protocol-reading-list

A list of resources for understanding crypto protocols.

Getting Started

• MEV 101 by @0xmebius is a good overview
• DeFi MOOC (Fall 2021) from Dan Boneh Arthur Gervais, Andrew Miller, Christine Parlour, Dawn Song
• Special Topics in DeFi from Dawn Song

Slides and videos available online for both.

References

• Algorithmic Game Theoery from Tim Roughgarden
• Convex Optimization by Stephen Boyd
• Mathematics of Finance from Don Saari
• A Graduate Course in Applied Cryptography from Dan Boneh and Victor Shoup

Constant Function Market Makers (CFMMs)

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

Uniswap

V2

• Uniswap V1 Whitepaper (hackmd.io)
• How Uniswap works - V2 (uniswap.org)
• Uniswap V2 Whitepaper（PDF）

Also:

• Uniswap: A Good Deal for Liquidity Providers? (medium.com)
• Understanding Uniswap Returns (medium.com)
• On AMMS (vitalik.ca)

V3

• Introducing Uniswap V3 (uniswap.org/blog)
• What is Uniswap - V3 (docs.uniswap.org)
• Uniswap V3: The Universal AMM (paradigm.xyz)
• Uniswap V3 Whitepaper (PDF)
• Interactive graphs in Desmos for Uniswap V3 from @danrobinson

Also:

• Liquidity Mining on Uniswap v3 (paradigm.xyz)
• Uniswap V3 LP Tokens as Perpetual Put and Call Options from Guillaume Lambert

Curve

• Curve StableSwap Whitepaper (PDF)
• Curve Crypto Pools Whitepaper (PDF)
• Curve DAO Whitepapers (PDF)
• Understanding StableSwap (Curve)
• Curve Wars (every.to) from @nateliason

Other Designs

• Nested AMMs (dropbox.com) from Anthony Lee Zhang
• TWAMM (paradigm.xyz)
• Mooniswap Whitepaper (PDF)
• dYdX Whitepaper (PDF)
• Crocswap Whitepaper
• Toxic Flow: Its Sources and Counter-Strategies (deribit.com)
• Flash Boys 2.0 (PDF)

CFMM Analysis

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

• An analysis of Uniswap markets (PDF)
• Multi-asset trades via convex optimization (PDF)
• Improved Price Oracles: Constant Function Market Makers (PDF)
• Liquidity Provider Returns in Geometric Mean Markets
• Optimal Fees for Geometric Mean Market Makers (PDF)
• Optimal Routing for Constant Function Market Makers (PDF)
• When does the tail wag the dog? Curvature and market making (PDF)

Privacy-preserving CFMMs

• A Note on Privacy in Constant Function Market Makers (PDF)
• Differential Privacy in Constant Function Market Makers (PDF)
• Check out the interchain future @ Osmosis + Cosmos

Options

• Virtual AMM (vAMM): Perpetual Protocol
• Drift Dynamic AMM
• Replicating Market Makers
• Replicating Monotonic Payoffs Without Oracles
• Primitive Finance
• Why Stake When You Can Borrow?

More resources at 0xperp/defi-derivatives#option-amms. The entire list on derivatives is also great.

LPing on Uniswap V3

• Strategic Liquidity Provision in Uniswap v3 (PDF)
• Charm’s Alpha Vault, the Minimalist Uniswap v3 LP Strategy (PDF)
• Impermanent Loss in Uniswap v3 (PDF)

More resources at GammaStrategies/awesome-uniswap-v3.

Protocol Owned Liquidity (POL)

Read these:

• Introducing OlympusDAO, An Algorithmic Currency Protocol (medium.com)
• FAQ（docs.olympusdao.finance)
• A Beginner’s Guide to Navigating Olympus Pro (medium.com)
• A Primer on Bonding (medium.com)

Then read these:

• Feedback Control as a New Primitive for DeFi (medium.com/gauntlet-networks)
• DeFi liquidity management via Optimal Control: Ohm as a case study (PDF)

And this:

• Active liquidity management for protocols (substack.com)

Asset Management

• Yearn Vaults
• Rari Capital - Fuse (medium.com)
• Balancer Whitepaper (PDF)

Similar to Tetranode's Locker on Rari, there could be a service that allows influencers to create custom Yearn vaults that their followers can one-click deposit liquidity into. For followers: instant yield + no time wasted trying to manually strategies; for influencers: easy way to monetize their strategies. h/t John

Lending

Decentralized banks.

• Aave Whitepaper (PDF)
• Compound Whitepaper（PDF)

Stablecoins

• USDC Whitepaper
• DAI Whitepaper
• MakerDAO Whitepaper
• Fei Whitepaper
• Lemma Whitepaper
  • Sections under "Concepts Overview"

Ramps

• tbDEX for decentralized ramps
• Sardine for faster settlement

Miscellaneous

• Gauntlet Protocol Assessment Reports
• Gauntlet Blog (medium.com)
• A list of open problems in DeFi by 0xemperor
• 0xalpharush/awesome-MEV-resources
• Chi Gastoken (blog.1inch.io) - h/t Kai
• Flexible Anonymous Transactions: Flax (PDF)

Applied ZK

Start with these:

• ZK Learning Group Topics (notion.so) from 0xPARC
• A Succinct Story of Zero Knowledge from nibnalin
• ZK: Zero to Hero (notion.site) from @eric_ruleman

Then dive deeper with these:

• Proofs, Arguments, and Zero-Knowledge from Justin Thaler
• https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~alexch/#teaching
  • Specifically CS602: Foundations of Probabilistic Proofs (S2022)
• matter-labs/awesome-zero-knowledge-proofs

And check out these hacks:

• https://0xparc.org/blog
• guiltygyoza on StarkNet + Cairo

For more background:

Cryptography

Asymetric Encryption

• RSA Algorithm
• Math of Elliptic Curves
• Digital Signature Algorithm
• Elliptic Curve Signatures
• Shamirs Secret Sharing (youtube.com)
• Learning with errors post-quantum (youtube.com)

SNARKs

• Gentle introduction to zk-SNARKs (PDF)
• zk-SNARKs (vitalk.ca)
• Halo (vitalik.ca)
• Halo Paper (PDF)
• Plonk Paper (PDF)
• Plonk (vitalik.ca)
• Bullet Proofs
• Nova Paper (PDF)

Other

• keccak
• Pairings (youtube.com) from Dan Boneh
• Pairings (vitalik.ca)