Financial statements, market structure, and how blockchains actually work—explained with worked examples, sources, and limits.
Why a wallet's transaction simulation can differ from what actually executes, how minimum-output settings and failed-transaction fees work, and what simulations miss about approvals and malicious contracts.
Why bid-ask spreads widen and available size shrinks outside regular hours, how market and limit orders fare differently, and what to check before trading, with a hypothetical order book comparison.
Who can change code in upgradeable smart contracts, how much reaction time multisigs and timelocks give users, and when emergency powers or slow withdrawals erase that time, with a comparison table and checks.
How economic ownership and voting power diverge in dual-class companies, how new issuance, transfer conversions, and sunset clauses change the split, with a hypothetical voting table and a filing checklist.
What zero-knowledge proofs guarantee in rollups (the computation is correct) versus what data availability guarantees (anyone can rebuild the state), and how rollups and validiums differ when operators stop.
How to calculate an insurer's loss ratio, expense ratio, and combined ratio, separate underwriting profit from investment income, and read reserve development and catastrophe losses, with a two-year table.
How wallets get blockchain data through full nodes, light clients, or RPC providers, what each verifies and what each must trust, and what can go wrong when the data is false, with a comparison table.
How a bank's allowance for credit losses reflects expected losses, how delinquency and nonperforming loans relate to reserve coverage, and how provisions hit earnings, with a hypothetical bank table.
How Bitcoin's UTXO model and Ethereum's account model record balances differently, how UTXO selection and change outputs work, and why Bitcoin fees depend on transaction size, with a worked transaction.
How preferred stock differs from common in dividend terms (cumulative, participating), liquidation priority, voting and conversion rights, and accounting classification, with a hypothetical liquidation waterfall.
