// writing
Posts tagged #crypto
A mix of technical deep-dives, career reflections, and dispatches from the road.
tag: #crypto
financeNov 8, 2026· 4 min
Proof of Reserves: What an Exchange's Merkle Tree Can and Can't Prove
Exchanges publish proof of reserves to show customer funds are backed. Here's how the Merkle sum tree works, and the liabilities it was never built to see.
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financeNov 4, 2026· 4 min
Your Bitcoin Wallet Has No Balance: UTXOs, Change, and Why Fees Ignore the Amount
Bitcoin tracks unspent outputs, not balances. Here's how the UTXO model works, where change goes, and why sending $50 can cost more than sending $50,000.
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financeOct 31, 2026· 5 min
How Ethereum Gas Fees Actually Work: Base Fee, Tip, and Burn
Your wallet shows one number, but an Ethereum fee is really three: a burned base fee, a tip for the validator, and a ceiling you mostly get refunded.
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financeOct 14, 2026· 5 min
Perpetual Futures: How Funding Rates Keep a Contract With No Expiry Honest
Perpetual futures never expire. Here's how the funding rate keeps them pinned to spot, what it costs to hold one, and why leverage makes the math unforgiving.
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financeOct 10, 2026· 4 min
Bitcoin's Security Budget: What Happens When Fees Are Under 1% of Miner Revenue
Bitcoin pays miners mostly in newly issued coins, and in 2026 fees cover under 1% of miner revenue. Here's how the security budget works and why fees matter.
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financeSep 26, 2026· 4 min
Ethereum Staking Explained: What Validators Actually Earn and Risk
Staking gets pitched as a savings account for crypto. Here's how Ethereum validators really earn rewards, why yield keeps shrinking, and what the risks are.
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financeSep 16, 2026· 5 min
What DAO Vote Counts Say About Decentralized Governance
DAOs promise governance without a boardroom. Turnout, delegate concentration, and a few expensive attacks tell a more complicated story about how they run.
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financeSep 12, 2026· 4 min
On-Chain Analytics: Transparent Data, Inferred Conclusions
Blockchains publish every transaction, which makes on-chain data feel like proof. Most of the charts built on top of it are inferences, and a few of the…
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financeAug 26, 2026· 4 min
How US Regulators Sorted Crypto Into Five Buckets
For years, whether a token was a security came down to a lawyer's read of a 1946 orange grove case. In 2026 the SEC finally published a taxonomy, and then…
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financeAug 19, 2026· 4 min
How DeFi Lending Works: Health Factors, Rate Curves, and Liquidation Bots
On-chain lending replaces credit checks with collateral, loan officers with a utilization curve, and collections with bots.
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