🤓🤢 White Paper errors to avoid!

[naetis]

Salient points have been made on this thread.. That aspect of having the disclaimer at the beginning of the white paper to me beat the scopes of marketing and even though it keeps investors abreast of the risk, I think it shouldn't be on the front-page of the document.

I totally agree with you. From the legal point of view, it doesn't matter if it is in the beginning or in the end. To be supersafe, we can write in the T&A something like "before making a decision to purchase tokens, you must read the whole White Paper, User Agreement, and all accompanying documents". And thus you've got your butt covered)).

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[naetis]

A bad whitepaper will have a diametric effect. The idea behind your ICO may be sound and viable, but a poorly written document will lay waste to your plans. A bad whitepaper breaks the illusion. Think of a good ICO with a sub-standard paper as a sharp dressed man with a peg leg. You get the point. whitepapers must frame blockchain technology as something that can empower business processes, and not just as a way to make money.

Hear hear! Great words 👍👍

[Mcmich]

About White Paper I didn´t know, thank you for very educational article, now we all know how to write it correctly.
Because Whitepaper as a word is used by 90% of all ICOs? 

That's right Pecunia - unfortunately, there are tons of silly errors repeated by 90% of ICOs, so most people don't even realize they are errors. But if you do things the right way, you will stand out and look really good compared to others!

It really takes a very patient mind to read whitepapers of these so called ICOs. The errors and copycats in them are just so much. Whitepapers should be thoroughly scrutinized before publishing to readers and investors. Thanks for this piece.

[naetis]

It really takes a very patient mind to read whitepapers of these so called ICOs. The errors and copycats in them are just so much. Whitepapers should be thoroughly scrutinized before publishing to readers and investors. Thanks for this piece.

You are absolutely right. In 90% of WPs onefinds the same bland stuff - "revolutionizing the market", "disrupting the industry", "transparency and security" - and almost no real content. Founders should pay much, much more attention to what is written in their White Papers if they order them from paid copywriters or agencies. I do believe that the best would be for each team to write their own White Paper and then get it edited by a professional...

[Ucy]

This is pretty nice information.
Number 3 is actually quite informative. But wouldn't it be okay to add "unique" and later list startups with similar projects?
Many investors/readers may be looking for the word unique in White Papers  due to numerous copy and paste projects in Ico space.
"Unique idea" should be the appropriate terms? What do you think?

[H1N1]

Well, i write the word 'whitepaper' like this since i know about ICO 
Anyway, whitepaper can be the indicator whether a project is legit or not.
A plagiarized whitepaper is obviously show that the team behind the project are just some scam artists.

[naetis]

This is pretty nice information.
Number 3 is actually quite informative. But wouldn't it be okay to add "unique" and later list startups with similar projects?
Many investors/readers may be looking for the word unique in White Papers  due to numerous copy and paste projects in Ico space.
"Unique idea" should be the appropriate terms? What do you think?

You've made a great point Ucy. The word "unique" is a strong one. In English, people often use it sloppily, saying things like "this project is rather unique" or "it's a more or less unique offer". This is incorrect: something is rather unique or it isn't. So can a project really be unique if there are similar ones? A philosophical question!))

I'd say the best way to go about it is to include a special section entitled Unique Value Proposition. There you'd list those features of your project that make it special and different from similar projects. It should be well-structured and clear, ideally with 3-5 items. This actually requires some creative thought and a good knowledge of the competition, so it's also a good intellectual exercise!))

[lovesmayfamilis]

I learned a lot of technical documentation here on the forum. And I had a decent opinion about what the Whitepaper should look like. But, unfortunately, many projects do not understand the importance of competent writing Whitepaper.  I think the Whitepaper is the face of the project. I often see ordinary plagiarism taken from other projects. The organizers hire non-professional people, trusting the writing of their document.
A truly valid Whitepaper must be unique, there is no need to paste copied resources into it. We must be very serious about creating a document.

[Cosbycoin]

I’ve worked with dozens of blockchain project as an author, mostly writing White Papers, press releases, landing site copy, blog posts, one-pagers, and so forth. I’ve also edited lots of other people’s work, and unfortunately the same issues keep popping up again and again. So I’ve decided to collect a few of the “mortal sins” of White Paper writing and post them here one by one. It would be cool if you could add some of your own pet peeves – just stuff that annoys you when you read a White Paper or any other blockchain-related copy!

Here we go:
1) Writing “whitepaper” as a single word
White Papers are a type of official documents issued by the UK government. They describe policy proposals. (There are also green, yellow and blue papers, by the way.) Business adopted and adapted the term, so a business white paper describes not a proposed policy but a proposed project. You can choose to spell it “White Paper” or “white paper”, but please, please don’t write “whitepaper”. After all, you don’t write “whitewalkers” when referring to Game of Thrones, do you? Same thing here.

2) Placing disclaimers at the beginning
Disclaimers are the nastiest part of a White Paper – all they do is scare the reader. There are so many things that can go wrong – and the company won’t owe you a thing if your tokens lose all their value. Sure, you have to list the risks and protect yourself. But why do it in the beginning of a marketing document that aims to promote your project? Do you really want all that brutal and incomprehensible legal language to occupy the prime spot in your White Paper? Place it at the very end.

3) Claiming to be unique
Every project has competitors. Competition is not just Apple vs Samsung or Marvel vs DC Comics films. If you say that your project is unique, unrivalled, and free from any competition, it means one of two things: a) you haven’t done your research, or b) you have a very limited idea of what competition means.

A much wiser way to treat the competition issue is to devote a few hours of research, collect information on your competitors in a structured table, and find a way to present your project as being better. For example, you can stress that project A has so far failed to release a prototype, or that project B’s monetization system is inferior to yours.

Understand this: the fact that you have competitors means that there is money to be made in your niche. If there are many companies working on similar projects, it shows that there is demand, that an actual pain exists and needs to be solved. Claiming that there is no competition begs the question: if nobody has tried to do this, then maybe there is no need for it at all? Sure, Steve Jobs was able to create needs people didn’t know they had. But face it – you are not Steve Jobs.

More White Paper errors and mortal are still to come, so check back on this thread later.  And do add your own “favorite” errors!

Well thank you very much for the information, though I am still a bit confused about how white paper should be written because I have seen a lot of top persons in the crypto space write white paper without giving any space and a lot of companies has followed this pattern too, I just saw it like one of those crypto terms we make use of, for example we all talk about hodling coins but we can't find this word anywhere in the dictionary because it's a crypto world and was invented in the crypto space.

[naetis]

Well thank you very much for the information, though I am still a bit confused about how white paper should be written because I have seen a lot of top persons in the crypto space write white paper without giving any space and a lot of companies has followed this pattern too, I just saw it like one of those crypto terms we make use of, for example we all talk about hodling coins but we can't find this word anywhere in the dictionary because it's a crypto world and was invented in the crypto space.

You are right that the hodling concept was invented in the crypto space, but White Papers are common in all areas of business, not just crypto. So it's not a new concept, and there are a lot of good examples to learn from that have nothing to do with blockchain))!

[naetis]

Well, i write the word 'whitepaper' like this since i know about ICO 
Anyway, whitepaper can be the indicator whether a project is legit or not.
A plagiarized whitepaper is obviously show that the team behind the project are just some scam artists.

Well, writing "whitepaper" in one word is common in the ICO space, but it's incorrect)) And it's always better to spell things correctly, wouldn't you agree?

[GregH37]

Well, i write the word 'whitepaper' like this since i know about ICO 
Anyway, whitepaper can be the indicator whether a project is legit or not.
A plagiarized whitepaper is obviously show that the team behind the project are just some scam artists.

Well, writing "whitepaper" in one word is common in the ICO space, but it's incorrect)) And it's always better to spell things correctly, wouldn't you agree?

Any serious project developer not doing copy and paste which is mostly ways of scammers will diligentlyprepares their white paper in a simple and smart ways with quality content. If the whitepaper is quality enough, it will be interesting to investors to fully read and pick interest in the project and be able to assist in making research.

Most one word white paper written in a rush will usually end up being a scam project or failed projects, because from there, you can discern the dedication of the project developers and also their passion to the project.

[naetis]

Any serious project developer not doing copy and paste which is mostly ways of scammers will diligentlyprepares their white paper in a simple and smart ways with quality content. If the whitepaper is quality enough, it will be interesting to investors to fully read and pick interest in the project and be able to assist in making research.

Most one word white paper written in a rush will usually end up being a scam project or failed projects, because from there, you can discern the dedication of the project developers and also their passion to the project.

Of course! However, I have also seen many fully legit teams who had a good idea but produced really boring, bland, superficial White Papers - simply because they wouldn't dedicate enough effort to writing it or didn't know how to do it...

[Callanta787]

Either ways even if white papers are written correctly doesn't prove that the project is a good one and moreover its easy to just copy others whitepapers and edit them,this is not a reliable way to detect scam projects

[Adriano2010]

Indeed, even if the withepaper is ok this will not guarantee that the project will succeed or even if the team behind that project is not a scam team, and people should invest only on what they are 99% sure can bring a profit.

[naetis]

Indeed, even if the withepaper is ok this will not guarantee that the project will succeed or even if the team behind that project is not a scam team, and people should invest only on what they are 99% sure can bring a profit.

This is really a serious issue: scammers and projects that are simply weak can hire a high-quality White Paper writer to produce a very attractive description that will fool even seasoned investors. Is there a solution? Well, yes - as an investor, one shouldn't just rely on the WP. It's crucial to check the project's blog, team members' Linkedin profiles, press releases, etc., as well as ask them questions on Telegram!

[naetis]

This point was raised here in the thread, and I thought it's worth turning into an item on the list of errors:
6) Not being technical enough
All too often WP authors simply glide over the issue of technical implementation. Pages and pages describing the marketing strategy, benefits for investors, cool features of the future platform... But no mention of how it will all work. Do you plan to store data in the system? If yes, then how - in a decentralized IPFS-like structure or on a centralized server? Why have you decided to use that particular blockchain? How will you deal with the Ethereum scaling issue? If you are planning to develop your own blockchain, then how do you justify that? If your platform is AI-driven, then how will the AI work? Do you want your community to vote on important decisions? If so, how do you plan to implement the voting mechanism (especially on Ethereum)?

You see, if you just write things like "thanks to our revolutionary algorithm", "secure data storage", or "free and transparent payments", you have to have a very clear idea of how you are going to make those bold words reality. I've met lots and lots of founders who were not devs themselves and had no idea of what was technically feasible and what wasn't. Do you homework first! 

[danielchris]

I think whitepaper is a  backbone any project. It helps to know about, how would be managed or handle of project by the team members. So we can judge performance & success of projects by the help of whitepaper.