Zpoken Blog https://zpoken.io/blog/ Engineering accounts, economic research, and founder notes from Zpoken — senior crypto-engineering takeover team. en Tue, 28 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 We shipped an order-book DEX. AMMs won anyway. Here's the math. https://zpoken.io/blog/order-book-dex-amm-retrospective/ https://zpoken.io/blog/order-book-dex-amm-retrospective/ Mon, 13 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Order book DEX vs AMM, from a team that shipped a CLOB: the maker-PnL doom loop on thin venues, why passive liquidity won, and where CLOBs won back perps. No threat model, no privacy work https://zpoken.io/blog/no-threat-model-no-privacy-work/ https://zpoken.io/blog/no-threat-model-no-privacy-work/ Mon, 15 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Why Zpoken declines privacy work without a threat model: privacy is only defined against a named adversary, and the one-page model that makes it engineering. What institutional stablecoin engineering involves after GENIUS and MiCA https://zpoken.io/blog/institutional-stablecoin-engineering-genius-mica/ https://zpoken.io/blog/institutional-stablecoin-engineering-genius-mica/ Mon, 18 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 GENIUS Act and MiCA stablecoin requirements, translated to engineering: attestation pipelines, mint/burn controls, freeze governance, redemption ladders. The usefulness gap: what proof-of-useful-work actually pays for https://zpoken.io/blog/proof-of-useful-work-usefulness-gap/ https://zpoken.io/blog/proof-of-useful-work-usefulness-gap/ Mon, 13 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Proof-of-useful-work economics from public data: Bittensor's post-halving $443k/day miner pay, the verification tax, and when the usefulness gap closes. The price of not trusting: a working cost model for ZK light clients https://zpoken.io/blog/zk-light-client-cost-model/ https://zpoken.io/blog/zk-light-client-cost-model/ Mon, 16 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0000 ZK light client cost model with real inputs: ~$0.21 of proving vs $1-$22 of Ethereum verification gas per finality proof — and the decision rule that follows. Mainnet is the halfway point: the real cost structure of keeping a chain alive https://zpoken.io/blog/mainnet-is-the-halfway-point/ https://zpoken.io/blog/mainnet-is-the-halfway-point/ Mon, 16 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Blockchain maintenance cost, from public data: Kadena's 2025 foundation shutdown, Protocol Guild's $33M funding record, and five post-genesis cost lines. Anatomy of a bond-backed stablecoin: how Evidentia works https://zpoken.io/blog/anatomy-bond-backed-stablecoin-evidentia/ https://zpoken.io/blog/anatomy-bond-backed-stablecoin-evidentia/ Mon, 19 Jan 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Bond-backed stablecoin design from Evidentia's docs and mainnet contracts: ERC-1155 per-bond collateral, the mint formula that prices time, and yield math. One proof for any leaf: OR-aggregation Merkle inclusion proofs https://zpoken.io/blog/or-aggregation-merkle-inclusion-proofs/ https://zpoken.io/blog/or-aggregation-merkle-inclusion-proofs/ Mon, 15 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0000 OR-aggregation makes Merkle inclusion proof size independent of leaf count (MDPI Cryptography 2024). The engineering translation of our peer-reviewed result. Local-currency stablecoins are an emerging-market product, not a dollar clone https://zpoken.io/blog/local-currency-stablecoins/ https://zpoken.io/blog/local-currency-stablecoins/ Mon, 17 Nov 2025 12:00:00 +0000 Local currency stablecoins (UAHe, TRYe, VNDe): who needs hryvnia or lira onchain, the World Bank corridor math, and why bond-backed beats T-bill backing. A ZK light client is a consensus reimplementation https://zpoken.io/blog/near-ethereum-zk-light-client-plonky2/ https://zpoken.io/blog/near-ethereum-zk-light-client-plonky2/ Mon, 13 Oct 2025 12:00:00 +0000 NEAR to Ethereum ZK light client, by the team that built it: five-block finality scheme, ed25519 in-circuit, plonky2 recursion, and what we'd change in 2026.