# Bisq: a bitcoin exchange with no custodian in the middle > Bisq is a decentralized bitcoin exchange network: peer-to-peer trading of bitcoin for national currencies, multi-signature escrow instead of a custodian, and human arbitration for disputes. It is written in Java, licensed AGPL-3.0, and has shipped three releases since 2026-08-23. **bisq-network/bisq** — A decentralized bitcoin exchange network. Bisq is a safe, private and decentralized way to exchange bitcoin for national currencies and other digital assets. - Repository: https://github.com/bisq-network/bisq - Website: https://bisq.network - Stars: 5,138 · Forks: 1,305 - Language: Java - License: AGPL-3.0 - Published: 2026-08-04 · Updated: 2026-08-18 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/bisq-network-bisq ## Multi-signature escrow instead of a middleman Bisq exchanges bitcoin for national currencies and other digital assets over peer-to-peer networking, with multi-signature escrow standing where an exchange's custody account would stand. No third party holds funds, which is what non-custodial means here in practice, and when two peers cannot settle a trade themselves, a human arbitration system resolves the dispute. That combination, escrow plus arbitration, is the mechanism the project leads with, and it is the honest summary of what decentralizing an exchange requires: you cannot delete the trust function, so you distribute it into script and people. The counter-model is the centralized exchange, which holds both the funds and an identity file, and offers recourse in exchange. Bisq is written in Java and licensed AGPL-3.0. ## The README installs nothing, the website does Opening the repository expecting an install command gets you a redirect instead. The README's get-started section points to step-by-step instructions at bisq.network/get-started, and the introduction lives at bisq.network/intro as documentation and a video. That split is deliberate: users download from the website, and the GitHub tree serves contributors, for whom CONTRIBUTING.md and the developer docs under docs/README.md are the entry points. Anyone needing to audit what they run can still clone and build the Java sources, but the repository documents no user-facing install command, and inventing one would misstate where the project wants binaries to come from. ## make assembles a mini Bisq network For development, the Makefile builds what it calls a localnet, a complete and self-contained mini Bisq network for development and end-to-end testing. Requirements are explicit: a Linux, macOS or similar system with standard tools, bitcoind and bitcoin-cli installed (brew install bitcoin on macOS), and JDK 21 to build and run Bisq binaries. The first step is one command: ```bash make ``` The first pass takes a few minutes, and it leaves two artifacts behind: a scripts directory with desktop, seednode and statsnode launchers, and a .localnet directory holding the data directories for the regtest Bitcoin and Bisq nodes. ## alice, bob, a mediator and two seednodes The localnet directory layout names the participants in a trade: subdirectories appear for alice, bob, mediator, seednode, seednode2 and bitcoind. Two traders, one mediator, two seed nodes and a regtest Bitcoin node, so the arbitration role from the README is not an abstraction, it is a process you start during testing. Deployment happens through Gradle targets, each a long-running process meant for its own terminal window: ```bash ./gradlew :startFirstRegtestBitcoind ./gradlew :startSecondRegtestBitcoind ./gradlew :startRegtestFirstSeednode ``` Running against regtest rather than mainnet means the mini network can create and move coins without value, which is what makes end-to-end trade testing sane. ## A Gradle tree with a daemon, a CLI, REST and gRPC The repository is a multi-module Gradle build, and the module names sketch the system. desktop/ is the graphical client, daemon/ and cli/ give it a headless and a command-line life, and restapi/ plus proto-grpc/ and proto/ expose programmatic surfaces, all sitting on core/, common/, p2p/ and persistence/. The network itself is made of the seednode/, statsnode/ and btcnodemonitor/ modules, with bridge/ and inventory/ alongside. Testing infrastructure gets its own layers: apitest/, regtest/ and the Makefile localnet. Two modules say something about operational seriousness: reproducible-build/ for verifying that released binaries match the sources, and updater/ for shipping them. Release notes live in their own directory, and docker/ plus a root bitcoind helper round out the deployment story. ## CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md and a dual-architecture report Less common files at the root deserve a mention. CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md are instructions for AI coding assistants, so agent-assisted contribution is anticipated rather than accidental, and CODEOWNERS formalizes who reviews what. SECURITY.md gives security contact and process, standard for software that moves money. One file is unusual anywhere: macos-dual-architecture-support-report.md sits at the top level, a committed report on supporting both macOS architectures, evidence that platform support is tracked as a first-class concern rather than an issue-label afterthought. The .github directory and .editorconfig and .gitattributes keep the collaboration machinery conventional. ## Three releases since late August, AGPL on top Activity is current: v1.10.6 was tagged on 2026-08-23, v1.10.7 on 2026-08-25, v1.10.8 on 2026-09-16, and the last push came on 2026-09-27. Patch-level cadence on a live exchange network reads as maintenance under real traffic rather than feature churn, and release-notes/ exists so each step is documented. The licence is AGPL-3.0, strong copyleft: anyone offering the software as a network service owes users the corresponding source, a clause anyone embedding or modifying Bisq should read in the LICENSE file itself, since this is engineering commentary and not legal advice. ## Conclusion Run Bisq if exchanging bitcoin for national currencies without a custodian or an identity file matches what you want, and you accept that disputes are settled by human arbitration rather than a support desk. Stay with a regulated exchange when account recovery and institutional recourse matter more than custody-free trading. Before trading, read the intro and get-started guides at bisq.network, and check the release you download against the project's reproducible build process. ## FAQ ### How does Bisq work? Bisq uses peer-to-peer networking and multi-signature escrow so two parties can trade bitcoin for national currencies without a third party holding funds. It is non-custodial, and a human arbitration system resolves disputes. ### Is the Bisq network safe? The project describes Bisq as a safe, private and decentralized way to exchange bitcoin. Funds sit in multi-signature escrow rather than with a custodian, and disputes go to human arbitration; the README itself does not analyze risks. ### Does Bisq require KYC? The README does not mention any identity verification process. It presents Bisq as private and non-custodial, exchanging bitcoin for national currencies and other digital assets without a third party. ## Sources - [Official documentation](https://bisq.network) - [Official README](https://github.com/bisq-network/bisq#readme) - [Project repository](https://github.com/bisq-network/bisq) - [Release notes](https://github.com/bisq-network/bisq/releases) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/bisq-network-bisq