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Reference library

Every topic page on this site builds its §9 “Reference doc” section around one or two primary sources — a Paradigm essay, an arXiv paper, an ethresear.ch post, a Solana Foundation or Helius write-up, or a protocol’s own documentation. This page collects all 94 of them in one place, grouped by cluster, so you can find the original material behind any mechanism without hunting through 62 separate pages.

Difficulty is rated from the reference’s own content, not the topic page around it: intro (a docs page or blog post assuming no background), intermediate (a technical essay or whitepaper assuming you know the primitive), research (an academic paper or a design proposal assuming graduate-level math or protocol-engineering background).

ReferenceAuthors, dateRead if…DifficultyPage
Solana Account ModelSolana Foundation docs, as of 2026-08you need the accounts/programs/PDA/CPI model in the vendor’s own wordsIntro/foundations/accounts-and-execution/
Blockchain Transaction Conflicts: A Historical PerspectiveAnjana, Ravi, Herlihy — arXiv, 2025-05-08you want a formal treatment of why sequential vs. parallel execution is a real trade-off, not a marketing claimResearch/foundations/accounts-and-execution/
Analysis of EIP-1559Konstantopoulos, Hasu (Paradigm), 2020-06-10you want the original economic case for burning the base fee, before it shippedIntermediate/foundations/fee-markets/
The Truth about Solana Local Fee MarketsHelius, 2025-01you want per-account congestion pricing explained with real 2024-2025 measurementsIntermediate/foundations/fee-markets/
Ethereum Blockspace — Who Gets What and WhyKonstantopoulos, Zhang (Paradigm), 2021-03-25you want the original map of searcher → builder → relay → proposer before MEV-Boost existedIntermediate/foundations/mev-supply-chain/
Solana MEV: An IntroductionHelius, with Overclock/Jito/Ellipsis review, 2024you want the no-mempool version of the same supply chain in one primerIntro/foundations/mev-supply-chain/
Ethereum AccelerationKonstantopoulos, Robinson, Huang, Noyes (Paradigm), 2025-01-25you want the strongest outside critique of Ethereum’s shipping speedIntermediate/foundations/roadmaps/
Alpenglow: A New Consensus for SolanaKniep, Sliwinski, Wattenhofer (Anza), 2025-05-19you want the actual consensus proposal behind Solana’s ~150ms finality targetIntermediate/foundations/roadmaps/
Token Extensions / What are Token Extensions?Solana Foundation docs (2026-08); Helius (2023-2024)you want Token-2022’s extension list from the source plus a plain-language tourIntro/foundations/token-standards/
EIP-20: Token StandardVogelsteller, Buterin, created 2015-11-19you want the actual interface every ERC-20 token implements, in the original spec’s wordsIntro/foundations/token-standards/
ReferenceAuthors, dateRead if…DifficultyPage
Improved Price Oracles: Constant Function Market MakersAngeris, Chitra, 2020-03-22 (rev. June 2020)you want the proof that TWAP is manipulation-resistant, not just an accepted conventionResearch/exchange/amm-oracles/, /oracles/push-vs-pull-vs-twap/
Affiliated AMMs and permissionless solving for uniform price batch auctionsYuhjtman (Flashbots Research), 2024-07-31you want the argument for why batch auctions blunt reordering-based MEV, and its rebuttalsResearch/exchange/batch-auctions/
Predicting the success of new crypto-tokens: the Pump.fun caseMarino, Naviglio, Tarantelli, Lillo, 2026-02-16you want hard numbers on how many Pump.fun launches actually succeedResearch/exchange/bonding-curves-and-launches/
An analysis of Uniswap marketsAngeris, Kao, Chiang, Noyes, Chitra, 2019-11 (arXiv v7, 2021-02)you want the formal proof behind x·y=k: the no-arbitrage band, no-depletion, and manipulation-cost boundsResearch/exchange/cfmm-math/
Uniswap v3 CoreAdams, Zinsmeister, Salem, Keefer, Robinson, 2021-03you want concentrated liquidity’s tick/√P math from the protocol that shipped itIntermediate/exchange/concentrated-liquidity/
Automated Market Making and Loss-Versus-RebalancingMilionis, Moallemi, Roughgarden, Zhang, 2022-07-31 (v6, 2026-05-03)you want LVR derived rigorously as σ²V/8, replacing the informal IL formulaResearch/exchange/impermanent-loss-vs-lvr/
CEX/DEX arbitrage, transaction fees, block times, and LP profitsatiselsts, 2024-05-02you want to see how fees and block time actually change what LPs keep, not just the theoryIntermediate/exchange/lp-toxicity-and-jit/
Just-in-Time Liquidity on the Uniswap ProtocolAdams, Wan (Uniswap Labs), 2022-09-09you want the original measurement showing JIT is ~0.3% of volume, not the ~40% public perceptionIntermediate/exchange/lp-toxicity-and-jit/
Fenwick + Bitmap: constant-time matching for on-chain order booksdev-clober (Clober), 2025-05-12you want the data-structure trick that makes an EVM order book affordableResearch/exchange/order-books/
JIT AuctionsDrift Protocol developer docs, as of 2026-08-27you want the per-order Dutch auction mechanics behind Drift’s bookIntro/exchange/order-books/
pm-AMM: A Uniform AMM for Prediction MarketsMoallemi, Robinson (Paradigm), 2024-11-05you want an AMM invariant designed for outcome tokens instead of ordinary assetsResearch/exchange/prediction-market-amms/
Intent-Based Architectures and Their RisksKonstantopoulos, Kilbourn (Paradigm), 2023-06-01you want the standard warning about order-flow centralization before adopting intentsIntermediate/exchange/rfq-and-intents/
Introducing the UniswapX ProtocolAdams (Uniswap Labs), 2023-07-17you want the launch announcement for the biggest live intent system on EthereumIntro/exchange/rfq-and-intents/
Optimal Routing for Constant Function Market MakersAngeris, Chitra, Evans, Boyd, 2022-04-11you want routing across pools formalized as a convex optimization problemResearch/exchange/routing-and-aggregation/
Jupiter Developers — Swap APIJupiter, as of 2026-08-29you want the production API that actually routes 86%+ of Solana’s aggregator volumeIntro/exchange/routing-and-aggregation/
StableSwap — efficient mechanism for Stablecoin liquidityEgorov, 2019-11-10you want Curve’s amplification-coefficient invariant from the person who wrote itIntermediate/exchange/stable-pools/
OrbitalRobinson, Moallemi, White (Paradigm), 2025-06-02you want concentrated liquidity generalized to pools of thousands of stablecoinsResearch/exchange/stable-pools/
TWAMMWhite, Robinson, Adams (Paradigm), 2021-07-28you want the closed-form math for splitting one huge order into infinite virtual tradesResearch/exchange/twamm/
Uniswap v4 CoreAdams, Salem, Zinsmeister, Reynolds, Adams, Pote, Toda, Henshaw, Williams, Robinson, 2024-08you want hooks, the singleton, and flash accounting from the whitepaperIntermediate/exchange/v4-hooks-and-am-amm/
am-AMM: An Auction-Managed Automated Market MakerAdams, Moallemi, Reynolds, Robinson, 2024-02-13 (v4, 2025-02-12)you want the auction mechanism that gives LP-value-capture back from arbitrageursResearch/exchange/v4-hooks-and-am-amm/
A Note on Privacy in Constant Function Market MakersAngeris, Evans, Chitra, 2021-03-01you want the impossibility proof that a CFMM cannot hide a trade’s sizeResearch/exchange/zk-dex-limits/
ReferenceAuthors, dateRead if…DifficultyPage
Aave V3 OverviewAave docs, as of 2026-08-29you want LTV, liquidation threshold and health factor defined by the largest money marketIntro/lending/collateral-ltv-health/
Flash LoansAave documentation, as of 2026-08-29you want the exact contract interface behind an uncollateralized, same-transaction loanIntro/lending/flash-loans/
Morpho Midnight WhitepaperBhatt, Frambot, Garchery, Gontier Delaunay, Husson, Nicole, Laversanne-Finot, Lesbre, 2026-05you want fixed-rate discovery brought into an isolated, permissionless market designResearch/lending/interest-rate-models/
Aave V3 Technical PaperFrangella, Herskind (Aave), 2022-01-27you want the full liquidation-bonus, isolation-mode, and risk-parameter design from the protocol itselfIntermediate/lending/liquidations/, /lending/money-markets/
Understanding Aave V4’s ArchitectureAave, 2025-06-12you want the Hub-and-Spoke redesign that keeps one shared pool but modularizes borrowersIntro/lending/modular-lending/
marginfi-v2 README, “Risk Engine” sectionmrgnlabs (GitHub), as of 2026-08-29you want a Solana risk engine’s confidence-interval and weight logic straight from the code’s own docsIntro/lending/risk-engines/
ReferenceAuthors, dateRead if…DifficultyPage
PID control with stablecoinsk26dr, 2018-04-05you want the original proposal for a feedback-controlled algorithmic pegIntermediate/stablecoins/algorithmic-failures/
Anatomy of a Run: The Terra Luna CrashLiu, Makarov, Schoar (NBER Working Paper 31160), 2023-05you want the empirical study of who ran first and who lost most in Terra’s collapseResearch/stablecoins/algorithmic-failures/
Rate Mechanism (DSR) / LitePSMSky Protocol Docs, as of 2026-08-29you want the Dai Savings Rate and PSM mechanics from the protocol’s own developer docsIntro/stablecoins/cdp-stablecoins/, /stablecoins/pegs-and-psm/
LLAMMA: Core ConceptsCurve Finance Docs, as of 2026-08-29you want continuous soft liquidation explained as an AMM, not an auctionIntermediate/stablecoins/cdp-stablecoins/
Ethena OverviewEthena Labs, dated 2026-08-09you want the delta-neutral hedge behind USDe explained by the issuerIntro/stablecoins/delta-neutral/
Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP)Circle Docs, as of 2026-08-29you want burn-and-mint bridging explained by the issuer that built itIntro/stablecoins/fiat-backed-and-cctp/
Solana’s Stablecoin LandscapeHelius, as of 2025-05/06you want a single map of which stablecoins actually circulate on Solana and whyIntro/stablecoins/fiat-backed-and-cctp/
Tempo: The Blockchain Designed for PaymentsHuang (Paradigm), 2025-09-04you want the announcement of the payments-first L1 Stripe and Paradigm builtIntro/stablecoins/payments/
Solana Pay: All You Need To KnowHeliusyou want the QR-code payment standard explained end to endIntro/stablecoins/payments/
Stablecoin “Interchange” — And Why It Doesn’t WorkGrieve (Paradigm), 2026-01-07you want the case against restricting stablecoin reward-sharing under GENIUSIntermediate/stablecoins/pegs-and-psm/
ReferenceAuthors, dateRead if…DifficultyPage
Announcing Hegic Protocol and the Concept of a Hedge Contract0mllwntrmt3, 2020-02-25you want pooled, oracle-free option writing from its first announcementIntro/derivatives/options/
Building index-tracking assets on top of options instead of debtButerin, 2026-06-01you want options proposed as a full alternative to liquidatable debtResearch/derivatives/options/
The Cartoon Guide to PerpsWhite (Paradigm), 2021-03-08you want funding rates explained through four different mental models, gentlyIntro/derivatives/perpetual-futures/
Everything Is A PerpRobinson, Clark, Leone (Paradigm), 2024-03-06you want stablecoins, margined futures and AMM LP positions all shown to be power perpetualsIntermediate/derivatives/perpetual-futures/
Everlasting OptionsWhite, Bankman-Fried (Paradigm), 2021-05-11you want an option that never expires, funded like a perpetual futureResearch/derivatives/power-perps-and-everlasting-options/
Power PerpetualsRobinson, White, Koticha, Leone, Gauba, Krishnan (Paradigm), 2021-08-17you want the strike-free, expiry-free convex instrument behind SqueethResearch/derivatives/power-perps-and-everlasting-options/
Quantum MarketsYukseloglu, Larbi (Paradigm), 2025-06-12you want capital-efficient prediction markets across many competing proposalsResearch/derivatives/prediction-markets/
Prediction market design for betting on many highly improbable eventsButerin, 2020-11-29you want the original design problem quantum markets and its peers respond toResearch/derivatives/prediction-markets/
A study on AMMs for trading fixed yield and Pendle V2’s Principal Token AMMNguyen (Pendle Finance), 2022-10-14you want why generic AMM curves fail near expiry and what Pendle built insteadIntermediate/derivatives/yield-tokenization/
ReferenceAuthors, dateRead if…DifficultyPage
Endgame Staking Economics: A Case for TargetingDietrichs, Schwarz-Schilling, 2024-02-22you want the case that Ethereum should target a stake ratio instead of letting issuance driftResearch/staking/issuance-and-staking-economics/
On Staking Pools and Staking DerivativesHasu, Konstantopoulos (Paradigm), 2021-04-23you want the LST thesis explained before Lido or Marinade dominatedIntermediate/staking/liquid-staking-tokens/
The risks of LRTsNeuder, Chitra, 2024-02-26you want compounding staking, slashing and redemption risk laid out before the ezETH depeg happenedResearch/staking/lrt-risks/
From Staking to RestakingBalaji, Konstantopoulos, White (Paradigm), 2024-06-11you want Symbiotic’s generalized, any-collateral restaking pitch straight from its backersIntermediate/staking/restaking/
ReferenceAuthors, dateRead if…DifficultyPage
Based rollups — superpowers from L1 sequencingDrake, 2023-03-10you want the original case for letting the L1 proposer sequence a rollupIntermediate/mev/based-rollups-and-preconfs/
Based preconfirmationsDrake, Robinson, Neuder, Devos, 2023-11-08you want the slashable-promise fix for based rollups’ 12-second latency problemIntermediate/mev/based-rollups-and-preconfs/
Shutterized Beacon Chaincducrest (Shutter Network), 2022-03-24you want the threshold-encryption design behind the only live encrypted mempoolIntermediate/mev/encrypted-mempools/
MEV-SGX: A sealed bid MEV auction designMiller (Flashbots), 2021-05-31you want the TEE-based alternative to threshold encryption, from its first proposalIntermediate/mev/encrypted-mempools/
MEV burn — a simple designDrake, 2023-05-15you want the protocol-level proposal to burn MEV instead of paying it to proposersIntermediate/mev/mev-burn-tickets-focil-timing/
Execution TicketsDrake, Neuder, with D’Amato, Monnot, 2023-12-23you want proposing rights sold as a lottery instead of auctioned per blockResearch/mev/mev-burn-tickets-focil-timing/
Flash Boys 2.0Daian, Goldfeder, Kell, Li, Zhao, Bentov, Breidenbach, Juels, 2019-04-10you want the paper that first named frontrunning and reordering risk on DEXsResearch/mev/mev-taxonomy/
Ethereum is a Dark ForestRobinson, Konstantopoulos (Paradigm), 2020-08-28you want the essay that made MEV visceral, told through a real rescue attempt gone wrongIntro/mev/mev-taxonomy/
MEV Auction: Auctioning transaction ordering rightsFloersch, with Buterin, Daian, Whitehat, Jones, 2020-01-15you want the earliest proposal to sell ordering rights explicitlyIntermediate/mev/order-flow-auctions/
MEV-Share: IntroductionFlashbots documentationyou want the live, production order-flow auction that refunds ~90% of backrun valueIntro/mev/order-flow-auctions/
Why enshrine Proposer-Builder Separation?Neuder, Drake, 2023-05-25you want the case for putting PBS into the protocol instead of relying on MEV-Boost relaysIntermediate/mev/pbs-and-epbs/
How to Remove the RelayParadigm (Robinson et al.), 2024-10-08you want the threshold-encryption alternative to enshrined PBSIntermediate/mev/pbs-and-epbs/
Solana MEV Report: Trends, Insights, and ChallengesHelius (Lostin), 2025-01you want Jito’s tip volume, stake share and sandwich data in one reportIntro/mev/solana-mev/
Quantifying the Threat of Sandwiching MEV on JitoGerzon, Weintraub, In, Mislove, Nita-Rotaru (ACM IMC ‘25), 2025-10you want a peer-reviewed measurement of sandwich losses on Solana, not a blog estimateResearch/mev/solana-mev/
ReferenceAuthors, dateRead if…DifficultyPage
Hashi — A principled approach to bridgesKöppelmann (Gnosis), 2023-01-31you want the taxonomy of bridge trust models from someone who has run one for yearsIntermediate/cross-chain/bridge-designs/
Nomad Bridge Hack: Root Cause AnalysisNomad, 2022-08-02you want a bridge team’s own account of how a zeroed trusted root became a $190M hackIntro/cross-chain/bridge-hacks/
EIL: Trust minimized cross-L2 interopyoavw, 2025-11-13you want the leading unshipped proposal for making rollups feel like one chainResearch/cross-chain/cross-l2-interop/
Across PrimeLambur, Rice, Robinson (Paradigm), 2025-05-06you want the bonded upgrade to escrowed fast-bridging, from the team proposing itIntermediate/cross-chain/intent-solvers/
ReferenceAuthors, dateRead if…DifficultyPage
Replicating Market MakersAngeris, Evans, Chitra, 2021-03-26you want the proof that certain LP payoffs can be built into a CFMM with no oracle at allResearch/oracles/oracle-free-designs/
Blend: Perpetual Lending With NFT CollateralRobinson, transmissions11, Galaga, Toad, Pacman (Paradigm), 2023-05-01you want NFT lending that never computes a price at all, using a live lender auction insteadIntermediate/oracles/oracle-free-designs/
So you want to use a price oraclesamczsun (Paradigm), 2020-11-09you want the single most-cited walkthrough of real oracle-manipulation exploitsIntro/oracles/oracle-manipulation/
Enshrined Eth2 price feeds / Counter-proposal: dual-token oraclesDrake, Buterin, 2020-05-11 / 2020-05-16you want both sides of the still-unresolved debate over putting price feeds in Ethereum’s protocolIntermediate/oracles/oracle-manipulation/
ReferenceAuthors, dateRead if…DifficultyPage
Two Rights Might Make A Wrongsamczsun (Paradigm), 2021-08-17you want to see how two individually correct components compose into an exploitIntermediate/security/bug-classes/
sealevel-attackscoral-xyz (GitHub), accessed 2026-08-30you want a runnable catalogue of every Solana account-validation bug class, with fixesIntro/security/bug-classes/
rekt.news Leaderboardrekt.news, continuously updatedyou want the single most-cited running ranking of the largest crypto hacks everIntro/security/incident-timeline/
The 5 Levels of Secure HardwareKonstantopoulos (Paradigm), 2024-11-21you want a framework for what a TEE can and can’t guarantee, without hypeIntro/security/trusted-hardware-and-threat-models/
Demystifying the North Korean Threatsamczsun (Paradigm), 2025-03-31you want to understand why the industry’s biggest losses are social engineering, not cryptography breaksIntro/security/trusted-hardware-and-threat-models/
ReferenceAuthors, dateRead if…DifficultyPage
Governance MinimizationEhrsam (Paradigm), 2020-10-28you want the foundational argument for why a protocol should vote on as little as possibleIntro/governance/governance-and-tokenomics/
ReferenceAuthors, dateRead if…DifficultyPage
Real World Assets on Solana: A Comprehensive OverviewHelius, as of 2026-08-29you want every category of tokenized asset (treasuries, equities, credit, commodities) in one reportIntro/tradfi/tradfi-convergence-and-rwas/
ReferenceAuthors, dateRead if…DifficultyPage
Ethereum Privacy: The Road to Self-Sovereigntypcaversaccio, with community discussion, 2025-04-09you want the liveliest single thread on privacy pools, association sets and compliance trade-offsResearch/privacy/privacy-and-compliance/
Confidential BalancesSolana documentation, as of 2026-08-29you want Token-2022’s confidential-transfer extension from the sourceIntro/privacy/privacy-and-compliance/

If you read nothing else on this site’s reference list, read these — they cover the math, the incidents, and the two chains’ block-production models in the fewest documents:

  1. An analysis of Uniswap markets — the formal foundation of every CFMM page.
  2. Automated Market Making and Loss-Versus-Rebalancing — the real cost of running an AMM, done rigorously.
  3. Improved Price Oracles: Constant Function Market Makers — why AMM prices can be trusted at all, and how far.
  4. Uniswap v3 Core — concentrated liquidity, from the protocol that shipped it.
  5. Aave V3 Technical Paper — the reference design for pooled lending and liquidation.
  6. Analysis of EIP-1559 — the economic case for Ethereum’s fee market.
  7. Solana Account Model — the accounts/programs/PDA/CPI model, from the source.
  8. Ethereum is a Dark Forest — the essay that made MEV real for most readers.
  9. So you want to use a price oracle — the canonical oracle-manipulation walkthrough.
  10. Governance Minimization — why protocols should vote on as little as possible.
  11. The Cartoon Guide to Perps — funding rates, explained gently.
  12. TWAMM — the first and most-copied “solve one AMM weakness” design.
  13. rekt.news Leaderboard — the running record of what has actually gone wrong.
  14. Solana MEV: An Introduction — MEV with no public mempool, from scratch.
  15. Two Rights Might Make A Wrong — how individually correct code composes into an exploit.

Counting every external link cited across all 94 §9 reference entries (a handful of entries cite two sources, so link totals exceed 94):

SourceLinks citedWhat it’s good for
Paradigm (paradigm.xyz)32The largest single voice on this site — mechanism-design essays spanning AMMs, perps, MEV, staking and governance, almost all written for a technical-but-not-academic reader.
ethresear.ch30Ethereum’s own research forum — where enshrined PBS, MEV burn, FOCIL, based rollups, and most unshipped protocol proposals actually get proposed and argued over.
arXiv15Peer-reviewed or preprint academic papers — the CFMM formalism (Angeris et al.), LVR (Milionis et al.), and Solana’s own execution-conflict literature.
Solana docs & Helius15 (5 + 10)The Solana-side counterpart to ethresear.ch and Paradigm combined — official protocol documentation plus Helius’s applied, data-heavy blog posts on fee markets, MEV and stablecoins.
Protocol & project docs, other35Aave, Circle, Curve, Sky, Uniswap, Jupiter, Drift, Morpho, Ethena, Anza, rekt.news, NBER, ACM, and EIPs.ethereum.org — primary documentation and post-mortems from the projects themselves.

Paradigm and ethresear.ch together account for two-thirds of every reference link on this site — a reasonable reflection of where DeFi mechanism-design writing has actually happened since 2020.