The difference between Crypto Whitepaper, yellow and beige papers
Of CNBCTV18.com IST (published)
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A crypto whitepaper is a practical guide for investors who want to determine the crypto project’s future potential. However, it is only one of the many sources of information published by the project. Some developers also publish yellow and beige papers to provide more detailed information about the project. Read on to find out how the yellow and beige papers differ from standard white paper.
Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile. The prices of these digital assets can fluctuate wildly for days, hours and even minutes. However, projects with solid foundations, practical use cases, a good vision and a good technical foundation usually provide value in the long run. But how do you check if a cryptocurrency checks these boxes?
Well, that’s where the White Paper comes in handy. It provides a lot of information about the project, the problems it is looking to solve, its tokenomics and its founders. As such, it is a practical guide for investors looking to determine the project’s future potential.
However, the whitepaper is only one of many sources of information that have been published by the project. Some developers also publish yellow and beige papers to provide more detailed information about the project.
Join us as we tell you more about yellow and beige papers and how they differ from standard whitepaper.
The White Paper
Whitepapers have become commonplace in the crypto world. It is usually the first thing an investor will go through before participating in an ICO, STO, IEO, IDO or any other crypto fundraising event. It is a detailed document that highlights the project’s market strategy, value proposition, roadmap, token flows, core team and investors.
The yellow paper
While a white paper is relatively easy to understand, a yellow paper is usually more technical and scientific. It often describes research or technology being investigated, unlike a whitepaper, which covers all planned aspects of the project. Therefore, if we look at the white paper as a proposal, the yellow paper is like a deep dive or a “part two” where all the specific details are given.
Yellow papers are often prepared with a view to future collaborations. It is an extremely useful document for other blockchain companies, development teams and layer-2 solutions that want to use the project’s open source technology for their applications.
The beige paper
As you can imagine, a yellow paper does not make for easy reading. It is often only understood by developers and blockchain experts, and ordinary investors may need help to fully understand its content. With this in mind, some projects also introduce a beige paper that is easier to understand. The content is often reformatted in a more organized manner and is usually easier to understand.
The Ethereum example
Ethereum is one of the only crypto projects to have produced these three research papers. The white paper is entitled “A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform”. It covers the history and background of the project, the Ethereum philosophy, technology and applications, and how the Ethereum token works. It’s a little technical, but easy to understand with a little research.
On the other hand, the project’s yellow paper is titled “Ethereum: A Secure Decentralized Generalized Transaction Ledger, Byzantium Version.” From the title you can understand that this is a more technical document. It begins by introducing the technology and providing definitions of several concepts, but quickly jumps into complex computational equations designed for expert readers, blockchain-savvy users, or developers.
Finally, the Ethereum Beige Paper is titled “An Ethereum Technical Specification.” It’s just a paraphrase of the yellow paper for readability. The language used is simple, and it explains the various technical details of the project in an easy-to-understand way.
Conclusion
As an investor, the whitepaper contains all the information you need to make an informed decision regarding the prospects of a project. If you’re interested in taking a closer look at the technology behind the project, skimming through the beige paper is a good option. However, only a few projects create this document, and even if they do, it will still require a good amount of additional research to fully understand.
