Chapter 35 Further Reading

Essential Reading

Lewis, Michael. Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon (2023). A narrative account of the FTX collapse and Sam Bankman-Fried. While focused on a centralized exchange rather than a protocol, the book illustrates how charisma, social proof, and institutional endorsement can mask fundamental problems — core themes of this chapter's evaluation framework.
Vigna, Paul and Casey, Michael J. The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything (2018). A balanced assessment of blockchain's genuine use cases versus its overhyped applications. Useful for developing the intuition needed for Question 2 (does it need a blockchain?).
Zetzsche, Dirk A., Buckley, Ross P., and Arner, Douglas W. The Distributed Liability of Distributed Ledgers in various academic collections. Academic analysis of liability and governance questions in decentralized systems, directly relevant to Questions 4 and 9.

Chainalysis. Crypto Crime Report (annual). Published annually, this report provides data on the scale and types of crypto fraud, including rug pulls, scams, and exploits. The data contextualizes the evaluation framework by quantifying how much money is lost to the failure modes this chapter describes. Available at chainalysis.com.
Rekt News (rekt.news). An ongoing publication that provides post-mortem analyses of DeFi exploits and rug pulls. Each analysis dissects the technical and economic mechanisms of the exploit. Reading 10-15 Rekt articles is the single best way to develop pattern recognition for the red flags in this chapter.
Trail of Bits. Building Secure Smart Contracts (repository and guide). A comprehensive guide to smart contract security from one of the most respected audit firms. Relevant to Question 7 and to understanding what auditors look for. Available on GitHub.
Buterin, Vitalik. "Moving beyond coin voting governance" (2021). A blog post by Ethereum's co-founder analyzing the limitations of token-weighted governance and proposing alternatives. Essential reading for understanding Question 4 (governance) at a deeper level. Available at vitalik.eth.limo.

OpenZeppelin. Contracts documentation. Understanding the standard patterns for ERC-20 tokens, upgradeable contracts, and access control helps you identify when a project deviates from safe practices. Available at docs.openzeppelin.com.
DeFi Llama (defillama.com). The standard reference for TVL data, protocol revenue, and chain comparisons. Essential for answering Question 8 (track record) with quantitative data.
Token Terminal (tokenterminal.com). Provides financial metrics for crypto protocols, including revenue, P/E ratios, and user metrics. Useful for evaluating tokenomics (Question 5) on a fundamental basis rather than relying on speculation.

Etherscan / BscScan / Polygonscan / etc. Block explorers are your first line of defense. Learn to read token holder pages, contract verification status, and transaction histories. Etherscan's "Token" page for any ERC-20 shows holder distribution, total supply, and top wallets.
Token Sniffer (tokensniffer.com). Automated analysis of token contracts for common scam patterns (honeypots, hidden mints, ownership renouncement status). Produces a numerical score. Not a guarantee, but a useful first filter.
Honeypot.is. Specifically designed to test whether a token can be sold on a DEX. Enter a token contract address and the tool simulates a sell transaction to determine if it would succeed.
Bubblemaps (bubblemaps.io). Visualizes token holder distribution and connections between wallets. Useful for identifying when apparently separate wallets are actually controlled by the same entity.
Dune Analytics (dune.com). Community-created dashboards for analyzing on-chain data. Many dashboards track protocol-specific metrics (TVL over time, user counts, fee revenue) that are essential for evaluating track record.

Crunchbase (crunchbase.com). Funding history for crypto companies, including investors, round sizes, and valuations. Essential for Question 6 (funding and incentives).
GitHub. Evaluate development activity by checking commit frequency, contributor count, and code quality. A project with a dormant GitHub repository is not actively being developed, regardless of what the roadmap claims.
Wayback Machine (web.archive.org). Archive of historical website snapshots. Useful for checking whether a project has changed its claims, team listing, or roadmap over time.

DeepDAO (deepdao.io). Analytics on DAO governance, including voter participation rates, proposal histories, and treasury sizes. Useful for evaluating Question 4 with quantitative data.
Messari (messari.io). Research and data platform that provides token distribution analyses, unlock schedule trackers, and fundamental analysis for major crypto projects. Their token unlock calendar is particularly useful for Question 5.
CoinGecko / CoinMarketCap. Basic metrics (price, market cap, circulating supply, total supply, FDV) for virtually every token. The starting point for any tokenomics analysis.

SEC EDGAR (sec.gov/edgar). The SEC's public filing database. Search for crypto-related enforcement actions, compliance guidance, and Wells Notices to understand which projects and categories are under regulatory scrutiny.
a16z Crypto. State of Crypto (annual report). Andreessen Horowitz's annual survey of the crypto industry, including regulatory developments, adoption metrics, and technology trends. Available at a16zcrypto.com.
Coin Center (coincenter.org). A non-profit research and advocacy center focused on cryptocurrency policy. Their publications provide balanced analysis of regulatory proposals and their implications for crypto projects.

Walch, Angela. "Deconstructing 'Decentralization': Exploring the Core Claim of Crypto Systems" (2019). An academic paper that critically examines claims of decentralization in blockchain systems. Directly relevant to the "decentralization theater" concept in this chapter.
Aramonte, Sirio, Huang, Wenqian, and Schrimpf, Andreas. "DeFi risks and the decentralisation illusion." BIS Quarterly Review (2021). A Bank for International Settlements report analyzing DeFi's centralization risks. Provides a skeptical institutional perspective that is useful for steel-manning the bear case.
Schneier, Bruce. Various writings on blockchain security. Bruce Schneier, a respected security researcher, has written critically about blockchain's security model and the gap between theoretical and practical decentralization. His blog (schneier.com) is a valuable source for adversarial thinking about crypto systems.

Unchained (with Laura Shin). A long-running podcast covering crypto with a focus on analysis and accountability rather than hype. Episodes featuring post-mortem analyses of failed projects are particularly relevant.
Bankless. A podcast and media platform covering DeFi and Ethereum. While generally optimistic about crypto, episodes that deep-dive into specific protocols provide useful templates for applying the evaluation framework.
Coffeezilla (YouTube). An investigative journalist who produces detailed video investigations of crypto scams, rug pulls, and fraud. His content is a visual, accessible complement to the pattern recognition this chapter teaches.