Whitepaper Reading Club

Whitepaper Reading Club
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The Whitepaper Reading Club is a group of veterans and enthusiasts, engineers and thinkers, united by the shared curiosity to understand the mechanics powering the Web3 revolution. https://whitepaperreading.club/

Episodes

  1. Community Pod (Ep05) Alpenglow: Solana's Consensus Upgrade with Prof. Roger Wattenhofer

    JUL 18

    Community Pod (Ep05) Alpenglow: Solana's Consensus Upgrade with Prof. Roger Wattenhofer

    We speak with Prof. Roger Wattenhofer from @ethzurich currently Head of Research at Anza. With 25+ years in distributed systems research and from having the first "Bitcoin" focused PhD student since 2011, Roger discusses 'Alpenglow,' a simplified yet powerful new consensus protocol for Solana. Co-developed with his PhD students Quentin Kniep and Kobi, Alpenglow dramatically reduces complexity, Solana's network performance by replacing Tower BFT, Proof-of-History, and gossip protocols with off-chain voting (Votor), optimized relay networks (Rotor), and an efficient block builder. We also explore the evolving role of academia and the importance of academic-industry collaboration. Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction to Alpenglow and Prof. Wattenhofer 01:45 First PhD Student in Bitcoin: Christian Decker 03:39 Roger's research approach: exploring new frontiers 05:31 Permissionless systems and Bitcoin's revolution08:34 Introducing Alpenglow 09:57 Origin story: collaboration with Solana's Anatoly Yakovenko 13:01 Initial critiques and early Solana improvements 14:32 A16Z collaboration on Alpenglow 16:17 Core mechanics and simplified consensus 19:06 Removing Tower BFT, Proof-of-History, and Gossip 23:44 Relay nodes (Rotor) and network optimization 25:49 Security and slashing economics 28:38 Roles of Rotor and Voter nodes 30:45 Off-chain voting and near-instant finality (150ms) 36:29 Efficient BLS signature aggregation 40:16 Erasure coding for network reliability 42:49 Optimal (80%) and fallback consensus paths 46:30 Phased rollout: Production begins with Voter only 49:49 Comparing Alpenglow upgrade with Ethereum's Merge 51:01 Future research at Solana 53:39 University evolution and academia-industry collaboration Links: - https://www.anza.xyz/blog/alpenglow-a-new-consensus-for-solana - https://ee.ethz.ch/the-department/faculty/professors/person-detail.NTA5NzY=.TGlzdC80MTEsMTA1ODA0MjU5.html - https://github.com/qkniep - https://x.com/DiscoKobi

    59 min
  2. Community Pod [Ep 4 Part 2]: Crestal Networks and Ai Agent Economy

    JUL 16

    Community Pod [Ep 4 Part 2]: Crestal Networks and Ai Agent Economy

    Marouen Zelleg— co-founder of Crestal Network—explains how AI agents can replace much of today’s freelance work, how tokens are a double edge sword and how Crestal’s open-source Intent Kit handles the hard bits: hosting, payments, access-control and on-chain incentives. Twitters: https://x.com/crestalnetwork | https://x.com/intentkitai | https://x.com/marouen9 Key Topics: Users vs creators: turning Fiverr-style gigs into 24/7 agents Hosting, payments and updates as the real pain points CAPS micro-credits for every agent call; future on-chain x402 payments Revenue split among creators, platform and Intent Kit developers Public vs private skills, verifiability and access control When and how an agent can launch its own token Long-term goal: a pure-agent freelancer marketplace About Marouen Engineer who built large no-code systems for MINDEF and Toyota, led MetaMask BD at ConsenSys, and Polygon in APAC and now heads Crestal’s push toward an agent-driven economy. TImeStamps: 01:13 Users vs creators; AI replaces manual gigs 02:36 Incentives for open-source agent creators 03:34 Live agent demo and hosting 05:05 BTC analysis agent example 06:41 Verifiable logs and access control 08:11 Public vs private skills 11:43 CAPS credit system and payments 13:21 Revenue-sharing model 16:09 Micro-payments and the x402 path 16:53 CAPS (internal) vs NATION (external) tokens 18:33 Do tokens distract builders? 22:46 Criteria to launch agent tokens 25:06 Vision and near-mid-term challenges 30:26 MCP server limits; building before the token Links Crestal Website: https://crestal.network Intent Kit: https://github.com/crestalnetwork/int...

    36 min
  3. Community Pod [Ep 4 Part 1]: Future of AI Agents with Crestal Networks

    JUL 7

    Community Pod [Ep 4 Part 1]: Future of AI Agents with Crestal Networks

    Marouen Zelleg— co-founder of Crestal Network—explains how AI agents can replace much of today’s freelance work, how tokens are a double edge sword and how Crestal’s open-source Intent Kit handles the hard bits: hosting, payments, access-control and on-chain incentives. Twitters: https://x.com/crestalnetwork | https://x.com/intentkitai | https://x.com/marouen9 --------------------------------------------------- Key Topics: --------------------------------------------------- Users vs creators: turning Fiverr-style gigs into 24/7 agents Hosting, payments and updates as the real pain points CAPS micro-credits for every agent call; future on-chain x402 payments Revenue split among creators, platform and Intent Kit developers Public vs private skills, verifiability and access control When and how an agent can launch its own token Long-term goal: a pure-agent freelancer marketplace About Marouen Engineer who built large no-code systems for MINDEF and Toyota, led MetaMask BD at ConsenSys, and Polygon in APAC and now heads Crestal’s push toward an agent-driven economy. --------------------------------------------------- TImeStamps: --------------------------------------------------- 01:13 Users vs creators; AI replaces manual gigs 02:36 Incentives for open-source agent creators 03:34 Live agent demo and hosting 05:05 BTC analysis agent example 06:41 Verifiable logs and access control 08:11 Public vs private skills 11:43 CAPS credit system and payments 13:21 Revenue-sharing model 16:09 Micro-payments and the x402 path 16:53 CAPS (internal) vs NATION (external) tokens 18:33 Do tokens distract builders? 22:46 Criteria to launch agent tokens 25:06 Vision and near-mid-term challenges 30:26 MCP server limits; building before the token Links Crestal Website: https://crestal.network Intent Kit: https://github.com/crestalnetwork/int... ‪@Crestalnetwork‬

    20 min
  4. Chainless EP-02 (Part 2): Vercel for TEEs

    JUL 2

    Chainless EP-02 (Part 2): Vercel for TEEs

    Description: Livy is building a one-click platform to deploy applications inside Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), allowing developers to run verifiable compute without needing to rewrite existing code. https://x.com/saugardev Instead of setting up complex ZK pipelines, Livy compiles your code inside a TEE, publishes attestations to Celestia (public or private), and handles scaling automatically—similar to how Vercel works for websites. Topics: - Why TEEs are often more practical than ZK for verifiable compute - How Livy achieves deterministic builds and code provenance - Verifying AI inference, oracles, and edge device authentication - Livy’s product demo: GitHub → compile → deploy → attest TimeStamp: 01:40 – Trust models 03:00 – Developer experience and workflow 04:35 – Deterministic builds and reproducible attestation 08:49 – Verifying AI inference and model execution 10:48 – Celestia DA: public and private blob support 16:45 – Use cases: oracles, image provenance, edge device access 19:57 – TEEs vs ZK: performance, developer UX, hardware 29:24 – Livy live demo and business model Co-Host: Brian Seong (Polygon Labs) and Rongxin Zhang (Whitepaper Reading Club) Twitter: https://twitter.com/WPReadingClub

    38 min
  5. Chainless EP-02 (Part 1): Introduction to TEEs with Saul of Livy

    JUN 30

    Chainless EP-02 (Part 1): Introduction to TEEs with Saul of Livy

    Meet Saul—a software engineer and former computer-science student—founded Livy which aims to build the provenance layer with Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) by making TEE development more accessible. Co-hosts Brian Seong Senior DevRel Engineer Polygon Labs and author of Chainless Whitepaper and Rongxin of the WhitepaperReadingClub Key Topics: - Why ZK development is too complex and slow for most use cases - How TEEs provide verifiable computation with better performance - Security trade-offs: mathematical proofs vs hardware attestation - TEE limitations and real-world applications Timestamps 02:15 - Meet Saul from Livy 12:45 - Problems with ZK Development 18:20 - What are TEEs? 25:10 - Where to Get TEE Hardware 32:40 - TEE Limitations & Storage 38:15 - Security: Side Channel Attacks 45:30 - Security Spectrum: ZK vs TEE vs Ethereum 52:00 - Math Security vs Economic Security Saul https://x.com/saugardev #TEE #ZKProofs #Blockchain #Livy #Polygon #DecentralizedComputing #Web3 #security

    17 min
  6. Community Pod [Ep 3 Part 3]: Limits of Decentralization

    JUN 10

    Community Pod [Ep 3 Part 3]: Limits of Decentralization

    Economist Paulo explains how blockchain solves game theory problems using incentives and penalties—drawing from implementation theory and mechanism design. Decentralization replaces authority with rules, not just tech. Using ideas from Maskin, Arrow, and Hal Varian, Paulo argues crypto is fundamentally an economic system shaped by carefully constructed games, not just software. TimeStamps: 01:49 – PoW used for spam prevention 02:53 – Implementation theory in crypto 03:02 – Design games for desired outcomes 04:31 – Need punishments and rewards 05:24 – Punishments are harder to design 08:00 – Implementation design in crypto 08:46 – Four key concepts 09:45 – Social choice = state → outcome 11:15 – Ledger as outcome 12:29 – Collective vs individual outcomes 13:52 – Constitution as mechanism 14:27 – Solution concepts 16:15 – Nash equilibrium exists for all games 17:11 – What is Nash equilibrium 19:03 – Crypto is economic, not just technical 21:38 – DAOs as economic coordination 22:20 – Limits of decentralization 22:55 – Maskin monotonicity 24:54 – Arrow’s impossibility theorem 27:29 – Dictatorship outcome 30:18 – Good DAO proposals fail 31:07 – Auctions limit full value capture 32:27 – Google’s 2nd-price auction (Hal Varian) 33:49 – Trilemma: decentralization tradeoffs 35:40 – Users trade decentralization 38:47 – Decentralization is invisible 40:24 – Needs shift over time 41:15 – Centralized L2 blocks meme coins

    44 min
  7. Community Pod [Ep 3 Part 2]: Why Olympus DAO & ‘3,3’ is Bad Game Theory

    JUN 8

    Community Pod [Ep 3 Part 2]: Why Olympus DAO & ‘3,3’ is Bad Game Theory

    Economist Paulo explain the flawed logic behind Olympus DAO’s popular ‘3,3’ staking meme and its game-theoretic model. How the original payoff matrix was fundamentally wrong—ignoring real-world behaviors like marginal utility, sell pressure, and multi-agent dynamics. We also discuss how to apply better game theory to staking and trading in crypto, the dangers of partial knowledge, and why scams thrive on unrealistic promises. -------------- Timestamps -------------- 00:00 Intro: What is Olympus DAO and “3,3” 01:00 Why Olympus is bad game theory 01:43 Overview of Olympus mechanics 02:38 Issues with payoff assumptions 03:49 Incorrect payout logic explained 04:37 Marginal utility of money is ignored 05:35 Selling becomes rational at higher wealth levels 06:34 Matrix fails to model others’ actions 06:56 Real-world context matters more than abstract models 08:48 How to build better staking game theory 09:55 Why sell-sell should be a valid equilibrium 10:34 Game theory lessons for crypto 11:42 Takeaway 1: Fundamentals drive sustainable outcomes 12:25 Takeaway 2: Equilibrium is subjective 13:21 Takeaway 3: Partial knowledge is dangerous 14:19 Takeaway 4: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is 15:27 Why Whitepaper Reading Club matters 17:33 Olympus as fake medicine analogy 18:03 “When people want the impossible, only liars can deliver” 18:35 Risk, lottery logic, and university exam analogy 19:27 People act to improve odds, not maximize expected value 20:17 What are you really modeling? @sgsmu #cruptocurrency #gametheory #blockchain #crypto #decentralized

    21 min
  8. Chainless [EP.01]: Chainless Apps - A Modular Framework for Web2 UX with Web3 Trust

    JUN 3

    Chainless [EP.01]: Chainless Apps - A Modular Framework for Web2 UX with Web3 Trust

    Brian Seong, author of the ⁠Chainless Apps: A Modular Framework for Building Apps with Web2 Capability and Web3 Trust⁠ breaks down the Chainless Apps framework. We dive into: verifiability, scalability, modular architecture, ZKVMs, and Agglayer for interoperability. TimeStamps: 01:18 Background of the problem statement 04:48 What is Chainless App 07:20 Chainless Apps Framework Breakdown 10:56 Execution Layer - Finite State Machine 16:52 TEE in Execution Layer 21:26 Trust Layer with zkVM 25:53 Input Validation for Trust Layer 27:20 Other Trust Setup 31:41 Design choice between Execution Layer & Trust Layer 34:55 Interoperability - Agglayer 38:00 Why Agglayer for interoperability ? 41:14 Interoperability among Chainless Apps versus dApps on single chain 52:13 Chainless App Examples: zkSpot, Games, Banks & [A-Z] App 58:43 L2 Thought

    1h 10m
  • 8 Episodes

About

The Whitepaper Reading Club is a group of veterans and enthusiasts, engineers and thinkers, united by the shared curiosity to understand the mechanics powering the Web3 revolution. https://whitepaperreading.club/

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