PassPunch — Loyalty that behaves like cash

The idea

Points expire, get forgotten, and never leave the store. Cash doesn't.

Traditional loyalty locks value inside one business with confusing points that customers rarely redeem. PassPunch flips the model: every reward is real, portable store credit. That single decision turns loyalty into a network with its own liquidity — the moat competitors can't copy overnight.

Features

Everything a modern loyalty network needs

Universal wallet

One app holds every business's credit. No more juggling a dozen punch cards and apps.

NFC tap-to-earn

Company-provisioned NFC tags with geofencing and rate limits — tap to join, earn, or redeem.

Credit liquidity

Swap credit 1:1 between businesses or send it to a friend. Rewards finally move.

Owner dashboard

Live analytics, program advisor, customer segments, and revenue insight for every store.

Fraud protection

Email verification, transfer review holds, and replay-safe stamping baked into the core.

Built-in helpdesk

Multi-party support threads connect customers, businesses, and our team in one place.

How it works

Earn → Own → Move → Spend

EARN

Tap or scan

Customers tap an NFC tag or scan in-store and instantly earn real store credit.

OWN

Credit is yours

It lands in the wallet as cash-equivalent value that never expires.

MOVE

Swap or send

Move credit between businesses 1:1, or gift it to a friend in seconds.

SPEND

Redeem anywhere

Spend it at any participating business — no points math required.

How we architect our software

A layered system, built to be operated

PassPunch is a full-stack product spanning native apps, a web console, a transactional API, and provisioned hardware. We design every layer to be observable, secure, and self-healing — because we run it in production ourselves.

Client layer

A single React Native (Expo) codebase ships the iOS and Android apps, alongside a Next.js web app and full company control center. Shared domain logic keeps the program advisor identical across mobile and web.

React Native · ExpoNext.jsSWR caching

API layer

Next.js route handlers expose a typed REST API with session-based auth and role-based access control. Money-moving endpoints enforce verification gates, idempotency, and review holds before anything is committed.

REST · route handlersRBACSession auth

Data layer

A PostgreSQL ledger is the source of truth for credit, stamps, and transfers. A self-healing schema layer provisions missing tables and columns on boot, so features roll out without brittle migration choreography.

PostgreSQLAppend-only ledgerSelf-healing schema

Edge & services

Company-minted NFC tags carry signed URIs and enforce geofencing and rate limits at tap time. Push notifications, transactional email, and object storage for attachments round out the service mesh.

NFC provisioningPushEmail · R2 storage

Infrastructure

The web stack runs behind nginx with systemd and automatic TLS, deployed to cloud compute and fronted by a CDN. Monitoring and structured logs give us the same visibility in production that we have locally.

nginx · systemdAuto-TLSCDN

Engineering principles

How we keep it solid

Security & money-safety first

Verification gates, fraud-hold review on large transfers, and replay-safe stamping protect real value at every step.

Operator mindset

We run what we build. Self-healing schema and structured observability mean we ship features without 2am surprises.

Shared domain logic

One source of truth for business rules keeps mobile, web, and admin perfectly in sync as the product grows.

Ship fast, stay clean

Fast, visible release cycles paired with typed code and clear boundaries — speed that doesn't accrue debt.

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