Awesome Cryptoeconomics

A curated collection of links for cryptoeconomists. Part of the "Awesome X" series.

The list is periodically updated with new links. Click "Watch" in the right top corner to follow.

Your contributions are welcomed. Add links to "Links Sent by Readers" by yourself.

Table of Contents

• Fundamentals
• Discussions
• Applications
• Attacks
• Research
• Other
• License

Fundamentals

Intro to Cryptoeconomics

• Introduction to Cryptoeconomics - Vitalik Buterin's introduction to the field
• What is Cryptoeconomics? - Vlad Zamfir at Cryptoeconomicon
• Design Rationale - The Ethereum design rationale
• Griefing Factors - "A Note on Limits on Incentive Compatibility and Griefing Factors" by Vitalik Buterin
• The current state of Cryptoeconomics - Another talk by Vlad Zamfir
• Making Sense of Cryptoeconomics - An overview of cryptoeconomics by Josh Stark
• A Crash Course in Mechanism Design for Cryptoeconomic Applications - Understanding the Basic Fundamentals of “Cryptoeconomics”
• Cryptoeconomics.study -- An free and open source book & course on Cryptoeconomics
• Programmable Incentives - Intro to Cryptoeconomics - A talk by Karl Floresch at DevCon 3

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

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

Attacks

• 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"

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

Other

Cryptography Reading

• Public-private key cryptography - Simple explanation on StackExchange
• Hash functions - Basics of Hashing from Consensys
• Homomorphic encryption - Blog post by Matthew Green

License