Nakamoto, S. (2008). Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
The foundational whitepaper establishing proof-of-work blockchain consensus and decentralized digital currency.
GeeksforGeeks (2022). What is Cryptographic Primitive in Blockchain?
Technical overview of one-way hash functions, public-key cryptography, and digital signatures used in blockchain security.
Bitcoin Wiki. Controlled Supply.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Controlled_supply
Documentation of Bitcoin's 21 million supply cap and halving schedule.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2023). Platonism in the Philosophy of Mathematics.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/platonism-mathematics/
Comprehensive treatment of the view that mathematical truths are discovered rather than invented—mathematical objects exist independently of human thought.
Tegmark, M. (2014). Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality.
New York: Knopf.
Proposes the Mathematical Universe Hypothesis (MUH): physical reality is a mathematical structure, and all consistent mathematical structures exist as parallel universes.
Wheeler, J.A. (1990). "Information, Physics, Quantum: The Search for Links." In Complexity, Entropy, and the Physics of Information, edited by W.H. Zurek, 3-28. Redwood City, CA: Addison-Wesley.
Introduces "it from bit" concept: every physical phenomenon ultimately derives from yes/no binary information.
Gödel, K. (1931). "Über formal unentscheidbare Sätze der Principia Mathematica und verwandter Systeme I." Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik 38: 173-198.
Original incompleteness theorems paper (German). English translation: "On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems."
Turing, A.M. (1936). "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem." Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society 2(42): 230-265.
Introduces the Turing machine model and proves the undecidability of the halting problem.
Chaitin, G.J. (1987). Algorithmic Information Theory.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Extends Gödel's incompleteness using algorithmic randomness—some mathematical truths are "algorithmically random" and thus fundamentally independent of any axiomatic system.
Chaitin, G.J. (1987). "Information, Randomness and Incompleteness." In Papers on General Topology and Applications: Eighth Summer Conference at Queens College, 314-317. New York: New York Academy of Sciences.
Argues that Gödel's theorem reveals arithmetic truths that are "impervious to reasoning"—they cannot be derived from any finite set of axioms.
Penrose, R. (1989). The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Argues that human consciousness is non-algorithmic, using Gödel's theorem to suggest the mind transcends computation.
Penrose, R. (1994). Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Elaborates on the orchestrated objective reduction (Orch-OR) theory—quantum processes in microtubules may enable non-computable aspects of consciousness.
Lucas, J.R. (1961). "Minds, Machines and Gödel." Philosophy 36(137): 112-127.
Early argument that Gödel's incompleteness theorem demonstrates human minds cannot be Turing machines.
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The Lucas-Penrose Argument about Gödel's Theorem.
https://iep.utm.edu/lp-argue/
Critical analysis of arguments that Gödel's theorem implies minds are non-computational.
Axelrod, R. (1984). The Evolution of Cooperation.
New York: Basic Books.
Demonstrates how cooperation emerges in repeated Prisoner's Dilemma through tit-for-tat strategies.
Axelrod, R. & Hamilton, W.D. (1981). "The Evolution of Cooperation." Science 211(4489): 1390-1396.
Game-theoretic analysis showing cooperation can evolve even among selfish actors through reciprocity.
Friston, K. (2010). "The Free-Energy Principle: A Unified Brain Theory?" Nature Reviews Neuroscience 11: 127-138.
Proposes that biological systems minimize free energy (surprise) to maintain homeostasis—foundational paper for predictive processing theories.
Friston, K., Kilner, J., & Harrison, L. (2006). "A Free Energy Principle for the Brain." Journal of Physiology-Paris 100(1-3): 70-87.
Early formulation of FEP applied to neural systems—brain as Bayesian inference machine.
Lamport, L., Shostak, R., & Pease, M. (1982). "The Byzantine Generals Problem." ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems 4(3): 382-401.
Formalizes the problem of achieving consensus in distributed systems with potentially malicious participants.
Castro, M. & Liskov, B. (1999). "Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance." Proceedings of the Third Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI), 173-186.
Presents PBFT algorithm enabling practical consensus despite Byzantine faults.
Antonopoulos, A.M. (2017). Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open Blockchain (2nd ed.).
Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media.
Comprehensive technical guide to Bitcoin protocol, cryptographic primitives, and blockchain mechanics.
Buterin, V. (2014). "A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform." Ethereum Whitepaper.
https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/
Proposes Turing-complete blockchain enabling arbitrary smart contracts.
Bitcoin Wiki. Script.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Script
Documentation of Bitcoin's stack-based scripting language—intentionally not Turing-complete to ensure decidability.
Diffie, W. & Hellman, M. (1976). "New Directions in Cryptography." IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 22(6): 644-654.
Introduces public-key cryptography and the Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol.
Rivest, R.L., Shamir, A., & Adleman, L. (1978). "A Method for Obtaining Digital Signatures and Public-Key Cryptosystems." Communications of the ACM 21(2): 120-126.
Original RSA algorithm paper—first practical public-key cryptosystem.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (2015). FIPS PUB 180-4: Secure Hash Standard (SHS).
https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.FIPS.180-4
Official specification of SHA-256 and related hash functions.
Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Demonstrates how communities self-organize to manage common-pool resources without centralized authority—empirical foundation for decentralized governance.
Williamson, O.E. (1985). The Economic Institutions of Capitalism.
New York: Free Press.
Transaction cost economics—analyzes how institutional structures minimize costs of economic coordination.
Brock, M. (2023). "Trust Math, Not People." Notes from the Circus.
https://notesfromthecircus.com/trust-math-not-people/
Critique of Bitcoin's "trust math" mantra—argues mathematics cannot adjudicate moral questions and Gödel's theorem reveals inherent limits of formal systems.
Taleb, N.N. (2021). "Bitcoin, Currencies, and Fragility." arXiv preprint arXiv:2106.14204.
Statistical critique arguing Bitcoin fails as inflation hedge and lacks properties of true currencies.
Kolmogorov, A.N. (1957). "On the Representation of Continuous Functions of Several Variables by Superposition of Continuous Functions of One Variable and Addition." Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR 114: 953-956.
Original proof of superposition theorem (with Arnold)—any multivariate continuous function can be represented as compositions of univariate functions.
Arnold, V.I. (1957). "On Functions of Three Variables." Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR 114: 679-681.
Extension of Kolmogorov's work to three variables.
Shannon, C.E. (1948). "A Mathematical Theory of Communication." Bell System Technical Journal 27(3): 379-423.
Foundational information theory—establishes mathematical framework for quantifying information and entropy.
von Neumann, J. & Morgenstern, O. (1944). Theory of Games and Economic Behavior.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Founding text of game theory—provides mathematical framework for strategic decision-making.
Szabo, N. (1997). "Formalizing and Securing Relationships on Public Networks." First Monday 2(9).
Early conceptualization of smart contracts as protocols that enforce agreements through code.
Buterin, V. (2017). "The Meaning of Decentralization."
https://medium.com/@VitalikButerin/the-meaning-of-decentralization-a0c92b76a274
Analysis of architectural, political, and logical dimensions of decentralization.
Narayanan, A., Bonneau, J., Felten, E., Miller, A., & Goldfeder, S. (2016). Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Academic textbook covering cryptographic foundations, consensus mechanisms, and applications.