SOFTWARE ENGINEERING & INFRASTRUCTURE

The systems underneath, built to hold.

Backend infrastructure, payment systems, media platforms, decentralised protocols. Built in Ireland, shipped to production, owned by you.

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RUSTTYPESCRIPTC#C++LIGHTNINGNOSTRKVMFFMPEGEMBEDDEDSDR200+ REPOS

STRATUM 01WHAT WE BUILD

Backend & infrastructure

High-performance services, APIs, and infrastructure tooling. From VPS provisioning engines to media pipelines — systems that run for years without babysitting.

Payments & fintech

Bitcoin Lightning integration, fiat on-ramps, and payment processing infrastructure. Real payment systems — not white-label checkout pages.

Platforms & protocol engineering

Full-stack platforms, live streaming infrastructure, embedded tooling, and decentralised protocol implementations. Firmware to frontend, spec to production.

SPECIALIST AREAS

Rust developmentRust backend development →Bitcoin & LightningBitcoin and Lightning payments development →NostrNostr development →Video & streamingLive streaming and video platform development →Infrastructure & hostingHosting and network infrastructure engineering →RF & SDRSDR and RF software development →Embedded & hardwareEmbedded firmware and hardware development →AI & agentsAI agent tooling and LLM infrastructure →

STRATUM 02SHIPPED, RUNNING, PUBLIC

INFRASTRUCTURE · PAYMENTSN°1

LNVPS: Bitcoin Lightning VPS hosting

Complete VPS platform built from scratch in Rust. Instant provisioning, Lightning and fiat payments, on-demand VM upgrades. In production at lnvps.net.

Rust · Proxmox · Lightning · Nostr · eBPF · MySQL★ 11 LNVPS/apiREAD MORE →

NOSTR · WEB CLIENTN°2

Snort: a Nostr web client

Feature-packed Nostr client in TypeScript/React. The most widely used web interface for the protocol, with an active contributor community.

TypeScript · React · Nostr · Bun★ 346 v0l/snortREAD MORE →

STREAMING · NOSTRN°3

zap.stream: live streaming on Nostr

End-to-end Nostr live streaming: Rust backend core, React frontend, native app. Lightning zaps, NIP-96 media, real-time FFmpeg ingestion.

Rust · TypeScript · FFmpeg · HLS · Nostr★ 65 v0l/zap.streamREAD MORE →

RF · SIGNALS INTELLIGENCEN°4

WaveShark: Wireshark for the radio spectrum

Channelizes a wide span once and decodes every signal in it at the same time. ISM sensors, ADS-B, AIS, APRS, pagers, DMR, TETRA, LoRa and more, from a €30 RTL-SDR up to a full duplex LimeSDR.

Rust · SDR · DSP · wgpu · egui★ 17 v0l/wavesharkREAD MORE →

HARDWARE · EDAN°5

agentee: electronics design for agents

Schematics, PCB layouts and simulations as plain TOML an agent can write and check. KiCad library import, impedance and current aware net classes, GPU FDTD sims, a CLI and an MCP server.

Rust · wgpu · FDTD · MCP · KiCadv0l/agenteeREAD MORE →

EMBEDDED · FIRMWAREN°6

radio_tool: DMR radio firmware tooling

Firmware flashing and packaging for DMR radios from TYT, Baofeng, Radioddity and others. Low-level C++ over USB against undocumented bootloaders, the embedded end of the stack.

C++ · libusb · CMake★ 105 v0l/radio_toolREAD MORE →

Open-source core

ALL 200+ REPOS →

route96Self-hostable Blossom/NIP-96 media server — storage, image processing, content addressing.Rust · ★ 30 adsb-overlayReal-time ADS-B aircraft tracking overlay for cameras — augmented reality for plane spotting.JavaScript · ★ 35 dtanDecentralised torrent index on Nostr — censorship-resistant file discovery.TypeScript · ★ 31 zap-stream-coreRust streaming engine — HLS segmenting, transcoding, Nostr publishing.Rust · ★ 26 dtan-serverP2P relay backend for DTAN — torrent discovery over Nostr with BitTorrent integration.Rust · ★ 22 payments-rsMinimal payment handler library. Lightning, Revolut, and Stripe in Rust.Rust · ★ 2 yalrLLM router with load balancing, retries and fallback across providers, metered API keys and Lightning top-ups. Runs yalr.net.Rust · ★ 2 nostrsearchFull-text search over the whole Nostr corpus, around 900M events, on Tantivy. Archive relay and live ingest.Rust · ★ 1 antenna-toolboxAntenna design from 36 templates, NanoVNA measurement and radio path planning. Desktop app that also runs in the browser.Rust sub-ghz-modemSerial-driven LoRa, FSK, OOK and LR-FHSS modem firmware for T-Beam, T-Echo and Nucleo-WL55JC boards.C++battery-controlOne async trait to monitor and control batteries, BMSes and power stations: Anker SOLIX, JK, Daly, Victron, Pylontech.Rust sensorscopeAndroid and iOS sensor toolbox: compass, level, angle gauge, g-force meter and GNSS satellite view.Kotlin

STRATUM 03WHO'S BEHIND IT

"If you need a team that ships infrastructure, not slide decks — get in touch."

Kieran Harkin

FOUNDER & DIRECTOR

Built production systems at BoyleSports and Strike. Funded by OpenSats (2023–2025) to work full-time on open-source Nostr projects including Snort, zap.stream, and Route96. Builds and operates LNVPS and Nostrlabs. Most recently, WaveShark for the radio spectrum and agentee for electronics design.

GITHUB →LNVPS →NOSTRLABS →

Direct, no hand-offsSenior engineers lead every project. No bait-and-switch, no junior hand-offs mid-sprint, no account managers in between.

Proven infrastructureThe same backend patterns and payment integrations that run LNVPS in production — battle-tested, not theoretical.

Open-source coreOver 200 public repositories in Rust, TypeScript, C#, C++, Kotlin and embedded. Audit the quality before you commission.

Full lifecycleArchitecture, build, test, deploy, monitor, iterate. You own the code at every stage. No lock-in, no recurring licence.

STRATUM 04CONTACT

Start a conversation

Describe the project. If it's a fit, you'll hear back from the team. We take on a limited number of engagements at a time to stay hands-on.

kieran@apexstrata.ieApex Strata Limited · Suite 10628, 26/27 Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin 2, D02 X361Registered in Ireland · Company no. 702423Also: lnvps.net · nostrlabs.io