300+ Curated Cryptoeconomics Resources
A curated list of awesome resources for Cryptoeconomics research, articles, videos, podcasts, whitepapers, hacks, etc.
A curated list of awesome resources for Cryptoeconomics research. A curated list of awesome resources for Cryptoeconomics research, articles, videos, podcasts, whitepapers, hacks, etc.
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Table of Contents
- Cryptoeconomics
- Additional Information
- Applications
Articles
Introductory
- Cryptoeconomics for dummies
- Cryptoeconomics 101
- Making Sense of Cryptoeconomics Making Sense of Cryptoeconomics by Josh Stark
- What is Cryptoeconomics What is Cryptoeconomics, a guide by BlockGeeks
- How Society Will Be Transformed By Cryptoeconomics
- Paving the Future of Blockchain Technology
- Vivek Singh's Cryptoeconomics in context
- Cryptoeconomics Definitions Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3
- The Blockchain Economy: A beginner’s guide to institutional cryptoeconomics by RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub
- Cryptoeconomics is Hard Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 by Aleksandr Bulkin
- How to create a cryptoeconomic protocol from scratch by Vlad Zamfir
- Behavioural Crypto-Economics the challenge and promise of Blockchain Incentive Design by Elad Verbin
- Introduction to Blockchain through Cryptoeconomics by Zubin Koticha
- The need for an Incentive scheme in Algorand by Alexis Guaba, Zubin Koticha
- Cryptoeconomics.study -- An free and open source book & course on Cryptoeconomics
Game Theory
- Introduction to Game Theory Part one of a series by Devin Soni
- Schelling Point Introduction to the concept of Schelling Point
- Nash Equilibria and Schelling Points
- The strategy of conflict book The Strategy of Conflict
- Mechanism design (deck) Mechanism design theory examples and complexity
- Standford's Algorithmic Game Theory lecture series
- Cryptocurrency Game Theory What is Cryptocurrency Game Theory: A Basic introduction
- Correlated Equilibria In Game Theory, No Clear Path to Equilibrium
Mechanism Design
- A Crash Course in Mechanism Design for Cryptoeconomic Applications
- Mechanism Theory paper by Matthew O. Jackson
- Mechanism Design Theory
Cryptographic Primitives
- Cryptographic Primitives as described in Wikipedia
- A Graduate Course in Applied Cryptography by Dan Boneh and Victor Shoup
- Ethereum: Signing and Validating
- Merkling in Ethereum by Vitalik Buterin
- Bitcoin's Academic Pedigree by Arvind Narayanan and Jeremy Clark
Consensus Mechanisms
PoW - Proof of Work
- PoW and Blockchains presentation by Prof. Ittay Eyal (IC3)
- The PoW concept article by the Nakamoto Institute
- ConsensusPedia - An Encylopedia of 29 consensus algorithms article by the Nakamoto Institute) article by Vasa
- Proof of Work vs Proof of Stake by BlockGeeks
- Vulnerability: Proof of Work vs. Proof of Stake
PoS - Proof of Stake
- Strengths and Weaknesses of PoS Vitalik Buterin's article on the strengths and weaknesses of staking contrasting to PoW algorithms
- PoS Design Philosophy A Proof of Stake Design Philosophy by Vitalik Buterin
- Ethereum PoS FAQ
- The evolution of PoS Article on the evolution of PoS by Coin Telegraph
- Weak Subjectivity in PoS Weak Subjectivity in PoS by Vitalik Buterin
- The History of Casper - Chapter 1 Vlad Zamfir's series on the history of Casper, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4,
Chapter 5 - On Stake and Consensus
- Critic on the PoS Philosophy by Tuur Demeester
- Extended Summary on Casper by Jon Choi
- The Economics of the PoS consensus algorithm
- Casper vs Tendermint
- Minimal Slashing condition in Ethereum
DPoS - Delegated Proof of Stake
- DPoS Introduction Introduction to DPoS by Bitshares
- DPoS vs PoW Article by Daniel Larimer from Bitshares
- Tendermint BFT vs. EOS dPoS by Tendermint
- Seeking Consensus on Consensus Delegated Proof of Stake and the Two Generals' Problem
dBFT - Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance
- Byzantine Fault Tolerance in Distributed Systems by Prof. Kenneth Goodwin
- dBFT vs PoW and PoS Antshare's (now NEO) views on consensus
- Intro to Ethermint BFT
Network Effects
- A Note on Metcalfe's Law, Externalities and Ecosystem Splits by Vitalik Buterin
- Continuous Token Models: Towards a Million Networks of Value by Simon de la Rouviere
- Crypto Tokens: A breakthrough in open network design by Chris Dixon
- Bitcoin Network Effects
- Keepers — Workers that Maintain Blockchain Networks
- Smart-Contract Network Effect Fallacy
Governance
- The Consensus Series, Part I: The Basics of Collectivity and Addendum by Aleksandr Bulkin
- Governance and Network Effects
- Notes on Blockchain Governance by Vitalik Buterin
- Against On-Chain Governance by Vlad Zamfir
- On Public vs Private Blockchains by Vitalik Buterin
Cryptoeconomic Security
- Intro to Cryptoeconomic security Basic intro to cryptoeconomic security
- Anti-fragile Cryptoeconomic systems Anti-fragile cryptoeconomic Systems
through game theory - Triangle of harm by Vitalik Buterin
- On Inflation, Transaction Fees and Cryptocurrency Monetary Policy Vitalik Buterin's article on the role of cryptoeconomics in blockchain security
- Settlement Finality Vitalik Buterin's article on the elusive topic of economic finality
- Bancor is flawed Bancor's review by Hacking Distributed
- To sink front-runners, send submarines Bancor's front-running woes by Hacking Distributed
- Bitcoin's security model by Jameson Lopp
Attacks
- General article on how attacks work in PoW - Part 1 and Part 2
- Long range attacks
- Censorship attacks
- P + epsilon attack
- Coordination problems
- The Miners dilemma
- Dealing with failure in cryptocurrency Vlad Zamfir's article on dealing with failure in cryptocurrency
- Model of an internal PoW attacker Vlad Zamfir's article on PoW attackers
- Cryptoeconomics and X-Risk researchers should listen to each other more Vitalik Buterin's article on how cryptoeconomics and existential risk researchers could apply blockchain technology in global coordination challenges
Part 2 - Presentation on most common attacks in Bitcoin
- 51% Attack Bitcoin.it Wiki explanation
- Selfish Mining a 25% attack against Bitcoin
- Sybil attack as described in Wikipedia
- Nothing at Stake and Long-range attacks in PoS
- $5 wrench Attack XKCD comic on the cheapest attack on cryptography
- An Exploration of Attack Vectors in Proof-of-Stake Mechanism Labs
Token Engineering
- The Emergence of Cryptoeconomic Primitives
- History Is Rhyming: Fitness Functions & Comparing Blockchain Tokens To The Web by Simon de la Rouviere
- Introducing Curation Markets: Trade Popularity of Memes & Information by Simon de la Rouviere
- Can Blockchains Go Rogue? by Trent McConaghy
- Towards a Practice of Token Engineering, with presentation deck here by Trent McConaghy
- Token Engineering Case Studies Analysis of Bitcoin, Design of Ocean Protocol by Trent McConaghy
Cryptoeconomic Primitives
- The Emergence of Cryptoeconomic Primitives by Jacob Horne
- Token Curated Registries 1.0 by Mike Goldin
- Continuous Token-Curated Registries: The Infinity of Lists by Simon de la Rouviere
- Tokens 2.0: Curved Token Bonding in Curation Markets by Simon de la Rouviere
- Solving Price Discovery Of Non-Rivalrous Goods (with Curved Bonding) by Simon de la Rouviere
- Hashtag Markets by Simon de la Rouviere
- How to Make Bonding Curves for Continuous Token Models
- Re-Fungible Token (RFT) by Billy Rennekamp
Tokenomics
- Token sales models Token sales models by Vitalik Buterin
- A business guide to Tokenomics by William Mougayar
- Cryptoasset Valuations by Chris Burniske
- Understanding Token Velocity
- On Value, Velocity and Monetary Theory
- The Token Classification Framework a multi-dimensional tool for understanding and classifying crypto tokens
- MV = PQ isn't right for crypto a case made by Austere Capital
- The quantitative theory of money for tokens a rebuttal of the MV = PQ theory by Warren Weber
- NVT - network value to transactions ratio a market to transaction value proposal by Coinmetrics
Token Design
- How Does REP Work - Augur report on incentive structure of their prediction market token, REP
- Introducing the Gnosis Tokens (GNO) - Background and reasoning for design decisions for Gnosis and the GNO token
- Applications of Security Deposits and Prediction Markets - Vitalik Buterin on a few topics
- SchellingCoin - Vitalik Buterin on SchellingCoins
Token Sales
- Introducing the Gnosis Token Launch - Gnosis on using a dutch auction
- Analyzing Token Sale Models - Vitalik Buterin reviewing token sale models, including Gnosis' dutch auction
- Vickrey auction - Method used to keep bids secret and have the winner pay the 2nd highest amount
- Long-Term Cryptocurrency Distribution Models - Early Vitalik Buterin post on token distribution
Stablecoins
- Ethereum Madrid's Cryptoeconomics 101 presentation on Stablecoins by Sandra Becker of Ethereum Madrid
- An Overview of stablecoins
- Stablecoins: A Holy Grail in digital cryptocurrencies
- Volatility and Mass Adoption: 2 reasons we would benefit from a stablecoin
- The search for a stable cryptocurrency
- Maker for Dummies: A Plain English Explanation of the Dai Stablecoin
- Designing a price stable currency by Haseeb Qureshi
- A skeptic view of stablecoins
State Channels
- Compact and very well explained definition
- Overview on the Raiden Network
- Generalised State Channels on Ethereum
- Introducing multi-party state-channels
- A state-channels adventure with Counterfactual Rick by SpankChain (SFW!)
Empirical Cryptoeconomics
- How manipulation-resistant are Prediction Markets? How manipulation-resistant are Prediction Markets? Our Undertaking in Empirical Cryptoeconomics by Gnosis
- Empirical Cryptoeconomics Vitalik Buterin's post on empirical cryptoeconomics
- Testing mechanism design with AI agents Tool for Smart Contract testing with concept paper and intro
Videos
Consensus Protocols
- Consensus Consensus Algorithm - Andreas Antonopoulos
- Intro to Casper Karl Floersch presenting Ethereum's Casper PoS
- PoS roundtable PoS roundtable with Joseph Poon, Vitalik Buterin, Vlad Zamfir, Dominic Williams, Zack Hess at Cryptoeconomicon 2015
- PoW roundtable PoW roundtable with Tim Swanson, Vitalik Buterin and Peter Todd at Cryptoeconomicon 2015
- Proof of Stake - Technion Cyber and Computer Security Summer School and presentation deck
- CESC2017 - Casper Proof of Stake
- Hangout - Ethereum PoS: Casper FFG In Depth and the
presentation - Hangout - Ethereum PoS: Casper & Smart Contract Consensus Overview and the presentation deck
Cryptoeconomics
- Game Theory in Bitcoin Game Theory approach behind the motivation for Bitcoin mining
- CESC2017 - Cryptoeconomics in Casper
- What is Cryptoeconomics Vlad Zamfir introducing Cryptoeconomics
- Introduction to Cryptoeconomics Vitalik Buterin introducing Cryptoeconomics. The corresponding presentation deck is available here
- Hard problems in Cryptoeconomics Vitalik Buterin discussing hard problems with cryptoeconomics
- The Cryptoeconomic way Vitalik Buterin discussing cryptoeconomics.
- Cryptoeconomic Protocols In the Context of Wider Society Vitalik Buterin discussing cryptoeconomics. The corresponding presentation deck is available here
- The current state of Cryptoeconomics The current state of Cryptoeconomics by Vlad Zamfir
- Programmable Incentives by Karl Floersch at Devcon 3
- Hard problems in cryptoeconomics by Vitalik Buterin
- Cryptoeconomic Primitives
- Global Scale Research Networks and Cryptoeconomics
- Towards a Practice of Token Engineering by Trent McConaghy
- Cryptoeconomic Theory an on-going series by Viktor Makarskyy with part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4
- Programmable Incentives - Intro to Cryptoeconomics - A talk by Karl Floresch at DevCon 3
State Channels
- The Raiden Network, a technical introduction
- Short introduction to the The Raiden Network by Lefteris Karapetsas
- State Channels explained in detail by Ameen Soleimani
Cryptoeconomic Security
- The costs of hacking Bitcoin Sybil attacks explained
- Game theory and Network Attacks- How to destroy Bitcoin by by Max Fang 03/2017
- Game theory and Network Attacks- How to destroy Bitcoin by Nadir Akhtar and Aparna Krishnan 11/2017
- 51% Attacks: Pools and Game Theory
- Nothing at stake Introducing the nothing at stake attack
- Security Considerations of the Casper Protocol Vlad Zamfir at Standford's Blockchain Protocol Analysis and Security Engineering 2017
Cryptography
- Cryptography for Cryptocurrency
- Bitcoin - Cryptographic hash functions
- Hashed based signatures An illustrated primer
Additional
- BBC Documentary Adam Curtis' "Fuck you buddy" BBC documentary
Podcasts
- Q&A on Casper Vlad Zamfir answering questions regarding Ethereum's Casper PoS
- PoW attacks Podcast from 2015 on PoW attacks
- Cryptoeconomics, Stablecoins, Casper with Vlad Zamfir, and corresponding transcript is available here
- Fintech Podcast - Episode 151 Cryptoeconomics as explained by Dr Chris Berg
- Cryptoeconomic Primitives by Trent McConaghy
Whitepapers
- Bitcoin Whitepaper
- Ethereum Whitepaper
- Blockchain Consensus Protocols in the Wild
- dBFT Whitepaper The Quest for Scalable Blockchain Fabric: Proof-of-Work vs. BFT Replication by IBM Research
- Federated Byzantine Agreements by Stellar Development Foundation's David Mazieres
- Research Paper on PoS vs. Pow by Bitfury
- Demystifying Incentives in the Consensus Computer
- Game Theory approach behind Bitcoin mining
- Research Paper on the security model in PoW by ETH Zurich and others
- A Note on Limits on Incentive Compatibility and Griefing Factors
- Research Paper on eclipse attacks on the Bitcoin Network
- Research Paper on eclipse attacks on the Ethereum Network
- Research paper on hashrate-based double spend attack
- Satoshi Risk Tables
- MakerDAO Purple Paper
- Sweetbridge Liquidity Protocol
- Bancor Protocol
- Maker Dai Stablecoin
- Curation Markets by Simon de la Rouviere
- The Economics of BitCoin Price Formation This paper analyses the relationship between BitCoin price and supply-demand fundamentals of Bitcoin
- A Cost of Production Model for Bitcoin
- The Bitcoin Backbone Protocol Analysis and Applications
- Cryptocurrencies without PoW
- Some Simple Economics of the Blockchain
- Crypto-Economics of the Nervos Common Knowledge Base
Research
Privacy
- Privacy on the Blockchain - Vitalik Buterin on privacy
- ZK-Snarks - ZK-Snarks under the hood by Vitalik Buterin
- ZK-Starks - Early article on ZK-Starks
Proof of Stake
- Cryptoeconomics in Casper - Video of presentation by Vlad Zamfir at CESC2017
- Cryptoeconomics in Casper - A Google Slides presentation by Jon Choi
- A Proof of Stake Design Philosophy - Vitalik Buterin post about the design of a PoS system
- The Triangle of Harm - Post on Casper’s incentivization philosophy
- Proof of Stake - A talk at Cryptoeconomicon
- Proof of Stake with Casper - Vlad Zamfir podcast about Casper
- The History of Casper - Vlad Zamfir on Casper, a Proof of Stake Consensus Protcol
- Ethereum Casper 101 - Great article on Cryptoeconomics overall with a focus on PoS
- On Stake - Early Vitalik post on staking
- Proof of Stake FAQ - FAQ from the Ethereum wiki
Proof of Work
- Bitcoin - Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System
- Proof of Work - A talk at Cryptoeconomicon
More PoS
- On Inflation, Transaction Fees and Cryptocurrency Monetary Policy - Vitalik Buterin
- On Settlement Finality - Vitalik Buterin on settlement finality
- Light Clients and Proof of Stake - Vitalik Buterin post on light clients using PoS
- Weak Subjectivity - Vitalik Buterin on PoS
- Cryptocurrencies without Proof of Work
- Slasher Ghost, and Other Developments in Proof of Stake
- Least Authority Performs Incentive Analysis For Ethereum
- Demystifying incentives in the consensus computer
- Formal methods on some PoS stuff - Formalizing PoS Medium article
- Safety Under Dynamic Validator Sets - Vitalik Buterin medium post on safety
- A mechanized safety proof with dynamic validators - A reply to the Vitalik Buterin post above
- Formal methods on another Casper - Talking about the differences betwen Vlad and Vitalik's approach to Casper
- Nothing at Stake Problem - StackExchange "What exactly is the Nothing-At-Stake problem?"
Plasma
- Plasma: Scalable Autonomous Smart Contracts - Paper on Plasma by Joseph Poon & Vitalik Buterin
- Plasma in 10 minutes - Easy to understand overview of Plasma proposal by Anthony Akentiev
Sidechains
- Sidechains - Blockstream: Enabling Blockchain Innovations with Pegged Sidechains
- Cosmos - A Network of Distributed Ledgers - Cosmos whitepaper
Fault Attribution
- The problem of censorship - Vitalik Buterin on attributability of censorship
- Minimal Slashing Conditions - Vitalik Buterin on slashing conditions
- Shapley values - Technique for translating fault attributions into penalties
Mechanism Design
- Mechanism Design - Wikipedia article
- On Anti-Pre-Revelation Games - Vitalik Buterin on anti-pre-revelation games
- Blockchain and Smart Contract Mechanism Design Challenge - Vitalik talk in Malta
Data Availability & Erasure Coding
- A note on data availability and erasure coding - Comprehensive review of the data availability problem from the Ethereum Foundation
- Secret Sharing and Erasure Coding - Vitalik Buterin guide for the Aspiring Dropbox Decentralizer
Stablecoins
- Stablecoins - A talk at Cryptoeconomicon
- The Search for a Stable Cryptocurrency - Vitalik Buterin on stablecoins
- The Dai Stablecoin System - MakerDAO's approach to a stable currency
- Arc primer and overview (non-technical) - A practical, intrinsic-value and financial-market approach for a stablecoin
- A Note on Cryptocurrency Stabilisation - Research by Robert Sams on Seigniorage Shares
Governance
- Futarchy - An intro to futarchy by Vitalik Buterin
- Tezos - Whitepaper of Tezos, "a self-amending crypto-ledger"
- Hard Forks, Soft Forks, Defaults and Coercion - Vitalik Buterin on when to hard fork or soft fork (and more)
- A Note on Metcalfe's Law, Externalities and Ecosystem Splits] - Vitalik Buterin on blockchain splitting
Cryptography Reading
- Public-private key cryptography - Simple explanation on StackExchange
- Hash functions - Basics of Hashing from Consensys
- Homomorphic encryption - Blog post by Matthew Green
Other Resources
- Evolution of Trust Fun interactive game by Nicky Case showing the evolution of group trust over time
- Ethresear.ch Casper research topic
- CECS - CryptoEconomics Security Conference
- Reddit subgroup
- Telegram Group
- RIAT - Institute for Future Cryptoeconomics a research group from Austria
- Cryptoeconomics Asia is an independent research firm
- Cryptoeconomics at RMIT University a research group of economists in Australia
- Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics Vienna University of Economics and Business
- MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab MIT's first cryptoeconomics lab
Blockchain Hacks and Post-mortems
The DAO
- The DAO can turn into a naturally arising Ponzi prescient article by Hacking Distributed
- Analysis of the DAO Exploit by Hacking Distributed
- Thoughts on the DAO hack by Hacking Distributed
Parity MultiSig
Bancor
King of Ether
Roulette
- Attacking a public RNG article by Martin Swende on attacking a smart contract that used a public Random Number Generator
Miscellaneous
- 51 percent attack - StackExchange answer to "What can an attacker with 51% of hash power do?"
- Cost of a 51 percent attack - Present day cost for someone to do a 51% attack the Bitcoin network
- The P+ epsilon Attack - Vitalik Buterin on the P+ epsilon attack
- Long-Range Attacks - Post by Vitalik Buterin "The Serious Problem With Adaptive Proof of Work"
Additional information and related topics
Behavioural Economics
- BE Ted Talk Prof. Dan Ariely's Ted Talk on Behavioural Economics
- Predictably Irrational book Predictably Irrational by Prof. Dan Ariely
- The Honest Truth About Dishonesty book The Honest Truth About Dishonesty by Prof. Dan Ariely
Economics
Cryptography
Applications
State Channels
- Lightning Network - Payment channels on the Bitcoin network
- Raiden Network - Payment channels on the Ethereum network
- Perun Network - Perun Network (virtual channels)
- State Channels Explanation - Jeff Coleman on state channels