An introductory guide to Blockchain through whitepapers

Intro to Blockchain:

• Bitcoin (paper) - Blockchain
• Selfish Mining (paper) – security and vulnerabilities, optional
• Ethereum (paper) – Smart contracts
• Town Crier (paper) – Oracles, getting real world info onto the blockchain

Distributed Networks, Scalability:

• Bitcoin-NG (paper)
• Lightning Network(paper)

(Optional, interesting) Exchanges – good intro into the “decentralized” approach for financial systems:

• Criticism of Bancor, "How I Found a $25m Vulnerability in Blockchain" (paper)
• 0x Decentralized Exchange (paper) – automated exchange
• As an example of bad economics, Bancor (paper) – automated market maker with lots of flaws

Privacy – important for questions of KYC/SEC type factors:

• Monero (paper) – more anonymous transactions
• Enigma (paper) – private smart contract code

Regulation:

• Book-Smart, Not Street-Smart: Blockchain-Based Smart Contracts and The Social Workings of Law (paper)

Stable Coins:

• Tether (paper) - reserves
• CarbonUSD (summary) – automated monetary policy