Xeris — A post-quantum Layer 1 and full product ecosystem
April 15, 2026
Overview
Xeris is a self-initiated end-to-end cryptocurrency ecosystem. Rather than shipping a single dApp on top of an existing chain, the project tackles the full stack: the base-layer blockchain, the wallets people hold their keys in, the exchange they trade on, the explorer they audit transactions with, and the social/messaging surface on top. Everything shares one visual language and one cryptographic posture — post-quantum first.The goal was to prove that a small team (of one, in this case) can take a modern L1 from an empty Cargo.toml all the way to a cohesive product surface that a non-technical user could plausibly open, understand, and use.
UX investigation
Before any code, the hard question was: why do crypto products feel hostile to non-crypto people? The research phase mapped that failure mode across existing wallets, exchanges, and explorers.
Audit of competing wallets and DEXes (MetaMask, Phantom, Rabby, Uniswap, Jupiter) — cataloguing where first-time users drop off, which jargon is load-bearing vs. vestigial, and which "security" choices actually trade off against usability.
Task-based user testing with non-crypto-native testers: "send 5 tokens to this address", "find out why this transaction failed", "recover your wallet on a new device." Every failure point fed back into the Xeris product language.
Jargon triage: a written glossary that decides, per term, whether to keep it (because it's load-bearing), rename it (because a plain-language alternative exists), or hide it behind progressive disclosure. This document governs copy across all six products.
A single design-system spec (DESIGN_SYSTEM.md) that every product — web, extension, native mobile, Rust-rendered explorer — links back to, so the ecosystem feels like one product even though it spans six codebases and three languages.
The ecosystem
1. XerisCoin Testnet — the Layer 1
The root of the stack. A Rust node (xrs-node) built on top of solana-sdk 2.0, with custom contract types, a Merkle-backed ledger, Ristretto255 Pedersen commitments and Schnorr zero-knowledge proofs for confidential state. The chain ships its own governance-ready validator set and a REST/RPC surface over warp + tokio. A full audit pass was run against the consensus and contract layers before any downstream product connected to it.
2. XerisDex — the decentralized exchange
A Next.js 15 / React 19 frontend against the Xeris L1 with ultra-fast swaps, liquidity provision, DCA and limit orders, real-time analytics (Recharts), and on-chain governance. Wallet connection goes through Reown AppKit and the Solana Wallet Adapter, with a Rust bridge service for cross-chain asset flows. Framer Motion drives the micro-interactions that make a trading UI feel premium rather than engineering-grade.
3. Xeris Wallet — browser extension
A Manifest V3 extension (Chrome + Firefox) built with Vite, React 18, TypeScript, Zustand and Tailwind. Key material uses @noble/ed25519 alongside @noble/post-quantum (CRYSTALS-Kyber and Dilithium) so that transaction signing and key exchange survive the arrival of cryptographically relevant quantum computers. BIP-39 seed handling, QR-based address sharing, and an injected window.xeris provider that any dApp in the ecosystem can pick up.
4. Xeris Wallet — Flutter mobile app
A native-feeling iOS and Android wallet sharing the same cryptographic primitives (via a Rust rust_pqc FFI bundle). Ships with a full internal design system document that defines the brand palette (Brand Blue #0019A5, Brand Vibrant #8FA3FF, Brand Navy #010414), the Inter / Plus Jakarta Sans type pairing, advanced order flows, l10n scaffolding, and store-ready assets plus a privacy policy.
5. XerisChat — onchain Snapchat
The most ambitious surface. Ephemeral, end-to-end encrypted snaps and stories where media lives on XIPFS — a private IPFS swarm running Kubo nodes behind a Rust (axum) signed-upload gateway — while metadata, friend graph, and snap state live as first-class contracts on the Xeris L1 (ContractType::XerisChatRegistry). Post-quantum key exchange via Kyber, signatures via Dilithium, with Ed25519 still handling the chain-level transaction layer.
6. XerisExplorer — the block explorer
The audit surface. Blocks, transactions, accounts, validators, supply stats, and a documented public API. Built to be the "trust anchor" that anyone — including skeptics — can open without installing anything and verify claims made by the rest of the ecosystem.
Gallery
Key features
Post-quantum cryptography everywhere it matters: Kyber for KEM, Dilithium for signatures, layered alongside battle-tested Ed25519 and Ristretto255 primitives.
Shared design language: one palette, one type system, one motion vocabulary across web, extension, and native mobile — documented in a living design-system spec, not just Figma files.
First-class confidential state: Pedersen commitments and Schnorr ZK proofs baked into the chain, not bolted on via L2.
Private media layer (XIPFS): a swarm-key-gated IPFS network with a Rust pinning gateway so that "decentralized media" doesn't silently mean "public forever."
End-to-end auditability: every user-facing product points back to XerisExplorer for verification.
Mobile: Flutter, Dart, native iOS/Android, Rust FFI for PQC.
Media layer: Kubo (go-ipfs) with a custom swarm.key, Rust + axum signed-upload / pin service, systemd-deployed gateway nodes.
Design: Figma for specification, a written design-system markdown spec as the source of truth, Inter + Plus Jakarta Sans.
Challenges and learnings
Crypto-library coherence: solana-sdk 2.0 pulls curve25519-dalek 4.x internally. Mixing a second Scalar/Ristretto stack for Pedersen commitments had to match that major version exactly or the node wouldn't even link — a reminder that blockchain stacks leak dependency constraints upward into every consumer.
Post-quantum readiness without regressions: PQC signatures are large (Dilithium signatures dwarf Ed25519). Every byte on-chain has a cost, so the architecture signs transactions with Ed25519 and reserves Dilithium/Kyber for off-chain key exchange and messaging envelopes.
One brand across six surfaces: shipping a Rust node and a Flutter app and a browser extension that all feel like the same product requires the design system to be explicit and written down. A Figma file alone was not enough — a markdown spec that each codebase links back to was.
Private IPFS is a product problem, not a protocol problem: XIPFS taught me that the hard part of "decentralized media" isn't running a node, it's key-gating the swarm, signing uploads so the gateway can't be spammed, and making pin lifecycles match ephemeral-snap semantics.
Scope discipline: six products, one person. Every feature had to justify itself against the question "does this move the ecosystem forward, or is it just a product I'd ship anyway?" — most of the cuts happened at that line.
Outcome
A coherent, working, post-quantum-first cryptocurrency ecosystem where a user can install a wallet, acquire XRS, trade on the DEX, send an encrypted snap to a friend, verify the state of the network on the explorer, and do it all under a single brand and a single cryptographic model. More importantly, the project is a repeatable template: a design system, a shared cryptographic library, an audited base chain, and a pattern for bolting new surfaces (social, DeFi, messaging) on top without re-architecting the stack each time.
