Why This Guide?
I have attempted to collect everything I have learned about robosats here to help others who want to use this P2P exchange. I started taking notes on obsidian when I began to explore. As that document grew I decided to organize my scattered observations, and this is the result. I left out the stuff I later learned to be inaccurate. I am still learning. I hope to present a more comprehensive guide as I try more things. I think there is great potential in the platform because of the federated nature of robosats. Local communities can be built using thinly traded currencies to help grow bitcoin communities. Also, any assets can be traded face to face- eggs, pokemon cards, or anything else you can think of.
Shitcoins, Bank Apps, & Gift Cards
I had to include trade assets in this post. Robosats is an exchange. Assets are traded. It doesn't mean I advocate using them. I do believe that in order for no KYC, private P2P alternatives to the Coinbases of the world to survive and thrive, large market makers who buy and trade everything are needed. That's capitalism. Robosats needs liquidity. Newbies can't buy bitcoin without a guy on the other side willing to sell it.
What Is Robosats?
From the Github:
RoboSats is a simple and private way to exchange bitcoin for national currencies. Robosats simplifies the peer-to-peer user experience and uses lightning hold invoices to minimize custody and trust requirements. The deterministically generated avatars help users stick to best privacy practices.
Why Use Robosats?
-
Private & No KYC
-
Instant LN settlement
-
Inexpensive transaction fees
-
Anyone in the world can buy and sell bitcoin over Tor
-
Open Source software
-
You can run your own instance in your local community
Currencies I Have Seen Traded
EUR Euro
USD Dollar
BRL Brazilian Real
GDP British Pound
AUD Australian Dollar
CAD Canadian Dollar
RUB Russian Ruble
COP Columbian Peso
VES Venezuelan Bolivar
PAB Panamanian Balboa
MXN Mexican Pesos
HUF Hungarian Forints
ARS Argentine Peso
ZAR South African Rand
PEN Peruvian sol
JPY Japanese Yen
CHF Swiss Franc
PLN Polish Zlotych
KRW South Korean Won
GHS Ghanaian Cedis
RON Romanian Leu
CLP Chilean Peso
INR Indian Rupee
PYG Paraguay Guarani
CZK Czech Koruna
UGX Ugandan Shilling
SEK Swedish Kronor
TRY Turkish Lira
AED UAE Dirham
HKD Hong Kong Dollar
SGD Singapore Dollar
DKK Danish Kroner
ILS Israeli Sheqel
NOK Norwegian Kroner
NZD New Zealand Dollar
CNY Chinese Yuan
XAF Central African Franc
Exchange assets
Coins & Tokens:
USDT (many chains)
USDC
DAI
Monero
LTC
SOL
XRP
XLM
Gift Cards:
Google Play (Always 15% premium)
Amazon US
Amazon DE
Ozon Gift Card
Banks & Payment Apps:
Pix
Revolut
Wise
Faster Payments
Strike
Instant SEPA
Twint
Ba Colombia
Nequi
Cash App
Zelle
Paypal (Friends And Family)
Mercado Pago
N26
D.Imed.Bradesco
EURC
EURX
Banesco Panama
Mercantil Panama
BBC Bancamiga
Provincial Mercantil
SO. TED
Bradesco Mercado
Pago Loterica
Apple Pay
ACH
TED
MBWay
N26
Interac - e Transfer
Deposito Somente Na
Loterica Pix Nao
Bizum
Tinkoff Bank
Sber Bank
SBP
Alfabank Raiffeisen
Retiro sin tarjeta
BBVA
HSBC
SPEI
Paysera
Western Union MoneyGram
Ria
RayPay
Yape
Plin
HalCash
HSBC
Pago Mobile BDV
Blik
Venmo
WeChat Pay
Osko
Kakao
MTN
Getting Started
At first I felt lost trying to figure out what was going on. I soon discovered that transacting on the site is easy. The best way to learn the basics is to visit the Learn Robosats page.
You can use robosats on desktop, through a mobile app, or by hosting your own instance on a server. Remember, robosats runs over tor, so your connection can often be spotty. Personally, I found the android apk to be much more reliable and easy to use than over desktop. Orbot works well for me.
Hosting on your own server is probably the most reliable method.
Tips
-
Each robot can only be involved in one offer at a time. For privacy, it is recommended that you create a new robot for each transaction.
-
Lightning Hold Invoices are used. A Lightning Hold Invoice is a type of lightning invoice where the receiver delays settlement of the payment until he or she manually accepts or rejects it. Normally, when you pay a Lightning invoice, the payment is completed immediately.
-
Maker: The party that creates an offer.
-
Taker: The party that accepts an offer.
-
Transaction fees are typically less for makers (currently .025%) than takers (currently .175%) of an offer. The amount of these fees are set by the individual coordinator, and can be changed at any time. They can also differ from coordinator to coordinator, though I have not seen this happen .
-
Transaction fees are low on robosats anyway, so the reduced maker fee may not mean much to you. The advantage of taking an offer is that you already have a willing party waiting to make a trade at terms you find acceptable. It is usually much faster than making an offer and waiting for someone to accept it. You do pay a bit extra for this convenience, though.
-
You must post a fidelity bond when making or taking an offer. That bond is set by default at 3% of the transaction, but as a maker you can set it anywhere from 2-15% of the transaction. To make this change you need to activate advanced options. The control is located at the top of the create form, at the far right corner of the form.
-
You can cancel your offer as a maker at any time and get your bond back You can also pause the transaction. The 24 hour clock continues to run. Pause is useful because you don't need to create a new offer, post bond, etc.
-
Speaking of the 24 hour clock, it took me a while to realize 24 hours is simply the default time limit. By activating advanced options, you can set any time duration for your offer between 1 and 24 hours. You can also adjust the escrow invoice timer ( time within which a transaction must be completed once a taker posts a fidelity bond to your offer) for between 1 and 8 hours. The default setting is 3 hours.
PGP Encrypted Chat
All communications in RoboSats are PGP encrypted. The client app is fully transparent and offers an easy way to copy and export the PGP keys.
I think these chats are under appreciated and underutilized. With robosats you can arrange face to face exchanges whenever you want. I know most bitcoiners will recoil at this idea. I can hear all of the five dollar wrench attack comments already. I really believe this fear is a product of our times and bitcoiner’s unwavering focus on privacy and security. I’m not suggesting unsafe behavior. Proper precautions should be taken at all times – small transaction amounts, meetings in public places, etc. Don’t carry your whole stash around on your phone. Your grandparents carried around their spending money in cash. They didn’t fear for their lives every second. I spent a good part of my working life meeting accused criminals to receive cash fees far in excess of the size of a typical robosats transaction. People have always transacted in person until very recently. I think this fear of face to face human contact is overblown.
I should point out that most coordinators state that face to face transactions are not permitted in the United States. I’m not sure what specific laws they cite with this prohibition.
Robosats Garage:
When starting out there is no point in using this feature. The garage is simply a place to store your robots. Since best practices here is to discard your robot after each transaction, you don’t need to store them. If you eventually become an advanced user, it will be useful. By hosting your own instance and utilizing the API, you can set up multiple automated trades to provide liquidity to the ecosystem. So far as I can tell, no one is at this point on the platform anyway.
Exchange Summary:
This form provides a current snapshot of the robosats environment. You can find it by clicking on the “more” tab on the far right of the tabs at the bottom of the page.
Here you can find:
-
Number Of Online Coordinators
-
Number Of Enabled Coordinators
-
Number Of Public Buy Orders
-
Number Of Public Sell Orders
-
Book Liquidity
-
Number Of Daily Active Robots
-
24 Hr Premium
-
24 Hr Contracted Volume
-
Lifetime Contracted Volume
Note that I can’t see current data on my moblle app. I can on my self hosted instance.
Coordinators
Coordinators host a RoboSats instance that routes trades.
They coordinates orders, reputation tracking, dispute resolution infrastructure, and LN payments.
Coordinators do not control funds, but their node is essential to run the marketplace.
Coordinators set their own fee.
From the site:
RoboSats is a decentralized exchange with multiple, fully redundant, trade coordinators. The coordinator provides the infrastructure for your trade: mantains the intermediary lightning node, does book keeping, and relays your encrypted chat messages. The coordinator is also the judge in case your order enters a dispute. The coordinator is a trusted role, make sure you trust your coordinator by exploring its profile, webpage, social media and the comments from other users online.
Means Of Exchange
You don't need to choose the means of exchange. You only need to choose the currency. You can work out the method of payment with the taker when the offer is accepted. I wouldn't do this. Too time consuming and you might waste time on potential transactions that never complete. By turning on advanced options, you can choose a currency amount range, rather than an exact amount.
Choosing Fidelity Bond Percentage
With advanced options, you can also select the percentage fidelity bond that must be posted, between 2 and 15 %.
On chain bitcoin
With advanced options, you can swap in and out between on chain and LN as part of a trade. To this extent, you can buy on chain bitcoin through the platform. However, don’t be misled by the “swap” button that appears when you activate advanced options. You can’t directly swap between the Lightning Network and on chain bitcoin without going through a trade. There is no internal swap feature.
You might want to try to trade with yourself by creating one buy robot and one sell robot, but it is cumbersome and probably not worth the trouble. You might get matched with another robot. You would be better off using a swap service.
Reputation System?
Robosats has no reputation system for buyers or sellers. You can rate coordinators, and you can rate your experience on the site, but you can’t rate individual buyers and sellers. That is because the site is designed to use a robot once and to then discard it, to ensure privacy.
This is unfortunate, since it prevents traders from developing a reputation that could help them grow an exchange business on robosats. This probably impairs overall liquidity on the site.
Robosats API
Here is the Robosats API document:
Hosting Your Own Instance
If you are interested in hosting your own instance on your server, there are many benefits. For one, you have more privacy and control over your data, like metadata and logs. Also, if you want to engage in more advanced use of the site, you can use API access to use automatic trading tools.
By setting up your own instance you can also create a local exchange, in local currency, to help build local bitcoin circular economies.