Crypto reading list
Crypto developers & researchers
A blockchain’s base network is often called L1; an L2 processes activity using another network as part of its foundation. To understand either, ask how participants obtain the data and check the result. Here you can follow those design questions, learn how privacy proofs work, or start building a small app. Begin with Austin’s workshop for hands-on learning, Patrick’s database explanation for architecture, or Anna’s ZK conversation for the terminology.
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People to read
Open the first material, then continue with the author on X. People appear once, grouped by their main reading use and ordered by handle within each group.
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Protocols & scaling
Explore how networks agree on data, process transactions and balance speed, complexity and the ability to check results.
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Anatoly explains Solana’s approach to transaction processing, hardware and latency. Read his technical work alongside Ethereum authors to compare the assumptions behind network designs. He is a creator of the network, so his perspective comes from inside the project.
Start with this Web material · solana.com
Solana: A new architecture for a high performance blockchain
Read the abstract and Proof of History introduction for the original design question. This technical whitepaper is version 0.8.13; its model and performance discussion belong to the document’s context.
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Dankrad separates making data available from executing it and considers the guarantees a blockchain provides. This is useful for reading L1 and L2 claims beyond transaction speed. His public biography places his protocol research at Tempo alongside an Ethereum advisory role.
Start with this Web material · dankradfeist.de
What’s the core functionality of blockchains
A short starting model: publishing ordered data, then interpreting it. The fuller argument distinguishes present security from expectations about future rule changes; some later sections remain outline notes.
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Patrick explains rollups through the database, available data and the rules that participants enforce. Read him when L2s, bridges and multisigs start sounding interchangeable. His writing includes an Arbitrum Foundation perspective and makes the system’s assumptions explicit.
Start with this Web material · cryptofrens.info
Blockchain as a Database (Part 1)
Start with how participants compute copies of the same database, then read the public bulletin-board model of a rollup. This 2023 explanation gives vocabulary for evaluating a particular design.
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Vitalik examines what Ethereum gains and loses when its protocol changes. His writing helps you look beyond an upgrade’s name to questions about complexity, checking computations and participation; these are proposals from a creator of the ecosystem.
Start with this Web material · vitalik.eth.limo
Start with why simplicity matters, then compare the consensus and execution sections. The article proposes architectural changes and explains their tradeoffs; it describes a direction of development.
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Cryptography & ZK
See how privacy and proof systems are built. ZK means proving a claim while keeping the underlying secret hidden; the papers here need more preparation.
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Valeria studies the trust assumptions in cryptographic infrastructure, including setup ceremonies and data exchange. Her papers help a prepared reader ask who must act honestly for a system to work. They provide a research route; her public site describes her a16z role as historical.
Start with this Web material · eprint.iacr.org
Powers-of-Tau to the People: Decentralizing Setup Ceremonies
Read the abstract’s one-honest-participant assumption first, then the introduction to the coauthored protocols. The archive records receipt in November 2022 and revision in February 2024; the mathematical paper is advanced.
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Zac connects proof-system research to the goal of private applications. His work on PLONK and his privacy talks offer two levels of entry: the reason privacy matters and the cryptography behind it. Read these as a researcher and Aztec cofounder’s perspective.
Start with this Web material · eprint.iacr.org
PLONK: Permutations over Lagrange-bases for Oecumenical Noninteractive arguments of Knowledge
Start with the abstract of this coauthored paper to locate PLONK’s purpose and setup assumptions. The full mathematical argument needs cryptographic preparation.
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Apps & developer tools
Move from an idea to a contract and interface, then learn the tools and design choices behind a working application.
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Austin offers a practical entry into Ethereum development through small applications. His teaching connects a contract, its frontend and what a user can do with it. Begin here if trying a prototype makes architectural terms easier to understand.
Start with this Video · app.devcon.org
Intro to Scaffold-ETH 2 and SpeedRunEthereum!
The official Devcon workshop introduces the contract and frontend toolkit Austin helped build. It is presented for beginners and uses small projects as an entry point; follow current setup documentation alongside the recording.
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Dan examines how an application’s rules shape the behavior of its users and market participants. His AMM writing helps you see the liquidity model behind a swap interface. He writes as a researcher and General Partner at the investment firm Paradigm.
Start with this Web material · paradigm.xyz
A technical explanation of representing market-making strategies through liquidity distributions. Begin with the model and examples, then the limits section; the 2021 article studies a mechanism rather than present trading conditions.
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Georgios builds and explains infrastructure between a contract idea and a working application. His coauthored Foundry and Alloy materials give a developer’s view of testing and connecting code to a network. His roles at Paradigm and Tempo supply the institutional context.
Start with this Web material · paradigm.xyz
A coauthored overview of the testing and debugging toolbox and the project’s v1.0 release. Use it to understand the tools’ jobs, then follow the project documentation for the version you use.
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Research explainers
Get the vocabulary and questions that make a technical conversation easier to follow before opening the original papers.
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Anna helps readers enter ZK through conversations with the people developing proof systems, languages and infrastructure. Her questions and links to original work make it easier to choose a research path. She hosts and edits the discussion; the guests’ cryptographic results keep their own authorship.
Start with this Video · zeroknowledge.fm
ZK Jargon Decoder with Nico Mohnblatt
Start at 09:45–21:06: Anna and Nico discuss proving, witnesses, privacy and the roles of prover and verifier, including Where’s Waldo. The video’s slides help; later sections are more technical.
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A few bearings for your reading
These field notes explain the people, language and questions you may meet along the way.
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Read technical claims on X
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How this list is selected
We chose people with their own technical writing, research, code or teaching. Each card links a starting material and its authorship; coauthored work keeps that context. This first selection leans toward Ethereum and EVM development, with a Solana perspective alongside it. The date of a paper or release is separate from recent X activity. Some starting materials are introductory; mathematical papers are marked in the reading note.