Engineering articles
3 articles in Engineering, newest first, with the mechanism behind each one shown in full.
- Engineering10 min read
Someone took 4,000 bitcoin from the Liquid Network without breaking anything
No key was stolen and no signer was tricked. A withdrawal from the Liquid Network, Bitcoin's largest sidechain, looked like every other withdrawal and took 95% of the reserve. Most of it came back a day later. The 602 BTC that did not is now every holder's problem, in equal share.
- Engineering4 min read
Crypto amounts are integers: 1 ETH is 1000000000000000000 wei
A balance of 1 ETH is not 1.0 — it is 1000000000000000000 wei, an exact whole number. Every protocol that matters works this way, and the bugs appear the moment a decimal point gets involved. Why the integer representation exists and what breaks without it.
- Engineering7 min read
Why 0.1 + 0.2 is not 0.3, and what to do about it
Every mainstream language gives 0.30000000000000004 for 0.1 + 0.2. The reason is not a bug, it is base two, and it has consequences for anything that adds money in a loop. Here is the exact arithmetic, the four places it bites, and the rules that keep it harmless.