The Definite Web3 Reading List

by 51 Insights / Updated: June 2024

Unsure where to start? Start here:

• ⭐️ Bitcoin whitepaper, Satoshi Nakamoto

• Ethereum whitepaper, Vitalik Buterin

• The Meaning of Decentralization, Vitalik Butterin

• Why Decentralization Matters, Chris Dixon

• The Sovereign Individual, Davidson & Rees-Mogg

• A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto, Eric Hughes

• ⭐️ We Have Built the Foundations for the Next Supercycle, and It Has Begun, Joe Lubin

• ⭐️ 1984, George Orwell

• Blockchains as a Foundation for a New Social Order, Multicoin Capital

• Len Sassaman and Satoshi: a Cypherpunk History

• Models for Scaling Trustless Computation, Multicoin Capital

• An Intro to Crypto: Building Blocks, Linda Xie

• The Crypto Story, Matt Levine

• Chris Dixon and Packy McCormick on the future of crypto, The Economist

• Crypto Mega Thesis, Multicoin Capital

• ⭐️ But how does Bitcoin actually work?, 3blue1brown

• ⭐️ Digital Gold, Nathaniel Popper

• The Bitcoin Standard, Saifedean Ammous

• Mastering Bitcoin, Andreas Antonopoulos

• What is bitcoin and why does it matter?, Andreas Antonopoulos

• ⭐️ A letter to Jamie Dimon

• Why Bitcoin Matters, Marc Andreessen

• Beyond the Bitcoin bubble, NYT

• Bitcoin's Academic Pedigree, Narayanan & Clark

• Programming Bitcoin, Jimmy Song

• Bitcoin for the open minded sceptic, Matt Huang

• Bitcoin Macro Strategy, Michael Saylor

• Bitcoin first, Fidelity

• End the FUD

• 7 Misconceptions About Bitcoin, Lyn Alden

• A Closer Look at the Environmental Impact of Bitcoin Mining, Christopher Bendiksen

• Bitcoin is Key to an Abundant, Clean Energy Future, Square

• ⭐️ Peter Van Valkenburgh explains Bitcoin to the Senate

• Mastering Ethereum, Andreas Antonopoulos

• How does Ethereum work anyway?, Preethi Kasireddy

• What is Ethereum, Ethereum Foundation

• The Infinite Machine, Camilla Russo

• Making Sense of “Cryptoeconomics”, Josh Stark

• Digital Assets Primer: Only the first inning, BofA

• Overview of Digital Assets and Blockchain, Goldman Sachs

• An (Institutional) Investor’s Take on Cryptoassets, John Pfeffer

• New Internet Logic, John Palmer

• A new internet, Joel John

• Making Sense of Web3, LifeItself

• Making Sense of Web3, Josh Stark

• Beyond the Hype: Is Web3 a Socio-Cultural System?, Thomas Isaa

• What is Web3?, Gavin Wood

• What is Web3?, Ethereum Foundation

• What is web3?, HBR

• Wtf is web3?, Cobie

• The Third Web, Tante

• A History of Cryptoart and NFTs

• Storing Value in Digital Objects, Derek Edws

• ⭐️ NFTs and A Thousand True Fans, Chris Dixon

• Headless Brands, Hart, Lotti & Shorin

• Crypto's Consumer Era, Kinjal Shah

• Power to the Person, Packy McCormick

• ⭐️ The Ownership Economy, Variant Fund

• The Ownership Economy 2022, Variant Fund

• Storing Value in Digital Objects, Derek Edws

• Defining music NFT ownership, from the digital to the analog world, Water & Music

• The Metaverse, Matthew Ball

• Value Creation in the Metaverse, McKinsey

• Reviving Trust in Crypto, Ria Bhutoria

• How Not to Play the Game, Matt Levine 

• Reflections On Contagion & The Rebirth Of Crypto Infrastructure, Edessa

• State of Crypto Report 2023, a16z

• ⭐️ The Web3 Creator Playbook, Rafa Fernandez

• ⭐️ From UGC to UGP: Consumer Brands & Co-Creation, Multicoin Capital

• ⭐️ Crypto-Native NFT IP: A New Era For Consumer Brands, Mikey 0x

• ⭐️ Building on Passion, Gaby Goldberg

• ⭐️ Life After Lifestyle, Toby Shorin

• ⭐️ Blockchains and The Next Generation of Fandom, Amanda Young

• What Makes Tokenized Communities Valuable?, Jihad Esmail

• ⭐️ The network effects of the metaverse and the economies of Web3 communities, Claudio Tessone & Andrés Luther

• Digiphysical Goods: Bringing Programmable Utility to Physical Products, 1kx

• AI & crypto, a16z (audio)

• The Search for Crypto-Native Business Models, Seth Bloomberg

• ⭐️ The Future of Web3 Loyalty, Reddit for Business

• Web3 Could Change the Business Model of Creative Work, Alex Tapscott

• The Barrier to Mainstream Crypto Adoption Isn’t UX — It’s Product-Market Fit, Li Jin

• ⭐️ When the World Goes Phygital, Aleksija Vujicic

• ⭐️The Phygital Stack, Aleksija Vujicic

• It’s All a Game, Colleen Sullivan