2008–2009: Bitcoin and the problem of double spending
The original design addressed payment history without a central operator, not every form of financial deception.
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Research articles and reference entries are published in English. Navigation is available in seven languages.
Research articles and reference entries are published in English. Navigation is available in seven languages.
2015: Ethereum makes shared computation a public service
Frontier expanded the blockchain model from a payment history into a platform for programmes and persistent state.
2016–2024: the Bitfinex theft, laundering and later sentencing
The stolen bitcoin amount, later dollar valuations and recovered assets describe different stages of one case.
2017: SegWit changes Bitcoin transaction accounting
Separating witness data addressed transaction identifiers and increased the capacity available under a block-weight limit.
2018: Lightning reaches a mainnet beta
Payment channels move repeated balance updates away from individual onchain transactions, with operational responsibilities of their own.
2018: Uniswap makes pooled liquidity a trading venue
Automated market makers changed who could create a market and where execution costs appeared.
2020: liquidity mining turns usage into a token reward
Compound's distribution helped popularise an incentive model that made activity and sustainable demand harder to separate.
2021: EIP-1559 changes Ethereum fees and introduces base-fee burning
The London upgrade changed fee estimation and the destination of part of each transaction fee.
2021: Taproot changes Bitcoin's spending paths
A key spend can keep unused script conditions out of the visible transaction history.
2021: Tether's reserve representations face an enforcement finding
The CFTC order concerned historical statements about backing, with a defined period and a defined penalty.
2021: the NFT boom connects provenance, art and speculation
Beeple's auction showed the reach of tokenised ownership, while the token standard left many rights outside the contract.
2021–2023: Gemini Earn connects a retail interface to Genesis credit risk
The arrangement illustrates how the familiar app can be only the first link in a lending chain.
2022: BlockFi and the regulation of crypto interest accounts
The February enforcement settlement concerned a lending product's registration and disclosures, not a safety certification.
2022: Ethereum replaces mining with proof of stake
The Merge changed block production while preserving application state and the existing ETH asset.
2022–2025: Celsius, promised yield and CEL price support
The criminal record connected misleading safety claims with risky asset use and manipulation of the platform's token.
2023: Shapella enables staking withdrawals
A later upgrade supplied an exit mechanism that the Merge had not yet introduced.
2023: USDC's peg encounters a banking failure
A cash-backed token can trade below its target when access to part of its reserve becomes uncertain.
2024: Dencun gives rollups a separate data market
Blob transactions reduced one component of rollup costs without turning every layer 2 into the same security model.
2024: US spot Bitcoin ETPs change the access route
Exchange-traded exposure brought a familiar securities wrapper around an asset still held through a custody chain.
2025: the Bybit theft and the limits of a transaction signature
The FBI's attribution record documents a major theft; a valid signature alone does not establish informed approval.
A running chain can have an inaccessible app
Websites, RPC providers, DNS and indexers remain operational dependencies.
A ticker is not an asset identifier
The chain and contract or mint establish which token is being discussed.
A transaction's path from signature to confirmation
Signing, broadcasting, inclusion and finality are distinct events.
A trusted frontend can still ask for the wrong transaction
Review the final wallet request, not only the page that produced it.
A valid signature can approve the wrong action
Cryptographic validity and informed consent answer different questions.
Address poisoning and clipboard mistakes
A familiar-looking history entry can be the wrong destination.
Address-poisoning transfers
An attacker creates history entries using addresses that resemble trusted counterparties.
Advance-fee recovery scams
A person promises to recover stolen assets after an upfront payment.
Affiliate-link concealment
A tracking link pays the publisher while appearing neutral.
After a suspected scam or compromise
Limit further exposure, preserve evidence and establish which authority was lost.