How Cryptocurrencies Work

Most cryptocurrency writing sits at one of two extremes: introductory books that stop exactly where the interesting questions begin, or primary sources that assume you already know what a Byzantine fault is. This book occupies the ground between them.

It explains how Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Tether, Algorand, Nano and Stellar actually work — the cryptography, the consensus mechanics, the economics — then scores all seven against the same published rubric, so the comparisons mean something. It extends the same treatment to the categories that fit none of them: privacy coins, meme coins, and the oracle, storage and DePIN tokens.

WHAT'S INSIDE

- Money's three functions, cryptography, consensus and block structure from first principles

- Bitcoin end to end: mining economics, the 2026 quantum fork debate, Lightning, a merchant integration

- Ethereum: the EVM, gas and the burn, proof of stake, rollups, MEV, Glamsterdam

- XRP, Stellar, Tether, Algorand and Nano — each with working code

- Wallet implementation for every asset: receive, storage and send

- Decentralised finance: AMMs, liquidation cascades, flash-loan attack surfaces

- Mining as an industry: site economics, power contracts, the AI conversion

- The major exchanges contrasted, and where double-digit yields actually come from

- Regulation across ten jurisdictions; security, forensics and incident response

- A scored ranking of the 100 largest assets, with its methodology stated in full

WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT

Every figure carries the date it was measured. Every tool cited carries its repository URL. Working code in Python, Solidity, Rust and TypeScript. Over 300 tables and diagrams. And a consistent refusal to repeat a throughput claim without asking what the validator requirements were.

Data is current to September 2026: Bitcoin's BIP-360 and BIP-361 proposals, Ethereum's Fusaka and Glamsterdam upgrades, Tether's GENIUS Act problem, Algorand's post-quantum accounts, the privacy-coin rally, the 2026 drawdown.

The conclusion will annoy partisans of every chain in it: technical quality is a threshold, not a ranking. Above that threshold, distribution decides. The evidence is in every chapter.

For developers, analysts, and anyone who wants the mechanism rather than the marketing.

Not investment advice. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell anything.