Why Whitepapers Still Matter in ICO and Crypto Marketing

Steven Krohn
4 min readJun 9, 2018
The Importance of Whitepapers in ICO and Crypto Marketing

“But all those who used their knowledge in a bid to enact social change saw cryptography as a tool to enhance individual privacy and to shift power from big, central institutions to the human beings who live in their orbit.” — Paul Vigna

Whitepapers have proven very effective for marketing and promoting cryptocurrencies. When Bitcoin launched originally in 2008, it was marketed through a whitepaper that was supposedly written by Satoshi Nakamoto.

Since then, almost every project has been introduced in the market with a whitepaper of its own.

Developers for new ICO projects now have more advanced methods of marketing at their disposal. New cryptocurrencies now rely on webinars, social media and animated presentations to promote their ICO.

We still cannot deny the importance of well written whitepapers.

The Purpose of Whitepapers

Whitepapers are authoritative guides which inform readers about a problem that exists in the market. How will the new blockchain project solve it?

The document presents the company’s philosophy, its rationale for it’s existence as well as the economic model that would generate revenue.

Whitepapers are a document that allows businesses to share the following information with their audience.

  • The project vision and long term goals of the company
  • A problem that exists in the market
  • Generate publicity for the company
  • Introduce the project founders and inform the public on character and reputation
  • Distribute information about the business
  • Present technical knowledge about how the problem will be solved

A whitepaper allows an ICO to gain a level of credibility and trust. The goal is to show potential investors that the founders have a legitimate business idea that will succeed.

The document also presents the development team, advisors and investors behind the project. When there are credible and experienced people supporting the company, investors are more likely to trust the ICO.

Importance Of Whitepapers

With few exceptions, most companies will find it difficult to hold a successful ICO without a good whitepaper. One that explains the project scope in detail.

Not everyone has access to the founders. They also might not have access to any webinars ot conferences being held. A whitepaper is something that everyone can find and read.

Serious investors won’t invest in a project that lacks information on the technology. That same concept applies in presenting the experience of the founders and developers.

A badly written whitepaper, or lack of a whitepaper altogether, will assuredly be seen as a red flag in the legitimacy of an ICO.

Whitepapers will also be used in decribng the legal requirements for holding an ICO. The SEC has develped guidelines for such companies.

Whitepapers must include pertinent information as well as the promoter’s location, the description of the token, the qualifications of the technical team, etc.

Qualities Of Good Whitepapers

Whitepapers are usually produced through the joint efforts of technicians, lawyers, marketers and financial experts of a company. A whitepaper includes elements from all these functional areas.

A good whitepaper includes the following information.

  • The vision of the project
  • The technology
  • The problem that will be solved in the market
  • How the tokens will be distributed
  • Timeline of milestones that the company aims to reach
  • The core team and its record

Why Whitepapers Matter to Investors

Speculative buyers tend not to read the whitepaper before buying the tokens. They find the paper either too technical or too difficult to understand.

Some don’t see a point in reading it because they are simply investing in a pump and dump scheme. They don’t have any long-term investment plans.

Long-term investors review each element of whitepapers carefully. These key investors are essential for the long-term survival and growth of the company.

The Project Vision

Investors are motivated by different factors. The project vision plays a key role in their decision to buy the tokens. Investors look for an ICO that has a clear vision and developers who are passionate about their goals.

The Proposed Technology

Blockchain-based fintech projects are highly technical. It can difficult to explain the technology in simple English where most understand it.

This represents one of the biggest challenges of writing the document. A good whitepaper should explain the technology in clear layman terms.

One should be written in such a way that most people will comprehend what they are reading.

The Problem to Solve

Whitepapers should also identify the problem in the market which the company is looking to solve. A major problem is that there too many projects trying to resolve the same problem. We have created an abundance of ICOs.

Investors keep an eye out for something different. There is little interest in another company trying to create something that already exists in the market.

The Core Team Experience

The people behind an ICO are its biggest strength. An ICO that is backed by experienced developers with stellar reputations are likely to do well in the token sale.

Token Distribution

In some of the newer projects, a developing company might keep a majority share in order to retain control. What that does this is help provide the crypto with stability.

That said, investors tend to be very suspicious of such projects.

Whitepapers can be used to inform potential investors on a token’s scope.

One should always be trying to build trust.

Contact Krohn Media For ICO Digital Marketing Services

Source: http://krohn.media/whitepapers-still-matter-ico-marketing/

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Steven Krohn

Brand Ambassador at Phoenix Initiative, Chief Advisor at RYI Unity