Sovereign Butler & Skater is a passionate advocate for bitcoin and the Lightning Network, whose journey into this space began in 2018-19. We recently had an interview with Sovereign Butler & Skater where his insights reflected his commitment to education and community engagement. He is preparing to host “Sats N Facts,” a technical unconference aimed at fostering collaboration among developers in the bitcoin ecosystem.
First Steps into Bitcoin
- What initially drew you to the world of bitcoin and the Lightning Network?
Well, my major is in Economics, International trade and Game theory . That’s why I studied and also liked to work in different positions before I jumped into bitcoin.
I used to work for a bank back in Europe, but lasted three weeks. I quit right after realizing how everything was rigged. I was being pushed to scam people in need who had no economic resources and also didn’t have the knowledge to make rational decisions when it came to their banking services. I told myself I can make lots of money here by just selling my soul but then I asked myself, can I live with that? And then the answer was really simple. 
I said no to myself and that’s when I quit. Struggled a little bit to find my lane. So I moved to Thailand and here I met different people who were just speculating with crypto.
So I asked them, what is this about? And they were like, yeah, we’re making money. I was, oh, that’s cool. That’s cool.
I decided to start doing my own research. I ended up watching videos of Andreas Antonopoulos, Max Keiser, some of the first bitcoin educators/ influencers, even though I didn’t like that term from back in the day. I would say Andreas is probably the first and most influential educator that I came across with online, of course.
Then before I got to BoB Space, I met Leon. I helped him with Bitcoin news, really briefly before I moved back to Thailand. That’s when I met Piccolo, who was curating BoB Space, I met him through X (Twitter) spaces organized by Global Fest. Global Fest is an X (Twitter) account managed by Lucas, who’s a Swedish guy that interviews different communities in the world when it comes to bitcoin.
There was Piriya, who’s a bitcoin educator here in Thailand, a few others and myself. Right after that space, I messaged Piccolo and I asked him, “What are you doing with Bob? I would like to help”. That was after I got fired from a job I had in international trade because COVID was hitting us really hard.
So as you might know, international trade got disrupted completely. I told myself, OK, now you have some savings. Why don’t you try to do something you’re passionate about where you can have some sort of impact and where your values align with how you see the world, right? As I said before, I’ve been traveling for 10 years.
Dealing with banks and exchanges and things like fiat currencies has been a little bit of a pain in the ass. I still like to carry lots of coins from so many countries, like kilos and kilos. It’s like dust that will never be used.
Once I understood bitcoin, which took me some time, I was, yeah, right on. That’s the thing.
- What was the most challenging aspect of getting started in this space?
Good question. Probably a good source of information/ education, which we have today, because the industry has evolved and players like Mi Primer Bitcoin, the Plan B network and others are doing a great job. Hopefully they’re becoming more influential worldwide.
I think that was not only me, I started shitcoining before I understood bitcoin like everyone did back in the day. If I have to take a step back today, I would say that lots of people got tricked into believing that bitcoin is crypto. That was because of lots of noise indeed, people are opportunistic, so they want to frontrun others through ignorance and exploit it.
So education is key. It’s the first thing. It’s the front line of bitcoin when it comes to digital currency.
We should draw a big line and be like, OK, yeah, you have bitcoin, which is completely decentralized, open source protocol and network. Then you have other coins which serve like a marginal utility within society but most of them are just like straight up scams.
That’s how I see it.
Overcoming Challenges in the Space
- Can you discuss some of the technical challenges you’ve faced while building on Lightning?
One of the challenges I’ve faced may be explaining lightning or people understanding lightning in general. It’s like, you can like run your own node and yet just use it. At the same time if you look at data, most of the lightning usage is custodial. That’s why I like today’s protocols like Cashu or Fedimint because they make sense. If you want to use lightning at least you want to have a better trade-off in this case privacy.
- What are some common misconceptions about the Lightning Network that you encounter?
Personally, I don’t have anything specific but when talking to other people, I’ve realized that for others such as Cashu & Fedimint, side chains etc, it’s hard for people to distinguish what is what because all of these protocols I mentioned are indeed open source protocols, right? But what makes lightning special today is like the only layer two on bitcoin that fully works non-custodially.
Building on Lightning
- What are the most exciting use cases for the Lightning Network that you’ve seen or worked on?
All of them, from remittances, to micropayments, to being fully sovereign and buying whatever you want; as long as like no one stops you, which they cannot if you’re like running your own node. Other stuff that is now coming up to lightning, like tapas, taproot assets, which is bringing stable coins to lightning. So, yeah, everything.
What else is lightning helping us on? It’s unlocking bitcoin liquidity in general. How? It really depends on whether it’s a really subjective approach, right? As I said before, for some people, they would just like to use remittances like Strike, Neutron Pay. There’s also a new app or wallet, I think called Tando in Kenya, which allows you to pay via lightning everywhere in Kenya.
So, yeah, Lightning Network, thumbs up.
- Are there any emerging technologies or trends that excite you in this space?
Other emerging technologies, there is Nostr and other bitcoin protocols coming up hot like ARK, of course, RGB, Taproot assets, Cashu & Fedimint and side chains such as Liquid, Sequentia. What else? I think Synonym was building Pubkey, which is similar to Nostr, but like not really. So I think everything is connected, like a bazaar.
I think the more tools we have that are free and open source, the better for humanity. I think the monopoly of violence needs to be minimized, not maximized. I think all these protocols can create a global system that will allow us to resolve conflict in a much more peaceful way through decentralized systems and whatnot.
Influences and Community Engagement
- How important is community feedback in shaping your projects?
Well, it’s not only my projects, I think. Everyone should listen to their community when it comes to building their products from scratch and create feedback loops.
Why? Because you want to bootstrap your product with your community, people you have things in common. If you bootstrap your product with someone that is an alien to your product, who you are and where you’re coming from; then probably that feedback loop will likely be irrelevant and ineffective.
It won’t make any sense for you, for that person, or even your product. Community is super important, 100 percent.
Personal Projects & Recommendations
- What is “Sats N Facts”?
Sats and Facts is a technical uconference here in Asia taking place between 8th and 10th February. I’m planning to cater to the free and open source community of developers, both from bitcoin and also a little bit of Nostr.
This is because it’s a protocol that overlaps organically with bitcoin and lightning, one more tool for navigating the digital world with more freedom and control. Basically I just want to provide space and time for the developers to build whatever they want, since I believe the open source community doesn’t need that direction at all.
- What makes it different from other conferences?
It’s really simple. Most conferences nowadays, they’re really commercial. Conferences feel like a role when it comes to adoption, creating awareness about the technology we’re using and trying to spread around the world.
Other conferences, like TabConf, where they’re not like traditional conferences per se, they have more of a self-organized flavor to it. I went to the one in 2023 and that was a fantastic experience because the approach was completely different. Instead of relying on unilateral interactions,the community collaboratively organizes the agenda. Sats N Facts draws inspiration from that type of structure.
There was also another conference I attended, LightningConf in Vietnam, which was more directed to a technical audience, but they were not workshops at all. So from my experience, I think there is a niche that needs to be filled. There are similar conferences to TabConf, BTC++, but there is nothing like it in Asia yet.
So while waiting, I was involved with BobSpace for almost two and a half years. Along the way, I made lots of friends who were really technical. They were developers and just by talking to them, I had a really simple question, like how can I help? They realized that they need to just focus on coding.
They’re a few developers that are organizing events too. I think that’s a misallocation of resources, timing and energy. I think specialization should be a thing, not only in the fiat world, but especially in the bitcoin world.
- Who is organizing it?
Myself and a friend of mine who’s helping me with the backend; the digital infrastructure.
So I don’t have a team as of now.
- Why Chiang Mai?
Chiang Mai has been and is one of the biggest hubs for nomads, especially digital nomads. It has had lots of influencers when it comes to developers, both bitcoin and shitcoins in general too. So rather than Bangkok which is a huge and crazy city, I think when it comes to sharing a conference; a small place like Chiang Mai where there is minimal distraction already makes complete sense.
- Will there be coconuts for everyone?
There will be coconuts for everyone. I’ll make sure there’s going to be coconuts for everyone, a hundred percent.
We’re like in the tropics. So yeah, let’s get it tropical. Why not?
Tickets are available for purchase here.
