protocol-reading-list

This is a list of resources intended to serve as a starting point for anybody interested in understanding how crypto protocols work under the hood.

Relevant topics include economics, finance, optimization, game theory, theoretical CS, cryptography.

Getting Started

Slides and videos are available online for both.

References

For anybody coming in without a finance background, it's worth doing some tradfi reading before you dive deep into defi.

A good intuitive introduction is Mathematics of Finance from Don Saari, followed by Arbitrage Theory in Continuous Time by Tomas Björk for more depth.

Constant Function Market Makers (CFMMs)

Trading via decentralized exchanges (DEXes) and automated market makers (AMMs).

Uniswap

V2

Also:

V3

Also:

Curve

Alternative Designs

CFMM Analysis

Work from @GuilleAngeris, @tarunchitra, @alexhevans and more

Privacy-preserving CFMMs

Options

For more detail, check out 0xperp/defi-derivatives.

LPing on Uniswap V3

More resources at GammaStrategies/awesome-uniswap-v3.

Protocol Owned Liquidity (POL)

Read these:

Then read these:

Asset Management

Balancer

Lending

Decentralized banks.

Stablecoins

Ramps

  • tbDEX for decentralized ramps
  • Sardine for faster settlement

Miscellaneous

ZK

Applied ZK falls into two main categories: ZK-enabled applications and ZK used at the infrastructure/L1 level.

Start with these:

Then dive deeper with these:

And check out these ZK-enabled hacks:

For more background on cryptography:

For more details on ZK enabling L1 infrastructure:

I want to point out some papers from Aleo (a ZK-enabled, privacy-first L1):

And also this analysis: