Most crypto books tell you what to think. This one teaches you how the systems actually work.
Blockchains are not magic. They are engineered systems with cryptographic foundations, consensus trade-offs, and design constraints that shape everything they can and cannot do.
Foundations is the first volume of the Crypto Systems Collection. It covers how cryptographic systems work at the protocol level - not what to buy, not what to believe, but how the machinery operates under the hood.
What you will learn:
- How hash functions, digital signatures, and key derivation secure every transaction - How Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, and Solana each approach consensus - and why they made different choices - How UTXO and account-based state models work, and what each makes easy or hard - How execution environments differ - from Bitcoin Script's deliberate constraints to the EVM's composability to Solana's parallel runtime - How issuance schedules, fee markets, and security budgets interact - How privacy works in practice - ring signatures, stealth addresses, and the trade-offs of transparency - Why throughput, latency, and decentralisation are in tension - and how each protocol navigates that tension - How protocols actually change - forks, activation mechanisms, and the governance models that determine what changes are possible
Four protocols. Twelve chapters. Three parts.
Part I builds from cryptographic primitives through keys, blockchains, networks, and consensus. Part II covers state models, execution, issuance, privacy, and scalability. Part III synthesises the design space and examines how protocols evolve.
Every claim is sourced. Every trade-off is stated. Every assumption is identified. No hype, no speculation, no invented authority.
Volume I of IV in the Crypto Systems Collection. Written for technically literate readers who want to understand crypto systems from first principles.