References & Primary Sources
Last updated: September 3, 2026
A curated gateway to the primary sources our editors reach for first. It covers Bitcoin itself and the ground beneath it: computing hardware and semiconductors, supercomputing, AI and quantum computing, futures of computing, distributed systems, volunteer computing and number-theory searches including PrimeGrid, and blockchain design. For AI and LLM fact-checking, pair it with the source list at the end of each article.
Note: every link below leaves this site. Each linked site has its own terms and privacy policy.
Computing and semiconductor history
Original documents, museum records, and company filings tracing EDVAC, transistors, integrated circuits, microprocessors, GPUs, FPGAs, foundries, and back-end assembly and test. Claims of being “first” stay qualified, and vendor self-descriptions stay attributed.
- Smithsonian — EDVAC First Draft (1945)
- Computer History Museum — The Neverending Quest for “Firsts”
- Nokia Bell Labs — Transistor history
- NobelPrize.org — Kilby and the integrated circuit
- Computer History Museum — MOS transistor
- Computer History Museum — Who Invented the Microprocessor?
- Smithsonian — Intel 4004 object record
- IBM — System/360 history
- Intel — Blockscale SHA-256 ASIC launch (2022)
- Intel — Blockscale product discontinuance notice (2023)
- NVIDIA — CUDA Programming Guide
- Khronos — OpenCL registry
- Arm — Architecture history
- Arm — 2026 Form 6-K / expansion into production silicon
- TSMC — 2025 Annual report / foundry model
- Samsung Foundry — Wafer manufacturing network
- ASML — Annual report / lithography systems
- Synopsys — Silicon design, IP, and simulation
- Cadence — IC design and verification software
- ASE — Semiconductor packaging, assembly, and test
Supercomputing, AI, quantum, and computing futures
Primary and authoritative material on current HPC measurements, plans around 2030, AI capability and work, quantum error correction and Bitcoin key recovery, and agent identity, payment and audit. We use it to keep measurements, plans, drafts, and editorial scenarios distinct.
- TOP500 — June 2026 List
- RIKEN — FugakuNEXT
- U.S. Department of Energy — Advanced Scientific Computing Research
- IEA — Key Questions on Energy and AI (2026)
- International AI Safety Report 2026
- NIST — AI Risk Management Framework Core
- OECD — AI Capability Indicators
- ILO — Generative AI and Jobs 2025
- EuroHPC JU — Quantum Computing & Access
- Nature — surface-code error correction
- PRX Quantum — resource estimates for quantum secp256k1 key recovery
- NIST — Post-Quantum Cryptography standards
- x402 Foundation — x402 protocol
- ERC-8004 — Trustless Agents (Draft)
- Ethereum.org — Oracles
Technical primary sources
Bitcoin protocol, improvement proposals, and core reference documentation. Edits for technical topics (blockchain / mining / transactions / wallets / Layer 2, etc.) start here.
Distributed systems, volunteer computing, number theory, and blockchain design
Primary papers and official project records tracing distributed-systems research before Bitcoin, scientific and number-theory computing from SETI@home, BOINC, and PrimeGrid, and permissionless and permissioned blockchain design.
- DARPA — ARPANET
- Lamport — Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events
- Lamport, Shostak, Pease — The Byzantine Generals Problem
- Fischer, Lynch, Paterson — Impossibility of Distributed Consensus
- Schneider — State Machine Approach
- Douceur — The Sybil Attack
- BOINC — UC Berkeley
- SETI@home — UC Berkeley
- PrimeGrid — Official prime-search project
- Folding@home
- Luttmann et al. — Molecular dynamics on Cell / PlayStation 3
- Beberg et al. — Eight years of Folding@home (IPDPS 2009)
- NTT DATA — cell computing Gene launch (2005)
- Einstein@Home
- World Community Grid — Current Research
- World Community Grid — Statistics by Project
- NIST IR 8202 — Blockchain Technology Overview
- Ethereum Whitepaper
- Ethereum Yellow Paper
- Hyperledger Fabric documentation
Compute incentives, GPU markets, and space computing
Primary sources on volunteer-computing credit systems, cryptocurrency incentives, AI-driven GPU demand, and space-edge-computing demonstrations. We use them to separate documented systems, company disclosures and flown demonstrations from inference and future proposals.
- BOINC — Credit design for volunteer computing
- Ethereum Foundation — Frontier launch (2015)
- ethereum.org — Ethash mining algorithm
- ethereum.org — The Merge
- AMD — 2017 Form 10-K / cryptocurrency-related GPU demand
- Krizhevsky et al. — AlexNet paper (2012)
- NVIDIA — FY2026 Form 10-K / Data Center business
- NASA — Spaceborne Computer-2 aboard the ISS
- ESA — PhiSat-1 onboard AI
- NASA — High-Performance Spaceflight Computing
Japan — regulation and tax
Official documents from the FSA and NTA. These are the primary sources for Japan-specific topics: the Payment Services Act, the crypto-asset exchange business, and taxation.
United States — regulation and tax
Official US agency documents. These are the primary sources for ETFs, spot Bitcoin ETFs, SEC actions, the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, IRS rulings, and similar US topics.
EU and international bodies
EU MiCA regulation and international body guidance. Primary sources for global crypto-asset regulatory trends.
Statistics and market data
Neutral sources of measurement. We use them for network statistics such as difficulty, hashrate, and mempool size, rather than for price charts.
Historical events
Official and semi-official records of Bitcoin history and major incidents (Mt.Gox, FTX, Samourai, etc.).
Browse every article citation
This page is the curated starting set of primary sources our editors reach for first. The deduplicated Sources & Research Index lists every work actually cited by all 45 articles and the BIP index.
Open the Sources & Research Index