How Crypto Actually Works: The Missing Manual
Current Status: Pre-First Edition - Open for community feedback before the official first edition is published as a free ebook
Author: Larry Cermak
Co-Authors: Igor Igamberdiev (Wintermute), Bohdan Pavlov (Wintermute)
Reviewers: Wintermute Research, The Block Research
Editors: Tim Copeland
About This Book
How Crypto Actually Works is a comprehensive technical book that explains how crypto actually functions, from Bitcoin's UTXO model to quantum-resistant cryptography. It spans 90,000+ words across 15 chapters plus a preface, covering everything from foundational concepts to new developments in the crypto ecosystem.
This repository contains the complete text of the book, which is open source and free to read, download, and share. This version is published on GitHub to collect feedback from the community. The best edits and corrections will be incorporated into the official first edition, which will be released as a free ebook on Amazon and other platforms in the coming months.
If you'd like to help shape the final version, now is the time - see Contributing below.
Why This Book Exists
When I tried to recommend a single resource that could give candidates a solid foundation in crypto, I came up short. Some books dive deeply into one protocol and ignore the rest. YouTube and X overflow with thinly disguised advertising. The best research is scattered across dozens of paywalled sites. Academic papers are rigorous but too abstract for practical learning.
Everything was missing something: too narrow, too biased, too advanced, too fragmented, or simply too hard to approach without a guide.
This book is my attempt to solve that problem.
What Makes It Different
- Comprehensive Coverage: 15 chapters covering Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, DeFi, MEV, stablecoins, custody, market structure, governance, NFTs, DePIN, quantum resistance, and more
- Up to Date: Crypto moves fast and most books are outdated before they hit the shelf. This one is actively maintained with current data, protocols, and market realities
- Structured Learning: Each chapter builds on the last, creating a coherent story that gradually increases in complexity
- Expert Review: Each chapter was reviewed by someone who works deeply in that specific area
- Honest Assessment: Technical ideas are explained clearly without dumbing them down, and both strengths and limitations are discussed
- Open Source: The entire book is free to read and share. Basic education shouldn't be locked behind paywalls
Who This Book Is For
This book is written for people who want to understand how the technology actually works, not just traders or investors. It assumes you're intellectually curious but doesn't assume prior expertise.
If you read this carefully and absorb the key ideas, you'll end up knowing more than most people who work in crypto full-time today.
Chapters
Start with the Preface, or see the Table of Contents for a full section-by-section breakdown.
Translations
| Language | Repository |
|---|---|
| 🇰🇷 Korean | gtg7784/howcryptoworksbook-kr |
Contributing
This is a pre-first edition release. We are actively seeking expert reviewers and contributors to help refine the content before the official first edition.
To contribute to this book, see CONTRIBUTING.md. All contributions must be your original work and contributed under a CC-BY license.
If you find errors, have comments, or would like to contribute improvements:
- For small corrections: Submit a pull request with the fix
- For larger changes or new material: Please coordinate with the author first
- For questions or discussion: Open an issue
When submitting pull requests, please use separate commits for each change to make review easier. Significant contributors will be acknowledged in future editions.
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Individual contributions are licensed under CC-BY; the compiled book is published under CC-BY-NC-ND.
The decision to make this book freely available is both practical and philosophical: traditional publishing can't keep pace with crypto's evolution, and basic education shouldn't be locked behind paywalls.