How It Works4 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.
Read story →CoinYQ · Your Crypto Quest
Crypto Feature Stories — 2
Every coin has a story. Explore the human dramas, multi-million dollar heists, and visionary breakthroughs behind Web3.
How It Works5 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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How It Works4 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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How It Works4 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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How It Works4 min read
ENS: From a Name to a Payment Address
Winning a name was only the beginning. A wallet still needed to find the address behind it.
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How It Works4 min read
Filecoin: The Storage Job That Never Ends at Upload
The upload finished. The next storage check had not. Why Filecoin kept asking providers to prove their work.
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Sovereign & Macro4 min read
Building Blocks: What the Refugee-Camp Checkout Recorded
An eye scan at the supermarket, a purchase on a shared ledger. What was the blockchain actually doing?
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How It Works4 min read
OpenTimestamps: Proof a File Was Already There
A tiny proof can establish that a file existed in the past. It cannot tell you whether the file was telling the truth.
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How It Works4 min read
Blockstream Satellite: The Ledger Arrives from the Sky
A dish can bring Bitcoin blocks to your computer. How does your own transaction get back out?
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How It Works4 min read
Gitcoin: What Changes When Small Donations Come from Many People?
Four people give $4 each. One person gives $16. The donations are equal; the matching signal is not.
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How It Works4 min read
Cosmos IBC: When Independent Ledgers Began to Talk
A message can cross between blockchains. What makes the receiving chain accept it?
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Protocol Wars & Forks5 min read
Decred Politeia: After the Vote, Who Sends the Money?
A community could approve a budget while someone else still held the payment keys. Decred made that gap explicit.
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How It Works6 min readUpdated 2026-09-26
CryptoPunks: The Owner Was On-Chain. Where Was the Image?
A copied portrait did not change its owner. But recording ownership was only part of keeping CryptoPunks on Ethereum.
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How It Works5 min read
The Lightning Torch: A Payment Could Arrive. Would It Leave Again?
Add 10,000 satoshis and pass it on. A small relay tested both Lightning payments and the people receiving them.
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Protocol Wars & Forks5 min read
SushiSwap: The Liquidity Moved, and So Did the Keys
SushiSwap offered rewards to Uniswap’s liquidity providers. Then its founder cashed out, handed over control and returned 38,000 ETH.
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Sovereign & Macro5 min read
Facebook’s Libra: From Global Currency to an Asset Sale
A global currency for messaging apps became a dollar-based bank project. Before its launch, Diem sold the technology for cash and shares valued at $182 million.
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Icons & Legends5 min read
David Chaum’s DigiCash: Private Payments Still Needed a Bank
A digital coin could hide the link between withdrawal and spending. It could not make issuing banks and willing merchants unnecessary. Inside David Chaum’s DigiCash.
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Lost Fortunes & Windfalls8 min read
The Pineapple Fund: 5,104 Bitcoins, $55 Million, and an Unrevealed Donor
Pine pledged 5,057 BTC (~$86M) on Reddit. Five months later, the fund reported 5,104 BTC ($55M) for 60 causes, leaving public donation records while remaining anonymous in the cited sources.
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