A white paper is a document that explains the purpose and technology of a crypto project.
Although there is no single standard for a crypto white paper, they usually contain more or less the same elements. Consider a description of the market, description of the product and the problem they want to solve with their technology. Also included in a white paper is information about the number of coins, how the coins will be distributed, who is working on this project (the team), a schedule (roadmap) and other statistics that are important in this project.
Whitepapers are usually very comprehensive and contain a lot of technical information that is not always easily understood by the average trader. Therefore, a simpler variant, a litepaper, is often issued simultaneously. This is usually shorter, less technical and easier to understand.
One well-known white paper is Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. This is the paper published in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto. It describes what Bitcoin is and the thinking behind its development. The original version of the Bitcoin whitepaper can still be found here.
Whitepapers are thus of great importance for crypto projects. Whitepapers are often very comprehensive and not all data is of interest to everyone. A litepaper serves as a summary for a whitepaper. The goal of a litepaper is to highlight all the fundamental details about the project but to go as little as possible into technical details of a project. A Litepaper is created to also capture the interest of those who do not have the time or knowledge to read an extensive technical article.
