Blockchains are optimized for tamper-resistance, not retrieval. Indexers solve this by continuously reading on-chain data, decoding it, and writing it into queryable databases — making real-time dApps possible.
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Crypto Research
How Crypto Market Making Works
Market makers post continuous buy and sell quotes, earning the bid-ask spread while managing inventory risk. This explains the mechanism across CEX order books, AMM liquidity pools, and the emerging intent-based settlement layer.
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Crypto Research
How Stablecoin Reserves Work
Stablecoins maintain their peg through three distinct reserve models — fiat-collateralized, crypto-collateralized, and algorithmic. Each has different failure modes, verification mechanisms, and regulatory exposure.
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Crypto Research
How Token Vesting Works
Token vesting controls when holders can access their allocations. Here's how the smart contract mechanism works, the difference between cliff and linear schedules, and what vesting doesn't actually prevent.
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Crypto Research
How ERC-721 (NFT) Tokens Work
ERC-721 is the token standard behind NFTs on Ethereum. Each token has a unique ID mapped to an owner's address. This post explains how the ownership mechanism works, where the metadata risks actually live, and what structural changes are developing.
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Crypto Research
How ERC-20 Tokens Work
ERC-20 is the standard interface that makes most Ethereum tokens composable. This post explains the approve/transferFrom mechanism, where constraints live, and what the evolving execution layer means for how tokens work in practice.
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Crypto Research
How Bitcoin Script Works
Bitcoin Script is the programming language behind every Bitcoin transaction. It locks funds with conditions and unlocks them when those conditions are met — using a stack machine that's intentionally not Turing-complete.
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Crypto Research
How the Lightning Network Works
The Lightning Network moves Bitcoin payments off-chain using payment channels and multi-hop routing. This post explains the mechanism — how channels open, how HTLCs enable trustless routing, and where liquidity and reliability constraints live.
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Crypto Research
How Avalanche Subnets Work
A subnet in Avalanche is a validator set, not a blockchain. This post explains how subnets work, how Avalanche9000 changed the model, and where the constraints live.
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Crypto Research
How Polkadot Parachains Work
Polkadot parachains are sovereign blockchains that connect to a central Relay Chain for shared security. Here's how collators, paravalidators, XCM messaging, and the new Agile Coretime model actually work.
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Crypto Research
How Cosmos IBC Works
IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication) is the protocol that lets Cosmos-based blockchains exchange tokens and data without relying on a trusted intermediary. This post maps the mechanism, the trust model, and the key constraints.
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Crypto Research
How Cardano's Ouroboros Consensus Works
Ouroboros is Cardano's formally verified proof-of-stake consensus protocol. Here's how it selects block producers, why epochs and slots matter, and what formally verified actually means.
