Some Blockchain Reading

Published in

The Control

3 min readMay 9, 2017

With the price momentum that Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital assets have experienced over the past few weeks, I’ve recently heard from more people who want to get serious about learning about blockchains.

To really understand the space, it’s essential to explore the primary works of the leading creators that have been involved in the construction of the security, economics and governance of these systems for the past several years. Following the 3 steps below would be a good start:

1.) Follow and read past writing from the following people:

Nick Szabo — Read everything that Nick Szabo has written. He has been one of the leading thinkers at the conversion of law, economics, and security for over 30 years and his work inspired the creation of Bitcoin. Some of his best works are: Money, Blockchains, and Social Scalability (2017); Bit Gold (2008); Shelling Out: The Origins of Money (2002); The God Protocols (1997); Formalizing and Securing Relationships on Public Networks (1997)
Vitalik Buterin — Read everything that Vitalik has written. He’s the creator of Ethereum and is one of leading cryptoeconomic thinkers in the world. He also happens to be very good at explaining complex technical concepts in writing. Some of his his best works are: The Meaning of Decentralization (2017); On Inflation, Transaction Fees, and Cryptocurrency Monetary Policy (2016); Merkling in Ethereum (2015); The Evolution of Ethereum (2015); Visions Part 1: The Value of Blockchain Technology (2015); Proof of Stake: How I Learned to Love Weak Subjectivity (2014); The Search for a Stable Cryptocurrency (2014); On Long-Term Cryptocurrency Distribution Models (2014)
Ralph Merkle — Ralph co-invented public-key cryptography and also invented the Merkle tree, two core technologies that blockchains are based on. Some of his best works are: DAOs Democracy and Governance (2016); Secrecy, Authentication and Private Key Systems (1979); Protocols For Public Key Cryptosystems (1978); Secure Communication Over Insecure Channels (1975)
Brian Armstrong — As the founder and CEO of the most well-known digital currency platform in the world, Brian has a broad and unique perspective on the space. Some of his best works are: Controlling your own wealth as a basic human right (2017); How Digital Currency Will Change the World (2016); Building the Bridge: Why Compliance is Key to Digital Currencies Success (2016)
Erik Voorhees — Erik runs Shapeshift, the world’s leading non-custodial digital asset exchange, and was one of the first leaders in the Bitcoin world to recognize the potential of digital assets beyond Bitcoin. He also writes at Money and State. Some of his best works are: No, non-Bitcoin Blockchains are not “Disrespectful” to Satoshi (2016); The Importance of Bitcoin Not Being Money (2016); Bitcoin and the Seperation of Money and State (2011)
Adam Back — Adam invented Hashcash, a predecessor to Bitcoin and is now CEO of Blockstream, the company in the space that contributes most to Bitcoin protocol development. Some of his best works are: Hashcash — A Denial of Service Countermeasure (2002) Simple Key Search Protocol (1995)

2.) Read the following white papers (multiple times):

3.) Hang out in the following online communities, observe and ask questions

Bitcoin: Bitcoin Core Slack, R/bitcoin,
Ethereum: Ethereum Gitter, R/ethereum,
Augur: Augur Slack, R/augur,
Maker: Maker Rocketchat, R/makerdao
General: Coinfund Slack

What am I missing? Let me know in the comments!

About me: I run The Control and am an investor at Runa Capital, an early stage venture fund. Previously, I worked on business development and marketing at Coinbase. Follow me on Twitter, signup for our newsletter, and support us by becoming a member:

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