Luke Watson

Founder & Creator

Wisp

Jan 2025 - Current (1 year 6 months)

Founder of Wisp, an open-source Go framework for algorithmic trading. Handles multi-exchange connectivity, real-time order book management, backtesting, and live trading. Built for production: low-latency, fault-tolerant systems handling real-time market data and execution. Exchanges integrated include: - Hyperliquid - Binance - ByBit - Polymarket - Paradex

Partner

Holdex

Dec 2024 - Feb 2026 (1 year 3 months)

Production CLOB Architecture (Index.Fun/Sonic blockchain): Designed and deployed order matching engine in Go with Redis orderbook cache, benchmarked for thousands of concurrent orders/sec. Implemented on-chain settlement via smart contracts. Reduced end-of-cycle exploitation, improved slippage and liquidity. Led full-stack rebuild in Go: Frontend migration, backend architecture, deployment automation, and smart contracts for on-chain settlement. Owned complete technical implementation across team of 3.

Chief Technology Officer

Future is meta

Oct 2022 - Sep 2024 (2 years)

Solo engineer/CTO at metaverse design agency. Developed custom TypeScript-based virtual world platform with on-chain wallet integration. Shipped experiences for Polish National Bank (Decentraland) and Hong Kong Fintech Week (Spatial). Stack: Unity, Unreal, TypeScript.

Senior Software Engineer

Centralexcom

Feb 2021 - May 2022 (1 year 4 months)

In 2021, I conceptualized and led the development of Custodial DeFi (Custo-DeFi), aiming to advance user experience and security to onboard the next billion users to crypto. Inspired by my work with 3rd-party MPC (Multi-Party Computation) systems, I saw an opportunity to use this technology beyond fund management, enabling secure transactions across decentralized platforms like Uniswap and Opensea. In addition to overseeing the technical development, I guided our team of 8 across frontend and backend in implementing UX/UI best practices to create a streamlined, user-centered experience. I also managed the project lifecycle, ensuring clear communication, setting milestones, and addressing challenges promptly. Our approach included integrat

Senior Software Engineer

WorldFirst

Oct 2018 - Feb 2021 (2 years 5 months)

I started my career at World First, joining as an engineer and becoming part of the international expansion team in the London office. I collaborated with stakeholders to launch World First in new markets, including Japan, Korea, and India, adapting legacy systems to support different languages and regional compliance and banking requirements. In 2018, I relocated to Hong Kong to assist with a major rebuild of World First’s registration platform. During this time, World First was acquired by Ant Financial, and I joined the team tasked with implementing T+0 cash delivery into China—the first platform globally to achieve this milestone. This project, a collaboration with Alipay developers, involved integrating our foreign exchange service di

Senior Software Engineer

WorldFirst

Oct 2018 - Feb 2021 (2 years 5 months)

I started my career at World First, joining as an engineer and becoming part of the international expansion team in the London office. I collaborated with stakeholders to launch World First in new markets, including Japan, Korea, and India, adapting legacy systems to support different languages and regional compliance and banking requirements. In 2018, I relocated to Hong Kong to assist with a major rebuild of World First’s registration platform. During this time, World First was acquired by Ant Financial, and I joined the team tasked with implementing T+0 cash delivery into China—the first platform globally to achieve this milestone. This project, a collaboration with Alipay developers, involved integrating our foreign exchange service di

Software Engineer

WorldFirst

Apr 2016 - Oct 2018 (2 years 7 months)

Using Symfony & Zend frameworks PHP frameworks to support both back office & client facing applications. Using Internationalisation tools for translation work and writing Behat tests to secure workflows as well as writing fully Unit Tested code, passed certification with Inviqua as a Domain Driven Developer. Also acting as the Scrum Master for the team, passing my CSM & CSD course. This also included attending meeting with stakeholders both within the UK and abroad.

Software Engineer

WorldFirst

Apr 2016 - Oct 2018 (2 years 7 months)

Using Symfony & Zend frameworks PHP frameworks to support both back office & client facing applications. Using Internationalisation tools for translation work and writing Behat tests to secure workflows as well as writing fully Unit Tested code, passed certification with Inviqua as a Domain Driven Developer. Also acting as the Scrum Master for the team, passing my CSM & CSD course. This also included attending meeting with stakeholders both within the UK and abroad.

Developer

Web Technology Group WTG

May 2015 - Apr 2016 (1 year)

Working with Laravel 4.2 as a RESTful backend framework with Angular 1.2 for supporting I.E 8 As well as working on another Laravel 4.2 and Angular 1.2 project to rebuild a legacy system. Working extensively work Angular to offer a dramatically improved performance for the user

Web Developer

Rooster Creative Marketing

Sep 2014 - Mar 2015 (7 months)

Extensive work with Wordpress. Implemented tools not currently in use for the company, including SASS, GIT and writing custom plugins for Wordpress. Helped to massively improve throughput from existing developers and push them to explore new boundaries of code

Web Developer

Powder Blue

Sep 2013 - Sep 2014 (1 year 1 month)

Front and back end development Server scripting including SVN and GIT Client meetings and support as well as phone and face to face training sessions

Web Developer

Revelation Media Ltd

Mar 2013 - Sep 2013 (7 months)

I worked as a consultant developer with Revelation Media. My tasks involved setting up Wordpress websites, altering the design and creating a bespoke user experience. I also sat in client meetings to discuss progress on jobs and to suggest new paths to take for tasks based upon my knowledge as a developer.

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