# Hacking Incentives Book Club

By [Hacking Incentives](https://paragraph.com/@hacking-incentives) · 2022-03-04

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_In order to have a decentralised database, you need to have security. In order to have security, you need to have incentives. -Vitalik Buterin_

We think a great deal about incentives, incentive design, and incentive markets. We invite you to share some of our mindshare — and join our incentive hacking reading list.

> **1 — Blockchain Background**
> 
> _1.1 The authoritative Guide to Blockchain Development_

[**The authoritative guide to blockchain development**](https://medium.freecodecamp.org/the-authoritative-guide-to-blockchain-development-855ab65b58bc)

[Cryptocurrencies, ICOs, magic internet money — it’s all so damn exciting, and you, the eager developer, want to get in…](https://medium.freecodecamp.org/the-authoritative-guide-to-blockchain-development-855ab65b58bc)

[medium.freecodecamp.org](https://medium.freecodecamp.org/the-authoritative-guide-to-blockchain-development-855ab65b58bc)

> _1.2 Bitcoin Coursera Course by Princeton_

[https://www.coursera.org/learn/cryptocurrency](https://www.coursera.org/learn/cryptocurrency)

> _1.3 Stanford_ [_Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technologies_](https://crypto.stanford.edu/cs251/)

[https://crypto.stanford.edu/cs251/](https://crypto.stanford.edu/cs251/)

> **2 — Whitepapers**
> 
> _2.1 Bitcoin_

[https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf](https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf)

> _2.2 Ethereum_

[https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/White-Paper](https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/White-Paper)

> _2.3 Stellar_

[https://www.stellar.org/papers/stellar-consensus-protocol.pdf](https://www.stellar.org/papers/stellar-consensus-protocol.pdf)

> _2.4 Lightning_

[https://lightning.network/lightning-network-paper.pdf](https://lightning.network/lightning-network-paper.pdf)

> _2.5 Monero_

[https://whitepaperdatabase.com/monero-xmr-whitepaper/](https://whitepaperdatabase.com/monero-xmr-whitepaper/)

> _2.6 zCash_

[http://zerocash-project.org/media/pdf/zerocash-extended-20140518.pdf](http://zerocash-project.org/media/pdf/zerocash-extended-20140518.pdf)

> _2.7 Casper Whitepaper_

[https://github.com/ethereum/research/blob/master/papers/casper-basics/casper\_basics.pdf](https://github.com/ethereum/research/blob/master/papers/casper-basics/casper_basics.pdf)

> _2.8 DFinity whitepaper_

[https://dfinity.org/tech](https://dfinity.org/tech)

> **3 — Incentive Research**
> 
> _3.1 On Bitcoin and Red Balloons_

[https://arxiv.org/pdf/1111.2626.pdf](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1111.2626.pdf)

> _3.2 Reflecting on the DARPA Red Balloon Challenge_

[https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2011/4/106587-reflecting-on-the-darpa-red-balloon-challenge/fulltext](https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2011/4/106587-reflecting-on-the-darpa-red-balloon-challenge/fulltext)

> _3.3 Query Incentive Networks_

[https://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/focs05-qin.pdf](https://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/focs05-qin.pdf)

> _3.4 Do Diffusion Protocols Govern Cascade Growth_

[https://arxiv.org/abs/1805.07368](https://arxiv.org/abs/1805.07368)

> _3.5 The Strength of Weak Ties_

[https://sociology.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/the\_strength\_of\_weak\_ties\_and\_exch\_w-gans.pdf](https://sociology.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/the_strength_of_weak_ties_and_exch_w-gans.pdf)

> _3.6 Partisan Bias in Factual Beliefs about Politics_

[https://www.nowpublishers.com/article/Details/QJPS-14074](https://www.nowpublishers.com/article/Details/QJPS-14074)

> **4 — Applications**
> 
> _4.1 Time Critical Social Mobilization: The DARPA Network Challenge Winning Strategy_

[https://arxiv.org/pdf/1008.3172.pdf](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1008.3172.pdf)

> _4.2 Flash Organizations: Crowdsourcing Complex Work By Structuring Crowds as Organizations_

[http://hci.stanford.edu/publications/2017/flashorgs/flash-orgs-chi-2017.pdf](http://hci.stanford.edu/publications/2017/flashorgs/flash-orgs-chi-2017.pdf)

> _4.3 Crowdsourcing Contest Dilemma_

[http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/11/99/20140532.short](http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/11/99/20140532.short)

> **5 — Cryptoeconomics**
> 
> _5.1 Selfish Mining Paper:_

[https://www.cs.cornell.edu/~ie53/publications/btcProcFC.pdf](https://www.cs.cornell.edu/~ie53/publications/btcProcFC.pdf)

> _5.2 Asset Flow and Momentum: Deterministic and Stochastic Equations_

[http://www2.pitt.edu/~caginalp/Paper70.pdf](http://www2.pitt.edu/~caginalp/Paper70.pdf)

> _5.3 Stablecoins: Designing a Price-Stable Cryptocurrency_

[https://haseebq.com/stablecoins-designing-a-price-stable-cryptocurrency/](https://haseebq.com/stablecoins-designing-a-price-stable-cryptocurrency/)

> **6 — Potpourri**
> 
> _6.1 “The Rational Optimist” by Matt Ridley_

[https://www.amazon.com/Rational-Optimist-Prosperity-Evolves-P-s-ebook/dp/B003QP4BJM](https://www.amazon.com/Rational-Optimist-Prosperity-Evolves-P-s-ebook/dp/B003QP4BJM)

> _6.2 “Striking Thoughts” by Bruce Lee_

[https://www.amazon.com/Bruce-Lee-Striking-Thoughts-Library-ebook/dp/B014C57RYK/ref=sr\_1\_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1530658575&sr=1-1&keywords=striking+thoughts](https://www.amazon.com/Bruce-Lee-Striking-Thoughts-Library-ebook/dp/B014C57RYK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1530658575&sr=1-1&keywords=striking+thoughts)

> _6.3 “Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street Paperback” by John Brook_

[**Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street**](https://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Street/dp/1497644895)

["Business Adventures remains the best business book I've ever read." -Bill Gates, The Wall Street Journal What do the…](https://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Street/dp/1497644895)

[www.amazon.com](https://www.amazon.com/Business-Adventures-Twelve-Classic-Street/dp/1497644895)

> _6.4 “Reminiscences of a Stock Operator” by Edwin Lefèvre_

[**Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (A Marketplace Book)**](https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Marketplace-Book-ebook/dp/B00BOZBG2Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1530658764&sr=1-1&keywords=reminiscences+of+a+stock+operator)

["Although Reminiscences...was first published some seventy years ago, its take on crowd psychology and market timing is…](https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Marketplace-Book-ebook/dp/B00BOZBG2Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1530658764&sr=1-1&keywords=reminiscences+of+a+stock+operator)

[www.amazon.com](https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Marketplace-Book-ebook/dp/B00BOZBG2Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1530658764&sr=1-1&keywords=reminiscences+of+a+stock+operator)

> _6.5 “The Mythical Man Month” by Frederick Brooks Jr._

[https://www.amazon.com/Mythical-Man-Month-Software-Engineering-Anniversary/dp/0201835959/ref=sr\_1\_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1530659424&sr=1-1&keywords=Mythical+Man+Month](https://www.amazon.com/Mythical-Man-Month-Software-Engineering-Anniversary/dp/0201835959/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1530659424&sr=1-1&keywords=Mythical+Man+Month)

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*Originally published on [Hacking Incentives](https://paragraph.com/@hacking-incentives/hacking-incentives-book-club)*