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Back to Protocol Design Fundamentals

Assigned Reading

Every lesson references real sources: whitepapers, governance proposals, research papers, and protocol documentation. These are the materials our content is built from. Tap any link to verify or go deeper.

Chapter 1 | Lesson 1

Who Is Your User?

Uniswap V3 Core Whitepaper

Adams, Zinsmeister, Salem et al.

https://uniswap.org/whitepaper-v3.pdf

Aave V3 Developer Documentation

https://docs.aave.com/developers

Curve Finance Resources

https://resources.curve.fi/

An Empirical Study of DeFi Liquidations

Qin, Zhou et al. (Imperial College London)

https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.06389

DeFi Beyond the Hype

Wharton Blockchain Project

https://wifpr.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/DeFi-Beyond-the-Hype.pdf

Chapter 1 | Lesson 2

Mechanism Design 101

Credible Neutrality As A Guiding Principle

Vitalik Buterin

https://nakamoto.com/credible-neutrality/

Transaction Fee Mechanism Design

Tim Roughgarden (Columbia)

https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.01340

Flash Boys 2.0: Frontrunning in Decentralized Exchanges

Daian, Goldfeder et al. (Cornell)

https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.05234

Convex Finance Documentation

https://docs.convexfinance.com/

Flashbots Research

https://writings.flashbots.net/

Moving Beyond Coin Voting Governance

Vitalik Buterin

https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2021/08/16/voting3.html

Chapter 1 | Lesson 3

Attack Vectors at the Design Level

Demystifying TerraUSD De-Peg (On-Chain Forensics)

Nansen Research

https://www.nansen.ai/research/on-chain-forensics-demystifying-terrausd-de-peg

The Fall of Terra: A Timeline

https://www.coindesk.com/learn/the-fall-of-terra-a-timeline-of-the-meteoric-rise-and-crash-of-ust-and-luna/

Rekt News Leaderboard

https://rekt.news/leaderboard/

Euler Finance REKT

https://rekt.news/euler-rekt/

Attacking the DeFi Ecosystem with Flash Loans

Qin, Zhou, Livshits, Gervais

https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.03810

Building Secure Smart Contracts (Trail of Bits)

https://github.com/crytic/building-secure-contracts

Chapter 2 | Lesson 1

Monolithic vs Modular

Uniswap V2 Core Whitepaper

https://uniswap.org/whitepaper.pdf

Uniswap V4 Documentation

https://docs.uniswap.org/contracts/v4/overview

EIP-2535: Diamonds, Multi-Facet Proxy

https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-2535

Euler V2 Modular Architecture

https://docs.euler.finance/

SoK: Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

Werner, Perez et al. (Imperial College London)

https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.08778

Uniswap V4 Announcement

https://blog.uniswap.org/uniswap-v4

Chapter 2 | Lesson 2

Upgradeable vs Immutable

Proxy Upgrade Pattern (OpenZeppelin)

https://docs.openzeppelin.com/upgrades-plugins/writing-upgradeable

EIP-1967: Proxy Storage Slots

Santiago Palladino

https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-1967

EIP-1822: Universal Upgradeable Proxy Standard (UUPS)

Gabriel Barros, Patrick Gallagher

https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-1822

Wormhole Uninitialized Proxy Bug

https://rekt.news/wormhole-rekt/

Compound Governor Bravo

https://docs.compound.finance/v2/governance/

The State of Smart Contract Upgrades

Santiago Palladino (OpenZeppelin)

https://blog.openzeppelin.com/the-state-of-smart-contract-upgrades

Chapter 2 | Lesson 3

On-Chain vs Off-Chain

Chainlink Architecture Overview

https://docs.chain.link/architecture-overview/architecture-overview

The Graph Documentation

The Graph Foundation

https://thegraph.com/docs/

Snapshot Governance Documentation

https://docs.snapshot.org/

OFAC Sanctions and Tornado Cash

https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/tornado-cash-ofac-sanctions-august-2022/

Uniswap Frontend Token Delisting

https://uniswap.org/blog/token-access-app

So You Want to Use a Price Oracle

https://samczsun.com/so-you-want-to-use-a-price-oracle/

Chapter 3 | Lesson 1

Competitive Landscape Analysis

DeFiLlama: DeFi Dashboard

https://defillama.com/

Token Terminal: Protocol Revenue

https://tokenterminal.com/

Blur vs OpenSea: The NFT Marketplace Wars

Dune Analytics / sealaunch

https://dune.com/sealaunch/blur-vs-opensea

Morpho: Peer-to-Peer Lending Layer

https://docs.morpho.org/

Porter's Five Forces and Competitive Advantage in Web3

Scott Duke Kominers & Liang Wu (a16z crypto)

https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/porters-five-forces-and-competitive-advantage-in-web3/

Chapter 3 | Lesson 2

Protocol Economics 101

Token Terminal: Fundamentals

https://tokenterminal.com/terminal/metrics/revenue

Uniswap Fee Switch Governance Discussion

Uniswap Governance Forum

https://gov.uniswap.org/t/fee-switch/

MakerDAO Revenue and Expenses

https://makerburn.com/

Lido Finance: How It Works

https://docs.lido.fi/guides/steth-integration-guide

Fat Protocols Thesis

Joel Monegro (Union Square Ventures)

https://www.usv.com/writing/2016/08/fat-protocols/

UNIfication: Protocol Fee Activation

https://blog.uniswap.org/unification

Lido TVL, Fees, Revenue

https://defillama.com/protocol/lido

Chapter 3 | Lesson 3

Composability as Strategy

Yearn Finance Developer Documentation

https://docs.yearn.fi/

Euler Finance REKT (Composability Cascade)

https://rekt.news/euler-rekt/

SoK: Decentralized Finance (DeFi) — Composability Section

Werner, Perez et al. (Imperial College London)

https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.08778

DeFi Saver: Automation and Composability

https://docs.defisaver.com/

How Damaging Was the Euler Hack to DeFi's Money Legos Promise?

Jason Nelson (Decrypt)

https://decrypt.co/123947/how-damaging-was-the-euler-hack-to-defis-money-legos-promise

Chapter 3 | Lesson 4

From Idea to Spec

Uniswap V3 Core Whitepaper

Hayden Adams et al.

https://uniswap.org/whitepaper-v3.pdf

Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIP) Process

Ethereum Foundation

https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-1

Aave V3 Technical Paper

https://github.com/aave/aave-v3-core/blob/master/techpaper/Aave_V3_Technical_Paper.pdf

MakerDAO Technical Docs

https://docs.makerdao.com/

The Call for Invariant-Driven Development

https://blog.trailofbits.com/2025/02/12/the-call-for-invariant-driven-development/

Web3 Business Model Canvas

Swisscom Outpost

https://outpost.swisscom.com/case-study/web3-business-model-canvas/

Chapter 3 | Lesson 5

Module Capstone

Ethena Documentation

https://docs.ethena.fi/

Ethena: Internet Bond

https://ethena-labs.gitbook.io/ethena-labs

Ethena's USDe Depeg Event: Systemic Risk Case Study

https://www.ainvest.com/news/ethena-usde-depeg-event-case-study-systemic-risk-algorithmic-stablecoins-2510/

Risks for Synthetic Stablecoins: Ethena USDe Case Study

https://www.chainargos.com/risks-for-synthetic-stablecoins-ethena-labs-usde-case-study/

Ethena and the Mechanics of USDe

Tanay Ved (Coin Metrics)

https://coinmetrics.substack.com/p/state-of-the-network-issue-335

Sources are updated as lessons are revised. If a link breaks, tap the feedback button in any lesson.