31 must-read blockchain & crypto-currency documents

No discussion of blockchain or crytpo-currencies should begin without mention of David Chaum’s Untraceable Electronic Cash and Blind Signatures for Untraceable Payments.

These are some of the most interesting blockchain and crypto-currency documents and reports that I have come across. *Note:*These are in chronological order (oldest to newest).

1. Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System — *Satoshi Nakamoto [October, 2008]*The document that started it all. Enough said.
2. Virtual Currency Schemes — European Central Bank [October 2012] This is one of the first documents to discuss virtual currency schemes. It also discusses the Bitcoin scheme and the Second Life scheme. The report also examines the relevance of virtual currency schemes for central banks — risks to price stability, financial stability, payment system stability.
3. BITCOIN: A Primer for Policymakers — *Jerry Brito & Andrea Castillo [George Mason University] [2013]*This document examines various facets of bitcoin — Operation, Pseudonymity, Potential to combat Poverty and oppression, stimulus for financial innovation, Challenges, Criminal uses and Legality.
4. Virtual Currencies Key Definitions and Potential AML / CFT Risks— *Financial Action Task Force [June 2014]*This report defines Virtual Currency, Convertible vs Non-Convertible Virtual Currency, Centralised vs Non-Centralised Virtual Currencies and outlines the Virtual Currency System Participants. It also discusses legitimate uses and potential risks of virtual currencies. It also discusses 3 law enforcement actions involving virtual currency — Liberty Reserve, Silk Road and Western Express International.
5. EBA Opinion on “virtual currencies” — *European Banking Authority [July 2014]*This report defines virtual currencies and market participants and examines the potential benefits, risks and proposed regulatory approach.
6. Chain of a Lifetime: How Blockchain Technology might transform personal insurance— *Michael Mainelli and Chiara von Gunten [Long Finance] [December, 2014]*As the name suggests, this report explores how blockchain technology might transform personal insurance. It covers the emerging and conceptual issues, possible implications and opportunities for transformation.
7. Cuckoo Cycle: a memory bound graph-theoretic proof-of-work — *John Tromp [December 2014]*This document introduced the first “graph-theoretic proof-of-work system” which is based on finding small cycles or other structures in large random graphs.
8. FinTech Futures: The UK as a World Leader in Financial Technologies — UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser [March 2015] This report sets forth a set of recommendations for attaining global leadership in FinTech.
9. National Security Implications of Virtual Currency — *Joshua Baron, Angela O’Mahony, David Manheim, Cynthia Dion-Schwarz [RAND Corporation] [2015]*This is report discusses the deployment of virtual currencies in regular economic transactions by non-state actors to increase their political & economic power.
10. Consensus-as-a-service: a brief report on the emergence of permissioned, distributed ledger systems — *Tim Swanson [KPMG] [April, 2015]*This report describes the divergence between “permissionless” cryptocurrency systems and “permissioned” distributed ledger systems.
11. Blockchain: Powering the Internet of Value — Peter Froystad and Jarle Holm[EVRY Financial Services] [2015] This whitepaper provides “an overview of the development of the blockchain, details how transactions are processed on a blockchain network , a summary of current initiatives and proposes a strategy for how organizations can leverage this new technology in the future”.
12. MultiChain Private Blockchain — *Dr Gideon Greenspan [Coin Sciences Ltd] [July 2015]*This whitepaper discusses some of Bitcoin’s shortcomings and outlines the multichain private blockchain.
13. Centrally Banked Cryptocurrencies— *George Danezis & Sarah Meiklejohn [University College London] [December, 2015]*This document introduces RSCoin, “a cryptocurrency framework in which central banks maintain complete control over the monetary supply with strong transparency and auditability guarantees.
14. Unlocking Economic Advantage with Blockchain: A guide for asset managers — *Oliver Wyman [JP Morgan] [2016]*This report discusses the impact blockchain may have on asset managers and the action they can take.
15. Blockchain Technology: Opportunity & Risks — *James Condos, William Sorrell & Susan Donegan [Vermont Government] [January, 2016]*This document begins with Blockchain Technology Overview and then moves onto Application of Blockchain Technology to Records, Private Transactions and Existing Legal Structure, Public Implications of Blockchain Technology, Digital Currency / Securities and Blockchain Benefits and Risks.
16. Virtual Currencies and Beyond: Initial Considerations — International Monetary Fund [January 2016] This report discusses virtual currencies, distributed ledgers and their regulatory and policy challenges.
17. How Can Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Technology Play a Role in Building Social and Solidarity Finance? — Brett Scott [ *United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD)] [February 2016]*This paper discusses Bitcoin’s potential to “facilitate remittances, financial inclusion, cooperative structures and micro-insurance systems”.
18. Blockchain in Capital Markets— *Oliver Wyman [February, 2016]*This document discusses a blockchain-based capital markets system — what Utopia looks like, potential benefits and implications for market structure. It also discusses the hurdles to adoption, initial use cases, adoption timelines and potential savings.
19. Consensus — immutable agreement for the Internet of value— *Sigrid Seibold and George Samman [KPMG] [2016]*This document presents an overview of various consensus mechanisms used in blockchains and distributed ledger systems.
20. Distributed Ledger Technology: beyond block chain — *UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser [2016]*This document discusses how “distributed ledger technology provides the framework for government to reduce fraud, corruption, error and the cost of paper-intensive processes” and how it has the potential to redefine the relationship between government and the citizen in terms of data sharing, transparency and trust”.
21. Blockchain Technology: Possibilities for the US Postal Service — *RARC Report [May 2016]*This document discusses some potential Postal Blockchain applications — financial services, device management, identity services and supply chain management.
22. Internet-facilitated drugs trade: An analysis of the size, scope and the role of the Netherlands— *Kristy Kruithof, Judith Aldridge, David Décary-Hétu, Megan Sim, Elma Dujso, Stijn Hoorens [RAND Europe] [2016]*This report analyses the size and scope of Internet-facilitated drugs trade on theclear and dark web and “delineates potential avenues for law enforcement for detection and intervention”.
23. SWIFT on distributed ledger technologies *[SWIFT and Accenture] [April 2016]*This document talks about the application of distributed ledgers in the financial services industry — strong governance, Data controls, Compliance with regulatory requirements, Standardisation, Identity framework, Security and cyber defence, Reliability and Scalability.
24. The macroeconomics of central bank issued digital currencies— *John Barrdear and Michael Kumhof [Bank of England] [July 2016]*This document studies the “macroeconomic consequences of issuing central bank digital currency which is universally accessible and interest-bearing central bank liability, implemented via distributed ledgers, that competes with bank deposits as medium of exchange”.
25. Bitcoin and Beyond: A Technical Survey on Decentralized Digital Currencies — *Florian Tschorsch & Björn Scheuermann [Humboldt University of Berlin]*This survey uncovers the “fundamental structures and insights at the core of the Bitcoin protocol and its applications”.
26. The future of financial infrastructure— *[World Economic Forum] [August 2016]*This report, based on over 12 months of research, presents 9 use cases that highlight potential blockchain applications. These use cases are Global Payments, P&C Claims Processing, Syndicated Loans, Trade Finance, Contingent Convertible (“CoCo”) Bonds, Automated Compliance, Proxy Voting, Asset Rehypothecation and Equity Post-Trade.
27. A compilation of Wikipedia articles about Cryptocurrencies — Wikipedia.com [2016]
28. Blockchain — The Trust Disrupter — *Charles Brennan & William Lunn [Credit Suisse] [August 2016]*This document analyses the impact of blockchain technology on Payments, Exchanges, Registrars and Custodians, Financial Services and Media.
29. Ethereum: A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform This regularly updated whitepaper explores Ethereum (accounts, messages & transactions, code execution, mining), Applications and related issues.
30. How blockchain technology could change our lives— *Philip Boucher, European Parliamentary Research Service [February, 2017]*This document studies various blockchain use-cases including currencies, digital content, patents, e-voting, smart contract, supply chains, public services and decentralised authonomous organizations.
31. The nuts and bolts of blockchain technology — Rohas Nagpal [Primechain Technologies Pvt. Ltd.] [2017] This document provides a simple introduction to blockchain technology and briefly introduces terms such as cryptography, hash functions, proof-of-work, digital signatures, mining, merkle root. [Disclosure: I have authored this document]

Rohas Nagpal is a blockchain evangelist and Chief Blockchain Architect at Primechain Technologies Pvt. Ltd.