Hi, I'm Erik đź‘‹
Bitcoin Product Designer based in Stockholm, Sweden
EC
About
At the end of 2024, I left my job as a UX designer to go full time into building for bitcoin. I’m currently a Human Rights Foundation grantee working on improving ecash design, and I’m the Lead Designer at Hoseki, where we’re helping people prove bitcoin ownership.
Lately I’ve been getting deeper into UI engineering. Trying to move beyond just Figma and ship my designs to life in code. I’ve been using Cursor a lot to build and ship faster, and it’s been fun pushing real projects out into the world.
Work Experience
Skills
Product Design
Figma
UX / UI Design
Vibe Coding
User Research
Prototyping
Design Systems
Wireframing
Work
Check out my latest work
I work on a wide range of projects, from simple websites to full product designs for complex Bitcoin tools. That includes everything from message signing and signature verification to some of the most experimental areas in Bitcoin today, like multi-mint payments in Cashu wallets.
Projects
I like building in public
Outside of my main work, I like contributing to open source Bitcoin projects and taking part in the occasional hackathon.
- B
Bitchat Cashu Wallet
Integrated a functional Cashu wallet into Bitchat for Android using Figma, Cursor, and Kotlin. Designed the UI in Figma and used Cursor to vibe coded the components into Kotlin. Entire build took 72 hours. - M
Minor League Miners
My hackathon submission won first place in both the Software Prize and HashLeague tracks at ATL Bit Labs’ Battle of the Mine Hackers. It introduced a new leaderboard for small miners and solo Bitaxe users, ranking them by their best session difficulty rather than total hashrate. To build it I spun up my own public pool instance, connected its API to a forked version of HashLeague, and built a UI to display best-difficulty stats. - S
Save Our Wallets
Save Our Wallets is an advocacy website built with Nuxt.js and to support Section 110 of the CLARITY Act (HR 1747), which protects the right to use non-custodial crypto wallets. I led development of the site, which provides a bill overview and lets users contact their representatives by ZIP code. The campaign went viral, sparking podcast appearances, conference talks, and even merchandise in support of the cause. - C
Cashu.me
Submitted PR #341 and PR #345 to cashu.me, redesigning the mint info screen and improving mint selection. Users can now tap the entire card to switch mints instead of a small radio button, and mint info updates automatically. Small change, big UX win. - C
Cashu.space
Cashu.space provides a comprehensive overview of the Cashu protocol, including its history, features, and how it works. I built the site using Next.js, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS, and deployed it on Vercel. The site is designed to be a resource for anyone interested in learning more about Cashu. - A
Athenut
Athenut is a privacy-preserving, pay-per-query search engine built on Kagi and Cashu. I designed the brand identity and built the entire front-end. Users pay with ecash to search. No accounts, no tracking. For technical details, check out the No BS Bitcoin article. - C
Cashu 95
Cashu 95 is a playful Figma prototype that reimagines the modern Cashu protocol with a retro Windows 95 interface. Built using a full Win95-style design system, it explores how old-school UI can still deliver a functional and fun ecash experience.
Talks
Speaking about bitcoin design
I've shared my thoughts on Bitcoin UX, ecash, and product design at conferences, podcasts, and panel discussions. Each convo explores different angles of building better Bitcoin products.
- 2
21 in 21, a Rapid-Fire Bitcoin Q&A Podcast
Recorded during Bitcoin Design Week in San Francisco. I talked about designing the future of money and how we can capture that feeling of 'magic' in digital money. Got into my experiments with ecash and bitchat, the magic of bump to pay NFC interactions, and how the small design details make a big difference. - B
Bitcoin Insider Interview
An interview with Lisa (Nity Nei), the founder of Bitcoin ++. We talked about how I got involved in Cashu, some designs I'm proud of, and what's coming next. - T
The State of Ecash Design
A talk I gave at Bitcoin ++ Privacy Edition in Riga focused on the current state of Cashu design, progress, challenges, and things that are ahead. - H
How Better Design Will Impact Bitcoin
Discussed the history of other peer to peer protocols like BitTorrent and The Pirate Bay, and how those early systems shaped my thinking around Bitcoin. We also got into wallet UX, how to simplify the orange pill process, and where scaling tools like ecash can make a difference. - W
What is "Good" Bitcoin Design?
This was a fun and thoughtful chat with Skyler, a fellow Bitcoin designer I really respect and admire. We talked about what it actually means to design in this space — not just making things look good, but making them work well for real people. - E
Ecash Panel [Baltic Honey Badger]
A bit of a dream come true, I got to sit next to one of my heroes, Adam Back, and talk about ecash. This panel dives into what ecash is, what problems it solves (like privacy and scalability), and where it still falls short. - B
Bitcoin Design and Ecash UX
This was a fun one—recorded while walking along the river in Riga. We talked about designing peer-to-peer systems, the challenges of ecash UX, working on institutional products like Hoseki, and how cities like Stockholm and Riga inspire better design. - D
Designing for Ecash [Bitcoin Asia: Hong Kong]
A talk on the future of Bitcoin through the lens of ecash design—tracing its roots from David Chaum to modern Bitcoin implementations. It explores how ecash can improve privacy, reduce censorship risks, and bring better UX to Bitcoin. - S
Sprint Planning & Interviews
We talked about how sprint planning works in open source projects, and where user research can fit into the process to actually make an impact. - S
Scaling Bitcoin
A deep dive into Bitcoin design, privacy, and why tools like Cashu matter. We talked about scaling, culture, freedom of speech, and the trade-offs that come with building for a more open, resilient internet. - D
Designing for Bitcoin [Baltic Honey Badger]
A talk on the evolution of Bitcoin wallet UI, exploring common UX challenges and how different wallets address them. It also shares lessons from mainstream tech and the design trade-offs involved in building Bitcoin products. - N
Nostr 101: What the F#&* is Nostr?
Introduction to the Nostr protocol and its applications.
Contact
Get in Touch
Want to chat? Shoot me an email at ghostsock@proton.me, or reach out to me on X or Nostr and I'll respond as soon as I can.