Whitepaper: A prominent tool in the cryptocurrency domain
What is a whitepaper? Is it an article? Or a document about your blockchain project? Why is it used? Do we use different whitepapers for cryptocurrencies? How does someone write a whitepaper? Is it easy to write? What are the dos and don’ts of a whitepaper? Should we hire someone to write a whitepaper? And lastly, which are the prominent whitepapers written in the crypto industry? The answer to these questions is right below for you.
1. Whitepaper: in general
A whitepaper is generally called or defined as a guide or an authoritative report which helps in informing the readers concisely about a complex issue. The whitepaper also assists the users in understanding a question or solving a problem and deciding. The uses of the whitepaper have elaborated to a bright extent over the years.
In business, a whitepaper gets used as a form of marketing presentation, a tool that helps persuade a more significant number of customers. It is also useful in promoting your products on a new level depending on your consumer base and reach. Whitepapers also get considered as a form of “Grey Literature.”
In cryptocurrencies, a whitepaper is an exquisite document generally issued by new blockchain projects before their Initial Coin Offering. A Whitepaper in cryptocurrencies helps inform the reader about the latest technology, its methodology, and the products or services that are about to be launched.
A whitepaper is a document that does not facilitate decision-making but helps make a spontaneous decision based on your customer approach. This decision-making process gets done by considering the company's or product's favor. So, in simple words, we can define a whitepaper as something which stands between an article and advertising material.
This article contains useful information and provides an accurate solution for purchasing a product or a service. The main reason behind using this whitepaper is that it helps in giving a detailed response to the customers regarding their complex problems experienced.
A whitepaper is called checklists, instructions, reports, interviews, and infographics, as they do lots of work at a single stop.
2. Who can write a whitepaper?
Before moving on to who can write a whitepaper, let us first analyze how a whitepaper should be written to engage a higher number of audiences. Below are the four things which are the most while writing a whitepaper. They are:
2.1 Technical Description: The technical description of the product or services must get written over a separate clause in the whitepaper. Why is this essential? It is vital as it helps in understanding the project in a more relaxed manner.
But what should this technical description enclose? This technical description should house all the technical aspects of your product or services. It should also mention the technology used for creating the product or service.
2.2 Quality and Fresh Writing: This attribute will help you obtain higher chances of success with your whitepaper. The whitepaper should be written in simple English, but it should be appealing.
The information provided should be apt and accurate. The readers should easily understand whatever you have conveyed in your whitepaper.
2.3 Accuracy: As said before, the information provided must be apt and accurate. You must ensure the information provided in your whitepaper has a higher credibility value. The statistics and data provided must be from a trustworthy source. You do not want to disappoint your investors by barging them with lies, right?
2.4 Design: Design is a crucial part of your whitepaper. The design housed in your whitepaper should match the concept of your product. It should also match the ideologies of your project and the company.
The ideal way to create a peculiar design is to content your parts separately and merge them later into one component. This attribute will help you in creating the perfect layout for your whitepaper.
So, by now, everyone would have figured out who can write a whitepaper efficiently, right? Yes, they are the technical writers, editors, translators, and people associated with the project who are well versed in all the above skills.
3. What rules does one need to follow when writing a whitepaper?
Following are the rules which are beneficial while writing your whitepaper. They are:
3.1 Place the legal notice at the beginning of your article: The beginning of your whitepaper would be the best place for placing your legal notice. The legal advice should contain all the severe restrictions as well as notifications.
Why is it needed at the beginning only? This feature will prevent other country citizens from knowing the laws imposed by your country and planning their investments correctly. This attribute will also inform the clients that following the same thing in the whitepaper would not necessarily lead to profits immediately.
3.2 Mention about project description briefly and fluently: This attribute is necessary for every whitepaper. It lets the investor or the client know your project and how it works in detail.
Talk about your project in detail, and do not miss any point in the project. The investor may like any point in the project to invest in your project. Your plan's documentation should contain everything from the beginning to the end. Add facts, analysis, and research performed on your project only if they are valid and are delivered efficiently.
Also, mention the state of your project, whether it is completed or not. If not completed, at what stage is your project presently lying? How much more time will it take to get completed? It should also mention the strategy employed for developing the plan and user opinions on the project.
The prime goal of your project has to be specified, and in case it’s completed, whether you have reached your top goal or not has to be mentioned. Most investors will like unique projects with well-planned strategies and proper user opinions.
3.3 Talk about your finances: Write a separate topic that mentions the funds you have received and how well you have utilized them. You should explain in this section why your project requires such big tokens, how they will get distributed, and whether they will be limited.
You should also provide the timeline of when your sales might start and how efficiently you plan to use your finances. Most importantly, do not use terms of expenditure such as ‘industry development,’ ‘miscellaneous expenses,’ ‘networking expenses,’ and so on. It should mention that the finances received have been used only for development.
3.4 The stages of your project: You should mention your detailed roadmap of the project and how good your roadmap is. The roadmap must get written as a technical description, and most of the parts must be highlighted in its development.
Ideally, presenting your plan for the next 12-24 months is considered the best, which must also consist of at least one planned beta launch. If the tasks mentioned in your project plan have been completed, then it is necessary to state them in the whitepaper. This attribute will boost your project to a new high in front of investors.
3.5 Speak about your team: Remember, because of your organization, your project is at such a stage. Without your team, your plan would have been a dead rubber. Your project can be accomplished within the stipulated time because of their hard work and efforts. An ICO can never be a success with the help of anonymous developers.
Provide this section of the article with a human touch. Add some photos, biographies, and small user experiences of the team members, which may delight the investors. Explain why your team is essential and state how they have made your project look easier. Also, indicate if any of your project members have prior experience in blockchain or cryptocurrency.
3.6 Style, Language, and Layout: Format is the most significant plus point in any technical paper, whether a whitepaper or an article. The paper must maintain a professional style throughout and be descriptive only where it needs to be.
Avoid making grammatical mistakes and house a layout that can easily fit your content appropriately. Be factual in your whitepaper. Avoid making livid guesses, assumptions, or claims which are not verified. These errors will lead investors to discard your project even before they read the terms.
The formatting has to get done in such a way that, at any point, it should not look unprofessional. If you think you are not well enough to write the whitepaper, hire a technical writer or content writer. Also, hire a professional translator who might help you translate the most challenging data more relaxedly.
4. Why do companies write whitepapers?
As we have already discussed, a whitepaper's principal purpose is to help promote your product or service. It also helps in persuading customers and assists in analyzing the problems they face. It influences and informs the customers or other parties that your product or technology is superior to others and helps solve a specific business problem. It also helps in addressing a particular challenge or condition concerning your domain.
So, in simple words, we can tell that one needs to write a whitepaper to promote his product or service, which might be a technology or methodology. This promotion should be influenced by your customers' perspectives and current decisions.
These whitepapers are very different from the brochures and other materials used for promotion. These promotional materials are flashy and include blatant sales pitches. So, how is the whitepaper different from these? A whitepaper has the intent to provide you with a piece of factual and persuasive evidence. Through this evidence, you can soothe your investors that your method is superior while battling a challenge or a problem.
5. Why would you need to hire someone to write a good whitepaper?
This question is similar to why you need a journalist to write a newspaper column. As mentioned above, the critical factors in a whitepaper must be duly followed, or it may lead to discarding your whitepaper.
So, it is better to hire someone who has good knowledge about the subject and understands what the writing should look like. And as the tone of the paper is considered professional and factual, it can be assumed that you need a professional writer.
Always ensure that a person with good experience with blockchain and cryptocurrency domains helps you write your whitepaper. A person with good knowledge of these domains will know what to mention while writing the essay. A professional will know how to maintain a professional style and write things accordingly to the format.
The style, language, and format of a whitepaper must also get written in a manner that suits the needs of your project. The font must be professional. And most blockchain projects consist of codes and algorithms which are best written and conceived by a program developer.
To ensure your whitepaper delivers the accurate information it needs, you must hire a professional to help you write it. The best output of something can be expected only when the best person works on it, right?
6. Some popular whitepapers in the crypto industry
The famous whitepapers in the crypto industry are as follows:
6.1 Ethereum Whitepaper – This paper raised a vast amount of 15 million as an investment
6.2 Quoine – This paper raised massive money of 105 million US dollars as an investment
6.3 DigixDAO – This paper raised considerable cash of 5.5 million US dollars as an investment
6.4 Ethereum Useless – This was the shortest whitepaper ever written in the domain of cryptocurrencies. It raised colossal money of 257 lakh US dollars as an investment.
The final ball of the innings is:
The whitepaper is one of the most critical tools in the domain of cryptocurrencies. We have already seen how handy it can be to a person or a company. The uses of whitepaper are enormous, but like all articles, even whitepaper has value when it gets written accordingly.
The matters which should be used and shouldn’t get used are also analyzed in the article. So, if an ICO has to reach newer heights in its tenure, then the whitepaper serves as driving gear to increase its speed and accuracy.
