Latest stories
Editor’s reading
-
Wallet backups: test recovery before you need it
-
Crypto phishing: inspect the requested authority, not the urgency
-
Transaction explorers: read evidence without overreading labels
-
Onchain metrics: define the observation before telling a story
-
Trading volume quality: inspect what was counted and where
-
Market capitalization: useful arithmetic with important limits
Further reading
-
Crypto research sources: build a claim-to-evidence trail
Use documentation, code, governance records, and independent observations without confusing first-party claims with proof.
-
Protocol upgrades: distinguish proposal, release, activation, and migration
Follow network and contract changes through their actual lifecycle instead of treating an announcement as completed behavior.
-
Staking: separate validator rewards from the service wrapper
Compare direct operation, pooled participation, liquid claims, penalties, fees, and withdrawal dependencies.
-
MEV: understand how transaction ordering changes outcomes
Learn the differences between arbitrage, liquidation, and sandwich behavior, plus the limits of private transaction routes.
-
NFT metadata: separate token ownership from the file it references
Inspect contract identity, token URIs, content addressing, storage persistence, and the limits of ownership claims.
Desk notes
02 / Explore the complete library
The mechanism, explained
Go beyond the headline: understand how the moving parts fit together.
-
What a Bitcoin full node verifies for you
Distinguish validation, mining, wallet signing, and storage when deciding what a node accomplishes.
-
Bitcoin custody: who can authorize a withdrawal?
Compare service balances, self-custody, hardware signers, and recovery responsibilities.
-
Bitcoin mining: from candidate block to accepted history
Connect proof of work, validation, pool shares, and operating economics without confusing their roles.
-
Ethereum accounts: addresses, keys, contracts, and nonces
Read account behavior without confusing a wallet application, an address, and the authority behind it.
Practical reading
Worked examples, verification steps and the limits of each tool.
-
Ethereum gas: distinguish work, price, and spending caps
Calculate a hypothetical fee and learn why a reverted transaction can still cost ETH.
-
Ethereum finality: from a quick receipt to finalized settlement
Understand head, justified and finalized checkpoints, and why application receipts can arrive before finality.
-
Smart contracts: inspect the rules and the people who can change them
Learn what deployed code guarantees, what it cannot know, and how upgrades change the trust picture.
-
Token approvals: understand the permission before the swap
Separate allowances, signatures, transfers, and website connections when controlling token access.
-
Token supply: read minting, burning, vesting, and circulation separately
Trace who can create units and distinguish a contract supply field from a market-data estimate.
-
Token decimals: translate raw balances without changing value
Use unit conversions correctly and avoid mistakes when comparing token balances, prices, and supply.
Questions worth asking
Read the assumptions before drawing a conclusion.
-
Stablecoin mechanics: identify the route back to the target value
Compare reserve-backed, collateral-backed, and reflexive designs by tracing redemption and incentives.
-
Stablecoin reserves: read the assets, liabilities, and access terms
Evaluate reserve disclosures without confusing a balance snapshot, an attestation, and a full financial audit.
-
DeFi collateral: calculate the buffer before borrowing
Understand loan-to-value, liquidation thresholds, interest accrual, and the limits of a collateral buffer.
-
AMM liquidity: what a pool position actually owns
Explore reserve curves, fee income, inventory changes, and why providing liquidity differs from holding tokens.
-
DEX slippage: distinguish the quote, price impact, and tolerance
Read minimum output and deadlines before a swap, and understand why a successful trade can disappoint.
-
Oracle design: examine where a protocol gets its facts
Evaluate data sources, update rules, freshness checks, and failure behavior in oracle-dependent applications.