Whitepaper Guidelines
IDEA
Clear from the very first words
Features a good story-telling style
Proven innovation
MARKETS
Market situation described
Competitive advantages
FORECASTS
Relevant to the project’s potential
Relevant to the market scale
Does not make groundless assumptions
FUNCTIONALITY
General description of business processes
Token functions are stated in detail
The value of the token is evident
VALUE OF CRYPTOASSETS
For the project’s audience
For contributors
WHITEPAPER STYLE
Structured and integral product
Finished quality document
Unleashing and selling the idea
Cover
Table of Contents
Graphics and Media elements
· Graphs and charts
Videos of different components
Symbols and Icons
Photos
Introduction
Disclaimer
Table of contents
Description of the market and the problem
Description of the product and how it’s going to solve said problem
Tokens: how many, why, how, when, and so on
How the raised funds are going to be used
The team
The roadmap
How to write a white paper
Get the ball rolling
The very beginning of a white paper would also be a good section for placing a legal notice or a disclaimer, which should contain any important restrictions or notifications. These may be about exempting certain countries’ residents from buying the project’s tokens due to local laws, or simply letting future investors know that the investment itself won’t guarantee profits.
Perhaps one of the most important steps in writing pretty much any document is writing a compelling introduction. A good move would be presenting the introduction in the form of a letter from a CEO addressing future token holders.
This section is where you need to outline the problem that your project intends to solve, providing an explanation of why is this problem important, and maybe even touching upon the consequences of not solving it.
This is where you need to grab the reader's attention, explain the benefits of reading the document and provide an overview of what they can expect from it. Use any tool available to do so: charts, graphics and so on.
A white paper is mostly a technical document and, on average, they can be around 25 pages long. Therefore it is extremely important to make your white paper accessible and convenient for navigation. An informative and well-structured table of contents will definitely go a long way here.
If your white paper contains any terms that you feel need to be defined, you can make a glossary in the same section.
Talk about the project
Take as much space as you need to talk about your project in-depth and explain to the potential investors exactly where it fits within the current market. Most importantly, make sure to explain what is the project and what parts it consists of.
No one really needs any of the numbers you might want to include in the whitepaper, unless they’re backed up by research, facts or analysis.
State of the project. This section should also contain a detailed description of the current state of the project: prototype data, first users, if any, development strategy and overall goals.
The majority of serious investors will only back projects which already have something to show, as having an ecosystem and a user base will increase the chances of the project’s token’s survival in the market. If you have any of those elements, make sure to clearly let the readers know about that.
Finances. Make sure to dedicate a big section of your white paper to the project’s finances. You should be able to clearly explain why your project needs its own tokens, how and when exactly they are going to be distributed, will the issue of tokens for the ICO be limited, when will sales start on the market and so on.
Plan of the use of funds. Investors need to know exactly where their money will be going and how much money the project will need to complete certain important tasks.
Most importantly, the white paper shouldn’t mention items of expenditure such as “networking event”, “industry development”, “miscellaneous” and so forth. Your white paper should clearly state that all the money collected will be spent on development, and nothing else.
Roadmap. Finally, the white paper should include not only a detailed technical description of the project, but also a development roadmap. Ideally, an in-depth working plan for the next 12-24 months should be presented, and include at least a beta-launch.
If some tasks outlined in the roadmap have already been completed, make sure to clearly state it in the white paper, as it will be considered a major advantage by the investors.
Talk about the team
The team are an integral, crucial part of the project, and they should be presented as such. With rare exceptions, an ICO with anonymous developers is not going to be a success.
While the rest of the white paper should be a technical description, this particular section is where a human touch is essential. Photos and short biographies of the development team will be a big advantage in the eyes of investors.
Make sure to not only describe who the individuals behind your project are, but also explain why they are so important for this particular project, and why these people will make it work.
Make sure to specify in which way their previous experience will be helpful for this project. If any of the team members have had experience with blockchain or cryptocurrency related projects, make sure to state that clearly.
Also, you can say a few words about the project’s advisors. However, make sure to avoid pointless name-dropping, as the advisors mentioned should be more or less experts in what the projects is set out to achieve.
Style, language and layout
When preparing a white paper, make sure to use formal, almost academic-style writing. The document needs to be very descriptive and professional in tone. Its focus should be narrow, as it is better to pick one topic and focus on it.
Quite often, authors of white papers tend to ramble on about potential use cases and possible future implementations of their technology, instead of focusing on a task in hand.
If you intend to be selling party hats via Blockchain, don’t write about your intentions to introduce customization services in cooperation with another startup by 2025, or about considering to also start stocking top hats and snapbacks “in the near future”. Focus on integrating party hats into Blockchain. Focus on how your tokens will be used to update the party hats, how you could get a new string, or a fresh paint-job for them.
Moreover, the white paper should always be factual. Avoid using assumptions, guesses and unverified claims.
Also, and it goes without saying, make sure to check your white paper for the absence of grammatical and spelling errors, as well as fact-check everything you possibly can. The text of the entire document has to be properly formatted so that it doesn’t look unprofessional.
good evidence?
Specific names, numbers, dates, and times
Quotes from experts or reliable sources
Surveys by associations or trade groups
Government reports
Articles from respected trade journals
I recommend splitting it up into two or three separate documents:
1. A problem/solution that explains the opportunity and your new blockchain solution at a high level
2. A deep technical backgrounder that includes the math formulas, software architecture, code samples, and main use cases at a detailed level
3. A simpler backgrounder that describes how the new coins will be created, how the revenue will flow among the players, and how the ICO will work
https://thatwhitepaperguy.com/white-paper-revisions/
https://www.developcoins.com/white-paper-writing-services
Example Papers
https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/liquid-site/quoine-liquid_v1.9.pdf
https://tezos.com/whitepaper.pdf
https://tokensale.civic.com/CivicTokenSaleWhitePaper.pdf
https://genesis.vision/white-paper-eng.pdf
https://joinwell.io/files/whitepaper.pdf
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