Learning Crypto: Understanding White Papers
It is a great day for another installment of Learning Crypto, today I want to speak on the importance of reading the white papers of tokens and cryptocurrencies.
Lots of times these white papers are long and full of technical lingo. If you ever actually take the time to read an entire white paper, often times you feel like you ought to get an award for your efforts. But the best you can do is subtly brag to your crypto friends that “You read the white paper”
Sure, bragging rights are great but there are other, much more important reasons for taking the time to do this.
What you will learn about crypto white papers is that (the good ones at least) they are designed to do several things:
Inform the public of the project,
What they want to accomplish,
Why they believe their product is needed,
Their roadmap which is a timeline of milestones they want to reach and when,
Their methods for meeting their goals
(If it is a project that will hold an ICO) You can also find how they will distribute the tokens that are created.
Learning about these aspects of a crypto project will help you better understand all that goes into creating new crypto currencies.
White papers are great tools for beginners to be exposed to higher level crypto vocabulary. More often then not you will come across words that make you feel like you’re missing something, and that’s when dictionaries come into play.
Don’t be afraid to look up words you don’t know, and don’t be afraid to learn something new.
Sure it can be tedious and overwhelming but if you’re interested in deepening your knowledge of this space, white papers are a good source and there are plenty out there for you to explore.
After you’ve read over a few of them you’ll begin to develop a better sense of what makes a good white paper, which is also an indication of the quality of the crypto project itself.
You’ll notice things like:
What kind of info they are leaving out
If their project has legitimate use cases
The type of philosophies that are behind the project.
Slowly but surely you’ll begin honing your skills and developing more confidence in your knowledge of this space.
Additional Reading/Sources:
Dictionary...USE IT:)
10 Keys for Evaluating ICOs
White Paper Definition
Valuable Resources for ICO research
Investitin Research Guide
Fundamental Analysis for Cryptocurrencies
Good White Papers to Explore
Bitcoin White Paper
Ethereum Homestead Document
OmiseGo White Paper
IOTA White Paper
DecentBet White Paper
That is helpful.. Thank you for posting :)
Nice post! What will happening, if someone resteem your post?
Does anybody create summaries and comparisons of the white pages? Cliff notes to Litecoin. :)
Well done @heiditravels :)
Great post about white papers @heiditravels . I always try to read them before investing in a new IÇO or even a new coin that I’m interested in even though it can be overwhelming at times with all the coins I am interested in. How do you narrow down what you want to spend the time researching and investing in? Also even though it was brief, it was nice talking to you at SteemFest² in Lisbon.
Very helpful information, great article!
The range in quality for various crypto whitepaper is extreme. Some are professional, articulate, and contain great vision. Others, well... were probably written in crayon and should best be used as a fire-starter.
excellent video and info from my favorite cute blogger... @heiditravels
i cannot agree more about the importance of white papers although i must be honest and confess that i usually dont find time to read white papers... being someone who trades on coins...but to do a proper dd, one needs to read the white paper, websites, social media options...bitcoin blog talks...etc... thanks for sharing this and reminding me the need for white papers..will now do the needful..thanks dear...
Excellent post. Too many people are jumping into ICO's based on what they hear, or whichever one they see pumping, rather than doing the work themselves and researching the company.
thanks Heidi for a wonderful video... you are among one of the people whom I seek for when I need some knowledge regarding cryptos... keep up the good work..
I'm honored :)
Great article. I will use this to instruct my friends so they can really start to think about how important whitepapers are
Keep up the good works!
Yes! Spread the word.