SVET Reports
SVET Blockchain and Crypto Must To Read List.
More than several times I have been addressed by questions like "What do you recommend to read on blockchain?" or "How to understand a technical side of blockchain / crypto?" or "How to get better on writing about blockchain?".
I usually refer people to papers like "Tendermint: Consensus without Mining" or "Ouroboros Chronos: Permissionless Clock Synchronization via Proof-of-Stake" or "Tezos: A Self-Amending Crypto-Ledger Position Paper" etc.
Then, I've noticed that the same set of questions just keep coming from each of new generations of enthusiasts jumping into the accelerating crypto-wagon, regardless of how many compendiums, references, wikis, dictionaries etc were already published on that subject.
I thought that it might be easier to publish a brief list-of-must-read-whitepapers of my own and then to refer all newbies to its.
So, here it is:
http://www.merkle.com/papers/Certified1979.pdf ---> A Certified Digital Signature</a>: Author: Ralph C. Merkle, Date: 1979. Note: Merkle Trees converts information into code. Like branches which get to a trunk and then to a root. That is, basically, how a blockchain works.
http://www.lix.polytechnique.fr/~tomc/P2P/Papers/Theory/MIXes.pdf ---> Untraceable Electronic Mail, Return Addresses, and Digital Pseudonyms</a>: digital anonymity (Author: David Chaum; Date: February 1981). Chaum is the father of a digital cash and the Cypherpunk movement. Read it and if you get it at once - apply to MIT :)
https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/byz.pdf ---> The Byzantine Generals Problem (1982)</a>by Leslie Lamport, Robert Shostak, and Marshall Pease. Generals attack a city but getting a right time is an issue. Unless, you know how to agree. That is why we can trust blockchain.
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F3-540-38424-3_32.pdf ---> How to Timestamp a Digital Document:</a> time-stamping of digital data (Authors: Stuart Haber, W. Scott Stornetta; Date: January 1991). Control time and you control everything. A digital safety deposit box doesn't allow you to do that. So, blockchain is safeguarded from alternative history dwellers.
https://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/rob/Courses/InformationInSpeech/CDROM/Literature/LOTwinterschool2006/szabo.best.vwh.net/smart.contracts.html ---> Smart Contracts</a>: self-executing digital contract (Author: Nick Szabo; Date: 1994). Smart contracts are rarely smart - they are mostly repeating the same set of functions but doing it reliably enough to stake your money on it. Szabo is credited to be its inventor by his one-pager :)
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf ---> Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.</a> Well of you still didn't read that one, please, do it today.
https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/ ---> Ethereum: A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform</a>: A Turing-complete programming language goes blockchain with Vitalik in charge. That made ICO possible. Do not tell me that it was not exiting :)
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Tezos-%3A-A-Self-Amending-Crypto-Ledger-Position-Goodman/f7907be464ef4c8aa74aacb6b4f4b043be5bb123 ---> Tezos: A Self-Amending Crypto-Ledger Position Paper</a>by L.M Goodman. Not much of self-amending is going on Tezos now :) Still it is a good idea and a must-read.
http://zerocash-project.org/media/pdf/zerocash-extended-20140518.pdf ---> Zerocash: Decentralized Anonymous Payments from Bitcoin</a>: (Authors: Eli Ben Sasson, Alessandro Chiesa, Christina Garman, Matthew Green, Ian Miers, Eran Tromer, Madars Virza). ZK-SNARKs, a form of zero-knowledge cryptography, allows you to choose between remaining completely anonymous or to disclose transaction details to three-letters=agencies. Choice is yours. https://blog.bitmex.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/A-Note-on-Cryptocurrency-Stabilisation-Seigniorage-Shares.pdf ---> A Note on Cryptocurrency Stabilisation: Seigniorage Shares</a> (Author: Robert Sams). If you do believe in alrorithms more than in Federal Reserve System, then get some non-collateralized stablecoins in your bags.
http://lightning.network/lightning-network-paper.pdf ---> The Bitcoin Lightning Network: Scalable Off-Chain Instant Payments</a> (Authors: Joseph Poon, Thaddeus Dryja). Here's a solution to Bitcoin scalability issue. Who said that BTC transactions are too expensive? Just get yourself a lightning node.
https://tendermint.com/static/docs/tendermint.pdf ---> Tendermint: Consensus without Mining</a> by Jae Kwon. Do you believe in the interoperability? All of us - alt-coiners and maxis - getting together as a big happy family united by Tendermint. Might be our strive to self-perpetuation prevents us from doing that? Read it for yourself.
https://eprint.iacr.org/2019/838.pdf ---> Ouroboros Chronos: Permissionless Clock Synchronization via Proof-of-Stake</a> by Christian Badertscher, Peter Gazi, Aggelos Kiayias, Alexander Russell and Vassilis Zikas. A snake biting its own tail is a good analogy for that paper. Self-undermining is a bit of an issue with ADA, isn't? :)
https://www.algorand.com/Algorand_%20A%20secure%20and%20efficient%20distributed%20ledger.pdf ---> Algorand: A secure and efficient distributed ledger</a> by Jing Chen and Silvio Micali. The fastest blockchin ever. At least - in theory :)
https://uniswap.org/whitepaper.pdf ---> Uniswap v2 Core:</a> (Authors: Hayden Adams, Noah Zinsmeister, Dan Robinson). Automated market maker exchanges (AMMs) rule the day. No doubts - just concerns with SEC.
https://harmony.one/whitepaper.pdf ---> Harmony Technical Paper V2</a>. I just reviewed it the first - that's why :)
That list is not even close to be all-inclusive but it's already taken all time, which I migh spend on it. So here it stops.