At Wizardsardine, we’re excited to see more and more users trying Liana and exploring its time-based recovery model. When experimenting with a new wallet setup, trying multiple keys, or validating recovery behavior, the most convenient and risk-free place to do that is Bitcoin Signet, an environment similar to the “real” bitcoin one - also called “mainnet” - that doesn’t require real funds.
Many users initially test on mainnet with tiny amounts of bitcoin. That works, but it’s often unnecessary and sometimes inconvenient. Signet provides a smoother, safer experience while still behaving like the real Bitcoin network. As an additional benefit, testing on Signet avoids creating tiny, hard-to-spend outputs (also known as “dust”) on mainnet.
Below we explain why Signet is ideal, and show you how to set up and test a Liana wallet there.
Why use Signet?
Bitcoin Signet is a public test network designed to behave like Bitcoin without any monetary value attached to its coins. It offers several advantages when experimenting with Liana:
🆓 No real funds required
You don’t need to touch actual bitcoin. All Signet coins have no value and can be easily requested from faucets or the community. This means you can repeat tests freely without worrying about spending sats.
⚙️ Realistic behavior, simple to use
Signet follows real Bitcoin consensus rules and ~10-minute blocks, so addresses, transactions, and timelocks behave exactly as they would on mainnet.
Unlike regtest setups, Signet doesn’t require configuring your own local chain - it “just works” and is easy to use across multiple devices or collaborators.
🔄 Liana Connect works on Signet
Our hosted backend, Liana Connect, is available on both mainnet and Signet. You can test the same flows (wallet setup, invitations, coordination, recovery handling, etc.) that you would use with real funds.
🔐 Signing devices compatible
Liana also supports hardware devices on Signet. Some devices require different apps or configuration for test networks.
A quick note on dust (and why it matters here)
One extra benefit of testing on Signet is avoiding the creation of dust outputs on mainnet.
A UTXO becomes dust when the fee required to spend it is higher than the UTXO’s value, meaning it’s economically unspendable.
A few practical points users often discover only after testing:
- To spend a dust output, you must combine it with a larger UTXO in a single transaction.
- If your wallet’s balance is below Liana’s dust limit, you need to temporarily add a larger coin to be able to spend it.
- To reduce accidental dust creation, Liana will soon use a lower default dust limit of 500 sats (previously 5,000).
Testing on Signet avoids all this friction because Signet coins have no real value, but it’s still useful to understand how dust behaves before interacting with mainnet.
How to test Liana on Signet
1. Download Liana
Grab the latest release from our website.
2. Switch to Signet
Open Liana, click the network selector in the top-right corner, and choose Signet.
3. Create a new wallet
Start Create a new wallet and follow the guided setup.
During this step, you’ll choose your recovery timelock.
Tip: For Signet testing, select a short timelock (e.g., a few dozen blocks).
Blocks are still ~10 minutes apart, so a short timelock allows you to test the recovery flow quickly.
Liana generally requires more than one key, even for basic setups since they normally include:
- a primary spending option, and
- at least a recovery option, possibly including different recovery keys.
To test a multi-key setup on Signet:
Tip: Start another Liana instance, use Share Xpub on its home screen, and import that xpub during wallet creation using the “Import extended public key file” selection in the “Other Options” menu of the Set Key modal.
This lets you test multi-key coordination and recovery on Signet.
For mainnet, instead, we highly recommend using external signing devices rather than hot keys. See the list of supported devices.
4. Request Signet coins
You can get Signet sats from public faucets or from the community (by asking on Telegram, Discord or X). They’re free and valueless, perfect for experimenting.
5. Try sending and recovery flows
Once funded, you can:
- send and receive transactions,
- simulate losing your primary key,
- wait for your test timelock to expire, and
- perform a recovery transaction.
This lets you experience Liana’s core features in the same conditions you would use with real funds and feel more comfortable when you’ll use them.
We’d love your feedback
Your testing and feedback help us continue improving Liana.
If you encounter anything unexpected or have ideas for better onboarding or recovery flows, reach out:
TL;DR
- Signet is the ideal environment to test Liana: free, realistic, simple, compatible with Liana Connect and hardware wallets.
- Timelocks are chosen during wallet creation: pick short ones for testing.
- Signet coins have no real value: ask for them in our community or on public faucets to start testing freely.
- Test our unique recovery experience before setting it up with real funds.
- Liana’s dust limit will soon be lowered to 500 sats, but dust issues only matter on mainnet.