Protocol Wars & Forks3 min read
Tezos Athens: How a Vote Became a Running Rule
Athens offered two versions of one upgrade. Choosing the code was one task; making the chain and its tools work with it was another.
Read story →CoinYQ · Your Crypto Quest
Crypto Feature Stories
Every coin has a story. Explore the human dramas, multi-million dollar heists, and visionary breakthroughs behind Web3.
Founders & Origins5 min read
Kings of Leon: What Arrives When You Buy an NFT Album?
A token in a wallet, music to download and vinyl to deliver: Kings of Leon’s 2021 release put three different kinds of ownership in one purchase.
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Founders & Origins3 min read
Bitcoin Timelocks: Why the Right Key May Still Have to Wait
A valid key proves who may spend. What makes that person wait?
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Sovereign & Macro3 min read
World Bank bond-i: When a Bond Changes Hands, So Does the Record
Issuing a bond is only the beginning. Who keeps the ownership record aligned when it changes hands?
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Founders & Origins3 min read
EIP-712: Putting Something Readable Before the Sign Button
A readable request still needs a decision. What changes when a wallet shows the fields behind a signature?
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Founders & Origins3 min read
MIT’s Digital Diploma: A Record That Could Leave Campus
A graduate could send the file. What would let someone else trust it without calling the registrar?
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Founders & Origins4 min read
BIP39: The Words That Can Rebuild a Wallet
Why can a few ordinary words outlive a wallet device—and when do those words lead somewhere else?
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Founders & Origins3 min read
Austria’s Crypto Stamp: A Letter on Paper, a Collectible on Screen
A unicorn could travel on an envelope and live in a wallet. Which part of the stamp actually moved?
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Founders & Origins4 min read
ERC-1155: Packing a Whole Game Inventory into One Transfer
One sword, several potions, one transfer: how a game inventory helped reshape token design.
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Sovereign & Macro3 min read
UNICEF: When a Crypto Donation Stayed in Crypto
A donation did not have to become dollars first. What changed when UNICEF carried crypto through to a startup grant?
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Founders & Origins4 min read
Nouns: The Picture Is for Everyone. The Vote Belongs to the Token.
Print the glasses, remix the character, or buy a vote: the different doors into the Nouns experiment.
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Protocol Wars & Forks4 min read
Atomic Swaps: The Secret You Reveal to Get Paid
Opening one side of the trade reveals what the other side needs. Why an atomic swap is a sequence, not a simultaneous handover.
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Founders & Origins3 min read
SBB: The Ticket Machine That Sold Bitcoin
A wallet QR code, a phone number and a familiar ticket machine: how bitcoin reached Swiss railway stations in 2016.
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Founders & Origins4 min read
PoolTogether: Where the Prize Money Comes From
Everyone supplies the savings; one participant gets the prize. The trick is in which part of the money goes into the draw.
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Founders & Origins4 min read
Trezor: The Small Screen That Asks for Your Consent
Keeping a key safe does not decide where the money should go. That is why the little screen matters.
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Founders & Origins5 min readUpdated 2026-09-26
Unisocks: The Moment a Token Becomes a Pair of Socks
You could trade the claim or use it. To put the socks on your feet, the token had to go.
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Founders & Origins4 min read
Slush Pool: Sharing the Wait for a Bitcoin Block
An easier proof of work let small miners share a reward without making Bitcoin easier to mine.
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Founders & Origins4 min read
Brave: The Browser That Chose the Ad
Could an ad find its audience without the audience’s browsing history leaving the device?
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