Coffee in Lugano. Lunch at Steak and Shake in Chicago. Merchandise at a conference booth in El Salvador. With the latest 5.1.4 update to the Blockstream app, Bitcoin payments become effortless, reliable, and extremely private thanks to Liquid ↔ Lightning swaps. By connecting its longest-running-in-production and battle-tested layer-2s—the Lightning and Liquid networks—you can access Lightning’s speed and convenience without having to manage channels or pay for inbound liquidity. All self-custodial, all open-source, empowered by Bitcoin-native trustless atomic swaps.
Using Liquid and Lightning Swaps
- Scan a Lightning invoice at a merchant
- Confirm payment
- Done.
It’s as easy as paying with fiat, but with better money.
The mechanism? Trustless atomic swaps. Users pay Lightning invoices from a Liquid bitcoin (LBTC) balance and receive Lightning payments that add to their LBTC balance automatically. The swap happens instantly and self-custodially; keys stay under your control without any intermediary involvement. Atomic swaps use cryptographic hash locks to ensure both parties get what they want—or neither does. If the swap fails or times out, funds return automatically to the original owner.
Unlike mainchain bitcoin, Liquid hides merchant holdings from customers, and customer balances from merchants, while preventing external parties from tracking the flow of funds on the network. You get all of the speed and all of the privacy.
Liquid ↔ Lightning swaps are also excellent for private, cheap, and efficient unspent transaction output (UTXO) management. Withdraw from exchanges that support Lightning withdrawals, receive to your LBTC balance, and swap LBTC to mainchain bitcoin when it’s ready for cold storage.
Scaling Payment Accessibility Without Increasing Complexity
Lightning excels at high-volume, instant payments. For users ready to manage channels and liquidity, native Lightning delivers maximum efficiency.
For everyone else, Liquid provides the bridge, eliminating the need to incur on-chain costs just to receive liquidity, and deferring the need to pay those fees when you off-board to mainnet until a time that’s most cost-effective. Use your LBTC to engage with the rapidly growing Lightning payment support all around the world now, and then consider native Lightning channels if and when you’re ready. It’s your money, and your choice.
Coming Soon: On-Chain Swaps
This update is the first of a sequence of updates that will make swapping in the Blockstream app more flexible than ever before. Once you’ve acquired your stack of LBTC, at some point you may want to swap back to on-chain BTC. Our next update will close the loop, allowing you to swap between all three layers at your convenience: Lightning, Liquid, and on-chain.
On-chain swapping will unlock some extra convenient use cases:
- Stack LBTC via Lightning payments, and simply defer the on-chain fees to a time that’s better for you if mempool fees are running hot or if inbound Lightning liquidity is running low.
- Move funds to your air-gapped Jade, clearing your Liquid or Lightning balance directly to cold storage. Or vice versa: Move funds from your air-gapped Jade, topping up your Liquid or Lightning balance directly from cold storage.
By enabling seamless swapping between all three networks, the Blockstream app will maximize flexibility while minimizing costs.
Making Bitcoin Better
Using both layer-2 networks–Lightning and Liquid—keeps liquidity in Bitcoin. It’s the same system: verifiable, self-custodial, and open-source.
Lightning provides instant payments. Liquid provides confidential settlement. Together, they create a symbiotic relationship, offering interoperability that strengthens both networks and Bitcoin overall. Transaction volume increases across both layers and more use cases become viable.
This architecture enables interoperability with other emerging layer-2 protocols and wallets, demonstrating that multi-layer Bitcoin infrastructure works without sacrificing self-custody principles.
Get Started
Liquid and Lightning swaps are live in the latest version of the Blockstream app, and on-chain swaps are coming soon. Read this tutorial to learn how to start swapping today.
The Blockstream app is continuing in its evolution as the ultimate financial companion. We’re building for tomorrow while catering to our users’ needs today.
Every Bitcoiner’s personal journey is different, which is why, since 2014, we’ve embraced the full scope of Bitcoin development to unlock novel functionality to accommodate every user. Together, we’re moving toward a financial experience that’s uncompromising, unifying, and available to anyone.
With Bitcoin as our backbone, we’ll continue building toward a financial future that doesn’t settle for anything less.