Ethereum archaeology: MistCoin + Unicorn Meat show how token design evolved before “DeFi” had a name

Most people know ERC-20 from 2017+ culture, but the design constraints were visible much earlier.

Two artifacts worth studying together:

• MistCoin (2015): one of the earliest token experiments around the same era as the ERC-20 proposal work.
• Unicorn-related 2016 contracts (and later wrapped routes): useful for seeing where DEX-era assumptions break (especially decimals + fee math edge cases).

Why this matters now:

1) It shows that “old contracts” are not just collectibles — they’re test cases for protocol assumptions. 2) It explains why some modern infra behaves weirdly with legacy token characteristics. 3) It gives context for today’s wallet/swap UX decisions (what broke, what had to be wrapped, what had to be redesigned).

If anyone’s interested, I can post a clean source bundle in comments (primary sources only: old threads, dev docs, commits) so this stays historical and verifiable, not just lore.