diff --git a/seednode/bisq.env b/seednode/bisq.env
index 40ecf5410f..bdcd474852 100644
--- a/seednode/bisq.env
+++ b/seednode/bisq.env
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@ JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/openjdk-10.0.2
 # java memory and remote management options
 JAVA_OPTS="-Xms4096M -Xmx4096M"
 
+# use external tor (change to -1 for internal tor binary)
+BISQ_EXTERNAL_TOR_PORT=9051
+
 # bitcoin rpc credentials
 BITCOIN_RPC_USER=__BITCOIN_RPC_USER__
 BITCOIN_RPC_PASS=__BITCOIN_RPC_PASS__
diff --git a/seednode/bisq.service b/seednode/bisq.service
index 2e8fb653b1..a87710612d 100644
--- a/seednode/bisq.service
+++ b/seednode/bisq.service
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ ExecStart=/bin/sh __BISQ_HOME__/__BISQ_REPO_NAME__/${BISQ_ENTRYPOINT} \
           --rpcPassword=${BITCOIN_RPC_PASS} \
           --dumpBlockchainData=${BISQ_DUMP_BLOCKCHAIN} \
           --dumpStatistics=${BISQ_DUMP_STATISTICS} \
+          --torControlPort=${BISQ_EXTERNAL_TOR_PORT} \
 
 ExecStop=/bin/kill ${MAINPID}
 Restart=on-failure
diff --git a/seednode/install_seednode_debian.sh b/seednode/install_seednode_debian.sh
index 995b1e6ec7..c7d287f951 100755
--- a/seednode/install_seednode_debian.sh
+++ b/seednode/install_seednode_debian.sh
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ BITCOIN_RPC_PORT=8332
 #BITCOIN_RPC_USER=foo
 #BITCOIN_RPC_PASS=bar
 
-TOR_PKG="tor"
+TOR_PKG="tor deb.torproject.org-keyring"
 TOR_USER=debian-tor
 TOR_GROUP=debian-tor
 TOR_HOME=/etc/tor
@@ -69,6 +69,11 @@ sudo -H -i -u "${ROOT_USER}" git config --global advice.detachedHead false
 sudo -H -i -u "${ROOT_USER}" git clone --branch "${BISQ_REPO_TAG}" "${BISQ_REPO_URL}" "${ROOT_HOME}/${BISQ_REPO_NAME}"
 
 echo "[*] Installing Tor"
+sudo -H -i -u "${ROOT_USER}" wget -qO- https://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org/A3C4F0F979CAA22CDBA8F512EE8CBC9E886DDD89.asc | gp
+g --dearmor | tee /usr/share/keyrings/tor-archive-keyring.gpg >/dev/null
+sudo -H -i -u "${ROOT_USER}" echo "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/tor-archive-keyring.gpg] https://deb.torproject.o
+rg/torproject.org focal main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tor.list
+sudo -H -i -u "${ROOT_USER}" DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get update -q
 sudo -H -i -u "${ROOT_USER}" DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -qq -y ${TOR_PKG}
 
 echo "[*] Installing Tor configuration"
diff --git a/seednode/torrc b/seednode/torrc
index 44017a9e88..1a9d20ee98 100644
--- a/seednode/torrc
+++ b/seednode/torrc
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ SOCKSPort 9050
 ControlPort 9051
 Log notice syslog
 
-CookieAuthentication 1
+CookieAuthentication 0
 CookieAuthFileGroupReadable 1
 DataDirectoryGroupReadable 1