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. This includes a description of the market, description of the product and the problem they want to solve with their technology. A white paper also contains information about the number of coins, how the coins are distributed, who is working on this project (the team), a planning (roadmap) and other statistics that are important to this project.
White papers are usually very comprehensive and contain a lot of technical information that is not always easy for the average trader to understand. A simpler variant, a lite paper, is therefore often published at the same time. It is usually shorter, less technical and easier to understand.
A well-known white paper is that of Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. This is the document published by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. It describes what Bitcoin is and the idea behind developing it. The original version of the Bitcoin white paper is here still to be found.
White papers are therefore very important for crypto projects. White papers are often very comprehensive and not all data is of interest to everyone. A Litepaper serves as a summary for a white paper. The purpose of a lite paper is to highlight all the fundamental details about the project but to elaborate as little as possible on the technical details of a project. A Litepaper was created to also attract the interest of those who do not have the time or knowledge to read an extensive technical article.
