Whitepaper
A whitepaper is the founding document of a blockchain project: it describes the problem, the solution, the technology and the token distribution.
Explained simply
Before a project launches it usually publishes a whitepaper. It states which problem is to be solved, how the technology works, who the team is and how many tokens there will be.
The most famous whitepaper is Bitcoin's: nine pages, published in 2008. Many later papers are closer to marketing brochures. Quality varies enormously.
From the familiar world
The securities prospectus for an IPO, but without review by a regulator. Anyone investing has to scrutinise the claims themselves.
An example
Since the EU regulation MiCA, issuers of many crypto tokens in the EU must publish a standardised whitepaper with mandatory disclosures, similar to a key information document.
Why it matters
A look at the whitepaper separates substance from hype: is there a clear problem, a plausible solution and a fair token distribution? If one of these is missing, caution is warranted.
To pass on
„The whitepaper is a crypto project's prospectus. Not reading it means buying a pig in a poke.“
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