What is a white paper?

Brief summary

• A white paper is a very old term

• Since last century, companies have been using the white paper as a marketing tool

• Since Bitcoin's 2008 white paper, they have become common in crypto

• The most famous white papers from the crypto world

Whitepaper meaning

Definition:

A white paper originally represents a comprehensive report on complex subject matter that aims to provide insight into the topic and may be considered a reliable source of information.

What is a white paper?

A white paper is a knowledge document. It goes into depth and conveys knowledge regarding the solution to a problem. Good white papers are attractive in appearance and written in accessible language that can be understood by the target audience from a subject area.

A white paper is written to demonstrate that you have found a good solution to a problem. Some papers are somewhat polemical in nature to prove that you are better than the competition.

Where did the term white paper come from?

In international politics, going back to the Middle Ages, it was customary to write a yearbook on political issues with a color. For example, the Netherlands wrote in orange, the U.S. wrote in red and Germany wrote in white. So when Germany signed a treaty with Samoa in 1879, it was called a white book, and that term was subsequently adopted internationally for this type of paper, which describes the relations of countries with other countries.

Whitepaper, or white paper, is a term referring to the cover or wrapper of a document. The most famous white paper of a political nature comes from Churchill, who wrote his "Churchill White Paper" in 1922. In Britain, a white paper is seen as a less elaborate version of a "Blue Book" (report of an entire economic year) in parliamentary circles.

There are a number of known color-coded documents that indicate what they should be used for. For example, a green paper works with preliminary proposals. A blue paper contains technical specifications. A yellow paper is a document that does not yet contain the final version.

Then you have the so-called grey literature. These are writings that are produced outside traditional channels and are often located in the commercial world. So in fact, you could say that a white paper in the blockchain world is actually a grey paper.

Whitepapers used in business

In the 1990s, companies also began writing white papers.

These are often partly commercial in nature and should emphasize why you should engage with a company and why they are better than other companies. It then looks more like a marketing tool than a source of information. It usually then includes a call to action button for the buyer persona.

In the business world, it is common to write a white paper that aims to generate business-to-business sales. Potential customers then need information and this is offered in an increasingly informative "funnel," with the white paper providing by far the most information. As such, it is often intended for the higher ups in the potential customer's company.

A business-oriented white paper is an opportunity to establish yourself as an authority in a particular field. Common problems are described, where your company very coincidentally has just the right solution to offer.

How do you write a white paper?

There are no hard requirements for white papers, but there are certain similarities to be found in a good e-paper.

After thorough research and testing, it is time to put together a white paper. The layout is somewhat similar among different providers. It is essential to keep the target audience of your specific topic in mind when writing such an argumentative document.

They usually come in PDF format and contain images that visually support the complex text. They include an introduction and a clear table of contents. Your paper should invite to be read.

Depending on the topic, it consists of five to 50 pages and, of course, has a separate title page.

Common practice is to name the problem first, then describe the solution step by step.

A conclusion may then follow at the end.

What you absolutely must not do with a good white paper is turn it into a commercial message. Only factual information belongs in a white paper. This is also the difference with e-books, which do not necessarily go into depth.

The purpose of a white paper

The purpose of writing a white paper is to generate new leads for your business. This can be either a standard business or a blockchain with a cryptocurrency.

The audience you want to address can consist of a whole range of interested people, such as investors, partners or journalists. Thus, anyone who wants to go deeper into the subject matter has the opportunity to read your white paper and gain very specific topics and reliable information.

What is a crypto white paper?

A white paper in the world of blockchain and crypto also involves other facets. The above examples also apply to the crypto world, but digital whitepapers in those regions try to answer the question right here.

A white paper is often written before the blockchain platform is launched. A number of technically proficient people come together to provide technical support for a promising idea. Little by little, with logical reasoning, the technology is then captured in a paper.

Once the white paper is ready, a tough job begins for most blockchain startups. Then comes the time to let the world know about your idea and attract investors. There are several forms you can think of to do this.

So you have the angel investors, who invest in your project without any office or whatever. A while ago it was common to hold an ICO and get money in that way, because obviously your employees are not going to work for you for free.

In the beginning, you sell coins for a very low price, so you can generate interest a little faster. With any luck, you'll have a decent network of social contacts, so you'll soon be able to scrape together enough from well-known crypto investors, provided you've written a white paper that describes your project in such a way that it could well be a successful one.

White papers in crypto are not usually written for mere mortals. They are often very difficult to follow pieces of text explaining in punishing mathematical language how a coin works. Yet almost no network can do without them. After all, why invest in a cryptocurrency if you don't know anything about it? The white paper is the foundation of the project, where you want to win over potential investors and has an important marketing purpose for your specific target audience.

Well-known examples of influential white papers on cryptocurrency

There are some white papers that have been significantly more influential than others. Let's get right to the most famous white paper written about blockchain and cryptocurrency. Then, of course, we are talking about Bitcoin.

Bitcoin white paper

Anyone who has been dabbling in the crypto world for a while knows this world-famous white paper. That's because cryptocurrency was born then! That's why this contribution by the illustrious Satoshi Nakamoto will never be forgotten.

The title of this legendary piece is "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System." It dates from Oct. 31, 2008, and has since been translated into many languages.

Actually, no one knows who this Nakamoto is, but if you want to play the detective we refer you to our page on who is behind this pseudonym.

One of the reasons this white paper is so famous concerns all kinds of very familiar terms from the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain that were introduced by Satoshi. For example: consensus protocol, private and public key, time stamp, hash, nodes, Merkle root and many other recurring terms used with a lot of coins since this white paper.

Most of these terms are explained in our Academy, if you are interested, you can look them up and read them here, since you are already reading in this.

In his white paper, Satoshi argued that he wanted to create a peer to peer version of electronic money. This form would allow you to pay one another without interference from a financial institution. If you want to know much more about it we refer you to the original linked above, but Nakamoto's argument boils down to the following:

How to create electronic money that belongs to the users, without using intermediaries like banks (the 2008 banking crisis was still going on). This he succeeded excellently considering that cryptocurrency still exists and Bitcoin is still king.

A fun fact is that if you print a test page with macOS you could very well print Bitcoin's white paper, as of 2018.

Ethereum's white paper

The white paper from Ethereum is also quite famous. It was published in 2014 by Vitalik Buterin, a living legend in the world of blockchains.

The title reads:

"Ethereum: A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform."

The title immediately lists the key components of Ethereum's power: smart contracts and their decentralized application platform. By this you recognize the master. Vitalik knew what he had in his hands.

Now when you talk about smart contracts and dApps, everyone knows what you're talking about. That's because these things are so incredibly important to all kinds of blockchain networks. That's why Buterin's contribution will never be forgotten.

Like Bitcoin, Ethereum is open source. That means anyone may use the source code of these blockchains and start their own coin. This has also been done many times, with varying degrees of success.

Where Bitcoin has proven to be primarily a store of value, Ethereum means a lifeline for a lot of networks. Ethereum is enormously powerful and can be seen as the hub that connects and keeps a lot of blockchains running.

With the advent of Ethereum, the function of cryptocurrency changed. Whereas before it was still about electronic value exchange of virtual coins with no intrinsic value, now the era of usable cryptocurrencies, which performed a specific function and were indispensable in that function, began.

Suddenly coins since Ethereum represented an intrinsic economic value, because the cryptocurrency (in this case ETH) did have to be used on such a network, so there was a price tag attached to it. The more it was used, the higher the demand and the higher the price.

Since the advent of Ethereum, the market of supply and demand has become more like the usual markets. With Bitcoin you think more of gold, with Ethereum more of important software, like Windows or something.

If you compare the two white papers, Bitcoin's is very original. He puts something completely new and that is incredibly difficult.

Ethereum's white paper is a continuation of Bitcoin's, taking an existing concept to the next level. It is safe to say that this whitepaper is highly technical in nature.

You could call this the difference between an artist and a genius. The artist sets something unique and the genius takes uniqueness to the next level. This is where Ethereum has succeeded particularly well, given its solid second place in the cryptocurrency rankings. It is not out of the question that Ethereum may someday overtake Bitcoin, due to the fact that so many networks need Ethereum to function.

Binance's white paper

In mid-2017, a new player entered the exchanges market and what a player it was! It was none other than Binance, the already world-famous exchange that within a few years has become the undisputed leader of all exchanges.

The title of their white paper is rather cumbersomely rendered. You could stick with two versions:

• "Binance, Binance Exchange"

• "Whitepaper V1.1"

In any case, it is clear that we are dealing with "no fuss" writers here. Gort dry titles, where they themselves probably never imagined how quickly they would pile up their successes.

In the introduction to this white paper, they mention their vision, which was that they would build a pure crypto exchange, without fiat money. They suspected that this setup would be much more successful later than at the time they started. Well, it's safe to say that they were proven right about that!

It also says something that few people know. The name Binance is a compound of Binary Finance.

Then they discuss the problems many exchanges have. They name things like poor technical architecture, insecurity of platforms, low liquidity, poor help desk and poor support for multiple languages.

They explain that they have thought of and tested all these things extensively before they put their exchange online. At that time, their team already consisted of highly experienced and successful forces from similar companies for each partial problem.

They still talk about their native token, Binance Coin (BNB), and all kinds of housekeeping like fees and how they fund their team and the exchange. For example, in the beginning they had set their fees at 0.2% of a trade. After some time, they put in a very competitive fee of 0.1% per trade, with another 25% discount if you use BNB to pay for your fees. This is the main reason for their huge success. This worked like honey to bees. Customers swarmed in.

This whitepaper is by no means technical in nature, but because Binance has become so successful, we can still count it among the most famous whitepapers in the history of blockchains and cryptocurrency.

In recent years, the West's relationship with China has cooled somewhat. So it is not very surprising that Binance, with its strong Chinese ties, is now barred from the European and American markets. Another issue is privacy regulations, which many exchanges do not abide by, including Binance.

The future of white papers in the crypto world

White papers will be written for a long time to come. As long as there are startup companies that need to attract interest from investors, white papers will be necessary. After all, without investors, you can't pay the people who have to do the work.

Another aspect of whitepapers will also continue: generating developer interest. Many blockchains start with a small team doing hard work. As more people with a solid knowledge of programming read a whitepaper, more will join a network with a credible whitepaper.

A 2,000-mile walk begins with the first step. And that is the white paper.