EUR for BTC in Bisq
    1. Create new wallet in Bisq with the new version 1.4.2 that supports segwit native BTC addresses
    2. Send some BTC to this wallet to start making the change (it is necessary as a guarantee deposit). Verify before how much would be necessary.
    3. Make the switch, picking up an offer from the list
    4. While making the change / bank transfers etc, we prepare the Bisq wallet that is accessible from Electrum (desktop)
  2. Open the Bisq wallet in Electrum (desktop)
    1. Create a new wallet, we are going to name it “Bisq” to identify it easier later, when making a backup copy of this wallet.
    2. Select “standard wallet” and then we select “I already have a seed“, and we begin to put word by word, or paste the whole seed. When we have finished writing all the words, check once more that everything is fine. Now we click on the “Options” button and select “BIP39 seed“. Next.
    3. We leave “native segwit” selected and we are going to change the “derivation path” in m/44’/0’/1′ (default is m / 84/0/0). This step is very important!
    4. It asks us to put a password, to protect this wallet file. This password will always be used when opening the wallet and also every time a transaction is sent. Save this password in your password file, using KeePass, as we have already explained in the other “how to protect my BTC” guide. Next.
    5. We already have our wallet imported, and in a few moments, the previous transactions, made in Bisq, will appear there in the history list. From this moment, you can use this same wallet, in Bisq and in Electrum.
  3. Open LN channels in Electrum and start using BTC faster, cheaper and easier
    1. In the menu – View – we activate to view: Addresses, Currencies, Contacts, Channels
    2. We enter the menu – Portfolio – Portfolio information. There we activate the “Lightning” option.
    3. We select the “Channels” tab and click the “Open Channel” button. In the window that opens, we have the option to put a remote note ID (if it is a known one, store, friend etc) or we can simply give it “suggest” and Electrum searches for the next one available. We put the amount of BTC / sats that we want to put in the channel and we give it the “accept” button. Normally the minimum is 1 million sats, but you can enter how much you want or think you will spend per LN. In the next step, there is another window to confirm the tx commission and the password of your Electrum wallet (which we have configured at the beginning point 2.d).
    4. Ready! When the tx is confirmed in the network (minimum 3 confirmations) you can already use these sats with LN.

Very good, from now on you already have the Bisq funds connected with LN without having to move them through another wallet.

Important recommendation!

Once the process of opening LN channel is finished, it is better to make a copy of the wallet and the channel.

  1. We enter menu – File – Save backup. A window opens where we indicate the location of a folder / USB key / external disk where we save a copy of the Electrum wallet file. This copy is encrypted with the password that we have put in point 2.d. This file can then be opened with the password directly in Electrum, directly from the USB key or location where you have saved them.
  2. We enter “Channels” – we select the channel and we right-click it, selecting “Export backup“. We will get a window with a QR code of the channel. We give you a copy of the image and / or text and we paste it into our KeePass, together with the details of the Bisq / Electrum wallet or in any secure site where you have saved the seed of your wallet.
  3. It is very important that you make this copy and it would be good every day that you do TXs with LN from this channel.
  4. In case of restoring this Electrum LN wallet, it is important to have the Electrum wallet file and these copies. LN channels cannot be restored in another Electrum wallet, only the one the channel has been started with.