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Learning about the crypto space can be an intimidating endeavor. The wide array of media channels and an immense volume of content make it increasingly difficult to discern signal from noise. We want it to be as easy as possible to conquer the crypto learning curve, so we aggregated our favorite posts, papers, and guides here.
We start with a high-level overview of blockchain technology and move into progressively more complex concepts. We will continue to add sections and resources as we come across new and interesting content. If you see something missing or have general suggestions, please reach out to me!
Section 1: Learn About Blockchains
- The Truth About Blockchain by Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani (HBR)
- Thinking Outside the Blocks by Philip Evans (BCG)
- The Idea of Smart Contracts by Nick Szabo
- Part 1?—?Introduction to Smart (legal?) Contracts by Josh Stark
- Part 2?—?Making Sense of Smart Contracts by Josh Stark
- An Overview of Privacy in Cryptocurrencies by Richard Chen
- The many traditions of non-governmental money (part i) by Nick Szabo
- We already know blockchain’s killer apps by Haseeb Qureshi
- Fundamental challenges with public blockchains by Preethi Kasireddy
- Blockchain vs. Distributed LEDGER Technologies by Brent Xu
- Why Decentralization Matters by Chris Dixon
- Why It’s Hard to “Get” Bitcoin: The Blockchain Spectrum by Dhruv Bansal
- It’s the settlement assurances, stupid?—?how to evaluate blockchains by Nic Carter
Section 2: Blockchains as Monetary Platforms
Bitcoin
- Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System by Satoshi Nakamoto
- Bitcoin Wiki
- Bitcoin Talk Forum
- r/Bitcoin
- Bitcoin’s Academic Pedigree by Arvind Narayanan and Jeremy Clark
- Bitcoin GitHub
- Bitcoin Information & Resources by Jameson Lopp (MEGA RESOURCE)
Bitcoin Cash
- Bitcoin Cash?—?Getting Started
- r/BitcoinCash
- Bitcoin Cash GitHub
- What is Bitcoin Cash? [The Ultimate Basic Beginners Guide] by Ameer Rosic
- Bitcoin ABC vs Bitcoin SV by Its Blockchain
Litecoin
- Litecoin?—?Open Source P2P Digital Currency
- Litecoin Wiki
- Litecointalk Forum
- Litecoin GitHub
- r/Litecoin
Ripple
- Ripple Website
- Ripple Solutions Overview
- Ripple Product Overview
- Ripple Set Up Models: Liquidity and Infrastructure Provisioning
- Ripple GitHub
- r/Ripple
Monero
- Monero White paper
- Monero Website
- Monero GitHub
- r/Monero
Zcash
- Zcash White paper
- Zcash Website
- Zcash GitHub
- r/zec
Decred
- Decred White paper
- Decred Website
- Decred GitHub
- r/decred
Grin
- Grin Website
- Grin GitHub
- r/grincoin
Beam
- Beam Website
- Beam GitHub
- r/beam
Section 3: Blockchains as Application Platforms
Ethereum
- A Prehistory of the Ethereum Protocol by Vitalik Buterin
- A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform (Ethereum White Paper)
- Ethereum: A Secure Decentralised Generalised Transaction Ledger (Ethereum Yellow Paper)
- Ethereum GitHub Wiki
- Ethereum Research Forum
- r/Ethereum
- How does Ethereum work, anyway? by Preethi Kasireddy
- A beginner’s guide to Ethereum by Linda Xie
- Scaling Ethereum to Billions of Users by Fred Ehersam
- Ethereum 2.0 Roadmap
- Making Sense of Ethereum’s Layer 2 Scaling Solutions: State Channels, Plasma, and Truebit by Josh Stark
- Ethereum’s Smart Contracts are Full of Holes by Mike Orcutt
- Analyzing Token Sale Models by Vitalik Buterin
Stellar
- Stellar White paper
- Stellar Website
- Stellar GitHub
- r/Stellar
EOS
- EOS White paper
- EOS Website
- EOS GitHub
- r/EOS
- EOS by Ria Bhutoria
Cardano
- Cardano White papers
- Cardano Website
- Cardano GitHub
- Cardano Reddit
- Cardano by Ria Bhutoria
Tezos
- Tezos White paper
- Tezos Website
- Tezos GitHub
- r/Tezos
Zilliqa
- Zilliqa White paper
- Zilliqa Website
- Zilliqa GitHub
- r/Zilliqa
Section 4: Interoperability Platforms
Cosmos Network
- Cosmos White paper
- Cosmos Website
- Cosmos GitHub
- r/Cosmos
- Understanding the value proposition of Cosmos by Gautier Marin
- A Deep Look Into Cosmos?—?the Internet of Blockchains by Julian Koh
- Cosmos Staking Primer by Felix Lutsch
Polkadot Network
- Polkadot White paper
- Polkadot Website
- Polkadot GitHub
- Polkadot Wiki
- r/dot
- Polkadot: Promise and Problems by Tom Shaughnessy
AION Network
- AION White paper
- AION Website
- AION GitHub
- r/AionNetwork
Section 5: Protocols & Applications Built On Blockchains “Web 3.0”
General Information
- Blockchain Infrastructure Landscape: A First Principles Framing by Trent McConaghy
- Making Sense of Web 3 by Josh Stark
- Crypto Tokens and the Coming Age of Protocol Innovation by Albert Wenger
- Fat Protocols by Joel Monegro
- Fat protocols are not an investment thesis by Jake Brukhman
- Web3 Foundation Website
- Web3 Tech Stack Overview by Web3 Foundation
- Understanding Web 3?—?A User Controlled Internet by Emre Tekisalp
- The Web3 Stack by Kyle Samani
- Thin Heads and Fat Tails: Understanding the Crypto Reinvention of Capitalism by Philipp Stauffer
Layer 2 Scalability Solutions
- Layer 2 | the lightning network by MIT Media Lab
- Making Sense of Ethereum’s Layer 2 Scaling Solutions: State Channels, Plasma, and Truebit by Josh Stark
- The State of State Channels: 2018 edition by Dmitriy Berenzon
- State Channels For Dummies: Part 1 (Payment Channels) by Eric Olszewski
- State Channels for Dummies: Part 2 (App-Specific State Channels) by Eric Olszewski
- State Channels for Dummies: Part 3 (Multi-Hop Transactions / Hub-and-Spoke Transactions) by Eric Olszewski
- State Channels for Dummies: Part 4 (Ledger Channels and Virtual Channels) by Eric Olszewski
- State Channels for Dummies: Part 5 (Generalized State Channels / Counterfactual) by Eric Olszewski
- Understanding Plasma, Part 1: The ‘Basics’ by Daniel Goldman
- Understanding Plasma, Part 2: Make Plasma Fungible Again by Daniel Goldman
- Understanding Counterfactual and the Evolution of Payment Channels and State Channels by Michael Bogan
- Raiden Protocol Explained by Raiden Network
- Everything You Need to Know About Celer Network by Celer Network
Decentralized Cloud (compute, storage, etc)
- What is Decentralized Storage by Tom Terado
- An Introduction to IPFS by John Lilic
- Decentralized Oracles: a comprehensive overview by Julien Thevenard
- The Web3 Video Stack by Felipe Gaucho Pereira
- Blockchain-Based Decentralized Cloud Computing by Mattia Mrvosevic
Identity
- The Basics of Decentralized Identity by Kames
- The Impact of Digital Identity by Justine Humenansky
Decentralized Finance
- Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Thematic Insights by Delphi Digital
- Mapping The Decentralized Financial System by Max Bronstein
- Is DeFi Ethereum’s Killer App? by Dave Kajpust
- Decentralized Exchanges by Ria Bhutoria
- Prediction Markets by Ria Bhutoria
- Micropayments, Abridged by Ryan Shea
- Digital Asset Lending via Open Protocols 2018 by Bloqboard
- Crypto Derivatives, Lending, and a touch of Stablecoin by Gary Basin
- Stablecoins: designing a price-stable cryptocurrency by Haseeb Qureshi
Section 6: Advanced Concepts in Blockchain & Cryptocurrency
Economics & Financing
- What is Harberger Tax & Where Does The Blockchain Fit In? by Simon de la Rouviere
- The Quantity Theory of Money for Tokens by Warren Weber
- Crypto borrowing and staking networks by Jake Brukhman
- Thoughts on Tokens by Balaji Srinivasan
- Cryptoeconomics 101 by Nick Tomaino
- Keepers?—?Workers that Maintain Blockchain Networks by Ryan Zurer
- Today’s Crypto Asset Valuation Frameworks by Ashley Lannquist
Cryptography Concepts
- An Intensive Introduction to Cryptography by Boaz Barak
- Privacy 3.0: Encryption Tools for the Decentralized Web by Gautam Botrel
- The Curves That Keep Bitcoin Secure by Grayblock
- Cryptographic Primitives in Blockchains by Licheng Wag, Xiaoying Shen, Jing Li, Jun Shao, and Yixian Yang
- Zero Knowledge Proofs
- What are zk-SNARKs?
- Bitcoin Technology Development Talks: Schnorr Signatures by Bryan Bishop
Computer Science/Distributed Computing Concepts
- The Byzantine Generals Problem by Leslie Lamport, Robert Shostak, and Marshall Pease
- Understanding Blockchain Fundamentals, Part 1: Byzantine Fault Tolerance by Georgios Konstantopoulos
- Understanding Blockchain Fundamentals, Part 2: Proof of Work & Proof of Stake by Georgios Konstantopoulos
- Understanding Blockchain Fundamentals, Part 3: Delegated Proof of Stake by Georgios Konstantopoulos
- Algorithm Design (chapters 3 + 7) by Jon Kleinberg & Eva Tardos
Game Theory/Mechanism Design
- Basic Primer: Blockchain Consensus Protocols by Ameer Rosic
- Understanding Blockchain Consensus Models by Dr. Arati Baliga
- On consensus by Jordan Clifford
- Cryptoeconomic Theory: Game Theory Basics by Viktor Makarskyy
- What is Cryptocurrency Game Theory: A Basic Introduction by Ameer Rosic
- Cryptoeconomic Theory: Pareto Efficiency by Viktor Makarskyy
- Cryptoeconomic Theory: Markets vs. Planning by Viktor Makarskyy
- Cryptoeconomic Theory: Basics of Social Order by Viktor Makarskyy
- Making Sense of “Cryptoeconomics” by Josh Stark
- A Crash Coursein Mechanism Design for Cryptoeconomic Applications by Alex Evans
Thank you to Karim Helmy, Dmitriy Berenzon, Etienne Brunet, Mike Steinberg and Josh Kuzon for their thoughts and contributions to this post.
Disclosure: I am currently invested in the following projects/companies mentioned above > Bitcoin, Ethereum, Livepeer, Solana, The Graph, and Radar.
