Crypto Literacy.
Long-Term Thinking.
Original research and key references to help you understand crypto and think long term.
The Canon
Foundational third-party documents, organized by subject.
Genesis
The primary sources. The documents that brought decentralized money from theory into existence.
Satoshi Nakamoto · 2008
Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System
The nine-page whitepaper that started everything.
Satoshi Nakamoto · 2009
The Genesis Block message
Embedded in block 0, 3 January 2009.
Eric Hughes · 1993
A Cypherpunk's Manifesto
Timothy C. May · 1988
The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto
John Perry Barlow · 1996
A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace
Satoshi Nakamoto · 2008–2011
The Satoshi Emails & Forum Posts
The complete archive of every public message Satoshi ever wrote.
Money & Sound Economics
Why monetary properties matter, and how scarce digital money rewrites the rules of saving.
Saifedean Ammous · 2018
The Bitcoin Standard
The decentralized alternative to central banking.
Nick Szabo · 2002
Shelling Out: The Origins of Money
Nick Szabo · 2005
Bit Gold
The 1998 proposal that anticipated Bitcoin by a decade.
Friedrich A. Hayek · 1976
The Denationalisation of Money
Vijay Boyapati · 2018
The Bullish Case for Bitcoin
Ethereum & Programmable Money
From a single-purpose ledger to a global computer. The papers that defined smart contracts.
Vitalik Buterin · 2014
Ethereum Whitepaper
A next-generation smart contract and decentralized application platform.
Gavin Wood · 2014
Ethereum Yellow Paper
The formal specification of the Ethereum Virtual Machine.
Nick Szabo · 1996
Smart Contracts
Szabo's foundational 1996 essay defining the term.
Vitalik Buterin · 2021
Endgame
Vitalik's vision for Ethereum's long-term roadmap.
Cryptography & Consensus
The mathematical primitives that make trustless coordination possible.
Whitfield Diffie & Martin Hellman · 1976
New Directions in Cryptography
Diffie & Hellman's paper inventing public-key cryptography.
Adam Back · 2002
Hashcash — A Denial of Service Counter-Measure
The proof-of-work mechanism Satoshi cited.
Lamport, Shostak & Pease · 1982
The Byzantine Generals Problem
Wei Dai · 1998
B-Money
Wei Dai's 1998 proposal for an anonymous, distributed electronic cash system.
Ben-Sasson, Chiesa, Garman, et al. · 2014
Zerocash: Decentralized Anonymous Payments from Bitcoin
The original zk-SNARK paper that launched the privacy coin era.
Self-Custody & Security
Not your keys, not your coins. The standards and practices that keep digital property yours.
Marek Palatinus et al. · 2013
BIP-39 — Mnemonic Code for Generating Deterministic Keys
The standard behind every 12 and 24-word seed phrase.
Pieter Wuille · 2012
BIP-32 — Hierarchical Deterministic Wallets
Glacier Protocol Team · 2017
Glacier Protocol
A step-by-step protocol for high-security Bitcoin storage.
Andreas M. Antonopoulos · 2017
Mastering Bitcoin
Andreas Antonopoulos' technical reference, free online.
Andreas M. Antonopoulos · 2016
Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins
Why custody is the foundational decision.
Philosophy & Long Arc
Sovereignty, time preference, and what cryptographic money does to civilization.
James Dale Davidson & Lord Rees-Mogg · 1997
The Sovereign Individual
The 1997 book that predicted the rise of cryptographic, borderless money.
Gigi · 2021
Bitcoin Is Time
Pierre Rochard · 2014
Speculative Attack
Nick Szabo · 2017
Money, Blockchains, and Social Scalability
Marc Andreessen · 2014
Why Bitcoin Matters
Global Regulatory References
Primary sources from regulators and legislatures tracking how digital assets are being defined, licensed and supervised.
United States
GENIUS Act — Federal framework for payment stablecoins
First federal law establishing licensing, reserves and disclosure requirements for U.S. dollar payment stablecoin issuers.
Executive Order 14178 — Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology
Sets U.S. policy to promote the lawful development of dollar-backed stablecoins and prohibits a federal CBDC.
President's Working Group Report on Digital Asset Markets
Inter-agency report on the U.S. digital asset market structure.
Framework for 'Investment Contract' Analysis of Digital Assets
The SEC's working framework applying the Howey test to digital assets.
CFTC — Digital Assets and Virtual Currencies
Official CFTC resource on the regulation of digital asset derivatives.
FIN-2019-G001 — FinCEN Regulations on Convertible Virtual Currencies
Consolidates FinCEN's interpretive guidance on how the Bank Secrecy Act applies to CVCs.
IRS — Digital Assets Tax Center
Official IRS hub on the federal tax treatment of digital assets.
European Union
MiCA — Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 on Markets in Crypto-Assets
The EU's single regulatory framework for crypto-asset issuers and service providers.
Transfer of Funds Regulation (TFR) — Regulation (EU) 2023/1113
Extends the FATF Travel Rule to crypto-asset transfers within the EU.
ESMA — MiCA Guidelines and Technical Standards
Official ESMA hub publishing all Level 2 and Level 3 measures implementing MiCA.
United Kingdom
Asia-Pacific
JFSA — Regulation of crypto-asset exchange service providers
Japan's licensing and supervisory framework for crypto-asset exchanges.
MAS — Regulation of Digital Payment Token Services
Singapore's licensing regime for digital payment token service providers.
SFC — Virtual Asset Trading Platform licensing regime
Hong Kong's mandatory licensing regime for centralized virtual asset trading platforms.
Global
FATF — Risk-Based Approach to Virtual Assets and VASPs
Global AML/CFT standards for virtual assets and VASPs.
IOSCO — Policy Recommendations for Crypto and Digital Asset Markets
Global standards for securities regulators on conflicts of interest, custody and market manipulation in crypto.
FSB — Global Regulatory Framework for Crypto-asset Activities
High-level recommendations for the regulation and supervision of crypto-asset activities and global stablecoins.
The Essential Crypto Bookshelf
Foundational books on money, Bitcoin, Ethereum and the philosophy behind decentralized systems.
The Bitcoin Standard
Saifedean Ammous
The Fiat Standard
Saifedean Ammous
Mastering Bitcoin
Andreas M. Antonopoulos
The Internet of Money, Vol. 1
Andreas M. Antonopoulos
Mastering Ethereum
Andreas M. Antonopoulos & Gavin Wood
The Infinite Machine
Camila Russo
Digital Gold
Nathaniel Popper
Bitcoin Billionaires
Ben Mezrich
The Sovereign Individual
James Dale Davidson & William Rees-Mogg
The Blocksize War
Jonathan Bier
The Price of Tomorrow
Jeff Booth
Layered Money
Nik Bhatia
Broken Money
Lyn Alden
Cryptoassets
Chris Burniske & Jack Tatar
The Cryptopians
Laura Shin
Programming Bitcoin
Jimmy Song
Read Write Own
Chris Dixon
Token Economy
Shermin Voshmgir