Nexus
A 100+ endpoint API platform for Web3 rewards, commerce, and event-driven payouts
Nexus is the platform Dark Oak Studios built on its second Ripple Foundation grant ($150K): ecosystem-wide infrastructure for reward distribution, commerce, and event-triggered payouts on the XRP Ledger, with a full Unity SDK so game developers can integrate without touching ledger internals.
Role
Founder, product & technical lead
Timeline
2023 – 2026 · Dark Oak Studios
The problem
By 2023, every project building on the XRP Ledger was solving the same problems from scratch: distributing token and NFT rewards, running commerce, verifying holders, and connecting real-world payments to on-chain outcomes. We'd lived that pain building Junction, our own gaming platform.
Nexus productized the answer. Instead of one gaming platform, we pitched Ripple on ecosystem-wide infrastructure: a hosted API platform any project could plug into for reward mechanics, engagement triggers, and payment flows. That pitch won our second consecutive Ripple Foundation grant.
What we built
A platform of more than 100 API endpoints on a PHP/Laravel core with Node.js/TypeScript service extensions. Reward distribution, in-game commerce, event-triggered payouts, holder verification, and engagement mechanics, all configurable per hosted project.
Payments went well past the usual crypto rails: dynamic multi-asset support (RLUSD and project-issued tokens), an NFT-to-token recycling system, and a webhook bridge that converts card, PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App purchases into on-chain rewards.
A full Unity C# SDK ships as a standalone integration package: real-time NFT collection generation, minting, signing, transferring, and wallet loading, in-editor and at runtime.
System shape
Unity games
C# SDK · in-engine wallets
Web clients
hosted community apps
Fiat purchases
card · PayPal · Venmo · Cash App
Nexus platform · 100+ endpoints
Laravel core: rewards, commerce, event-triggered payouts
Node.js / TypeScript services: bots, bridges, automation
XRP Ledger
NFTs · issued tokens · RLUSD
NFT-to-token recycling
multi-asset payouts
Games and web clients integrate through the SDK or REST API. The Laravel core orchestrates rewards, commerce, and payouts against the XRP Ledger, with fiat purchases bridged in by webhook.
Production scale
100+
API endpoints
specced, QA'd, shipped
701
commits on the core repo
150 branches · releases to v1.2.0
7
contributors on the core
plus 8 on the Unity SDK
500+
end users
across hosted communities
My role, honestly
Nexus was implemented by a four-person senior engineering team I hired and directed. I designed every feature, authored the visual and technical specifications behind all 100+ endpoints, ran all QA and bug triage, and was the sole intermediary between the funder and the team.
When Ripple restructured grant payments mid-program from upfront to pay-after-milestone, I re-sequenced the delivery plan, fronted contractor payroll from company reserves, and renegotiated milestone order and scope. The team stayed paid and the grant stayed on track.
Outcome
Delivered through every milestone review on a $150K grant, with review cycles that ended in internal demo requests from the funder. The platform served 500+ end users across hosted client projects, from technical teams to non-technical communities.
We commissioned a full third-party penetration test and security audit, remediated the findings, and passed the retest.