In this episode, Sunny Ray speaks with Pavel, founder of Graph One, Canada's first Lightning Network focused brokerage and exchange, about the rise and eventual shutdown of his company. Pavel shares his journey from being born in Estonia to Ukrainian and Belarusian parents, immigrating to Edmonton, Canada at age five, and studying Business Economics and Law at the University of Alberta. He recounts discovering bitcoin in 2013 through a coworker while running a side e-commerce business, attending tiny early Edmonton meetups, and later becoming reengaged with bitcoin through the Lightning Network in 2017. Pavel explains why he incorporated Graph One in January 2018 during Lightning's earliest and roughest days, how the user experience evolved from manual channel management to seamless wallets, and why most exchanges still avoid Lightning integration. He also discusses the intense regulatory and banking hurdles bitcoin businesses face in Canada, which ultimately contributed to Graph One's closure. The conversation blends personal history, technical evolution of Lightning, and hard lessons from building and shutting down a bitcoin startup.
Graph One founder Pavel breaks down building and losing Canada's first Lightning Network exchange.
How did you first get introduced to bitcoin?
I was running a side e-commerce business selling emergency prepper kits while working industrial construction in 2013. A coworker told me bitcoin might fit with what I was selling and sent me my first bitcoin transaction, worth about 50 cents at the time. I signed up with BitPay to accept bitcoin payments and started attending local Edmonton meetups, which had only four or five people back then.
What made you decide to build a business around the Lightning Network?
By 2017 I felt a rekindling of my love for bitcoin when I learned about Lightning and its potential for micro payments and peer to peer commerce. It felt like a return to bitcoin's original promise as a transactional currency. After networking with people at meetups for a month or two, we incorporated Graph One in January 2018, right as Lightning was barely exiting testnet.
How would you rate Lightning's progress toward mainstream adoption today?
I think we are not there yet, maybe a year or two away, but when it hits mainstream it will happen fast. Usability has improved massively. Someone off the street can now download a wallet and receive Lightning payments without running a node or managing channels, since all that complexity is now hidden in the background.
What Lightning wallets would you recommend to newcomers?
Blue Wallet is pretty good and simple, though the default Lightning option is custodial. Breeze is another one I like, and I believe they have a podcasting payment feature. Phoenix and Moon Wallet are also solid options that require very little technical knowledge from the user, essentially dummy proof.
Why don't more exchanges support Lightning withdrawals?
I don't think it's technically that challenging. I think the incentive isn't there. Exchanges want to maximize volume, and high on chain withdrawal fees actually encourage users to withdraw larger amounts less often. There's also not much user pressure yet, since Lightning is still early and most people are comfortable leaving bitcoin custodied on exchanges.
What originally drew you to bitcoin on an ideological level?
My background is in economics and I was a big Ron Paul fan, so Austrian economic theory and sound money principles really resonated with me. When I heard about bitcoin, it felt like this is where I've been all my life. It was a natural fit with beliefs I already held.
What was the biggest challenge in running Graph One?
This was by far my most challenging business. I'm not from a technical background, and bitcoin itself was hard, not just technically but regulation wise. The rules kept changing year to year, which created constant worry. Regulatory risk and difficulty with banking became a huge and growing source of concern for me.
Why did you ultimately shut down Graph One?
It came down to regulatory risk and banking pressures. In Canada, bitcoin businesses have a hostile banking environment. Opening an account here takes weeks of paperwork, while in the US you can call in the morning and be done by afternoon. That hostile environment made it very difficult to keep operating.
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