Category: News

Most read cryptocurrency whitepapers in 2020

Every year we do a quick run-up of the most read cryptocurrency whitepapers on our site. This year we’ve got the top 15 crypto white papers for you! We’ve excluded the popular pages of projects that do not have a whitepaper (looking at you Litecoin & Dogecoin!). Among the other most visited pages were our recap of China’s DCEP plans and,(obviously!) our cryptocurrency research guides.

Below you will find which whitepapers were read the most on out site in 2020! This year we’ve got Chainlink taking over the first place from Bitcoin and Monero, Digibyte, EOS and Dashcoin entering the top 10. So, if you want to make sure that you’re not missing out on the next big thing, make sure to read the whitepapers below!

1. Chainlink Whitepaper
ChainLink is blockchain middleware that allows smart contracts to access key off-chain resources like data feeds, various web APIs, and traditional bank account payments.

By providing smart contracts secure access to these key resources, ChainLink allows them to mimic real world agreements that require external proof of performance and need to make payment in widely available payment methods e.g. bank payments.

Read more here: Chainlink Whitepaper

2. Bitcoin Whitepaper
The Bitcoin white paper has been written by Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous bitcoin creator who created the decentralized Bitcoin Network. The blockchain technology he describes in this article is not new, but using the combination of blockchain, cryptocurrency and proof of work resulted in the largest cryptocurrency that is still dominating the cryptocurrency market today. The amount of Bitcoin transactions are very high and bitcoin mining still is very profitable if you have access to cheap electricity and enough computing power. The amount if bitcoin wallets and bitcoin transactions is rising fast and almost everyone who is in the cryptocurrency industry has at least a few Satoshi as one of their crypto assets. The price of Bitcoin (BTC) is always an important factor of cryptocurrency news and people are always trying to predict the right price on social media, such as Twitter. If you are thinking about mining or buying bitcoin, you should definitely read the Bitcoin Whitepaper first and learn about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency:

Read more here: Bitcoin Whitepaper

3. Monero Whitepaper
Monero is cash for a connected world. It’s fast, private, and secure. With Monero, you are your own bank. You can spend safely, knowing that others cannot see your balances or track your activity.

Read more here: Monero Whitepaper

4. TrueUSD whitepaper
TrueUSD is a USD-backed ERC20 stablecoin that is fully collateralized, legally protected, and transparently verified by third-party attestations. TrueUSD uses multiple escrow accounts to reduce counterparty risk, and to provide token-holders with legal protections against misappropriation. TrueUSD is the first asset token built on the TrustToken platform.

Read more here: TrueUSD whitepaper

5. Ripple whitepaper
The Ripple Network is a network for global financial transactions. Ripple has been created in 2012 by Ripple Labs Inc. and their mission is to enable banks to transfer money to each other in a faster and more secure way. To enable these fast transactions Ripple has created the cryptocurrency XRP, which runs on the Riiple blockchain, called thethe Ripple Consensus Protocol Ledger (XRPL). The XRPL works as a distributed economic system that not only tracks transactions and accounting information, but also offers exchange services for a large number of currency pairs. Ripple presents the XRPL as an open source distributed ledger that can process financial transactions in real time. These transactions are secured and verified by the network participants and a consensus mechanism.

Read more here: Ripple whitepaper

6. Ethereum whitepaper
Everybody knows what Ethereum is these days, but have you read the whitepaper itself? The introduction is pretty smart:

Satoshi Nakamoto’s development of Bitcoin in 2009 has often been hailed as a radical development in money and currency, being the first example of a digital asset which simultaneously has no backing or intrinsic value and no centralized issuer or controller. However, another – arguably more important – part of the Bitcoin experiment is the underlying blockchain technology as a tool of distributed consensus, and attention is rapidly starting to shift to this other aspect of Bitcoin.

Commonly cited alternative applications of blockchain technology include using on-blockchain digital assets to represent custom currencies and financial instruments (colored coins), the ownership of an underlying physical device (smart property), non-fungible assets such as domain names (Namecoin), as well as more complex applications involving having digital assets being directly controlled by a piece of code implementing arbitrary rules (smart contracts) or even blockchain-based decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

What Ethereum intends to provide is a blockchain with a built-in fully fledged Turing-complete programming language that can be used to create “contracts” that can be used to encode arbitrary state transition functions, allowing users to create any of the systems described above, as well as many others that we have not yet imagined, simply by writing up the logic in a few lines of code.

Read more here: Ethereum whitepaper

7. Binance Whitepaper
The Binance Whitepaper is such an amazing read! The content is not that special or groundbreaking, but when you read it an take into account what they have accomplished in just a few years is really impressive. The whitepaper was just the beginning!

Read more here: Binance Whitepaper

8. Digibyte whitepaper
DigiByte is a public, rapidly growing and highly decentralized blockchain. DigiBytes are digital assets that cannot be destroyed, counterfeited or hacked, making them ideal for protecting objects of value like currency, information, property or important digital data.

DigiBytes can be sent over the DigiByte Blockchain and forever recorded on an immutable public ledger that is decentralized on thousands of computers across the planet.

Read more here: Digibyte whitepaper

9. EOS whitepaper
The EOS.IO software introduces a new blockchain architecture designed to enable vertical and horizontal scaling of decentralized applications. This is achieved by creating an operating system-like construct upon which applications can be built. The software provides accounts, authentication, databases, asynchronous communication, and the scheduling of applications across many of CPU cores or clusters. The resulting technology is a blockchain architecture that may ultimately scale to millions of transactions per second, eliminates user fees, and allows for quick and easy deployment and maintenance of decentralized applications, in the context of a governed blockchain.

Read more here: EOS whitepaper

10. Dash Whitepaper
Dash is the first privacy-centric cryptographic currency based on the work of Satoshi Nakamoto. In this paper we propose a series of improvements to Bitcoin resulting in a decentralized, strongly anonymous crypto-currency, with tamper-proof instant transactions and a secondary peer-to-peer (P2P) network incentivized to provide services to the Dash Network.

Read more here: Dash Whitepaper

11. Nash Exchange token whitepaper
In 2017, Nash was founded by five open-source blockchain developers on three different continents. Originally known as the Neon Exchange (NEX), we set the goal of developing a decentralized platform that could equal, even surpass, the speed and functionality of traditional financial services.

Read more here: Nash Exchange token whitepaper

12. Cosmos Whitepaper
Cosmos is a network of many independent blockchains, called zones. The zones are powered by Tendermint Core, which provides a high-performance, consistent, secure PBFT-like consensus engine, where strict fork-accountability guarantees hold over the behaviour of malicious actors. Tendermint Core’s BFT consensus algorithm is well suited for scaling public proof-of-stake blockchains.

The first zone on Cosmos is called the Cosmos Hub. The Cosmos Hub is a multi-asset proof-of-stake cryptocurrency with a simple governance mechanism which enables the network to adapt and upgrade. In addition, the Cosmos Hub can be extended by connecting other zones.

The hub and zones of the Cosmos network communicate with each other via an inter-blockchain communication (IBC) protocol, a kind of virtual UDP or TCP for blockchains. Tokens can be transferred from one zone to another securely and quickly without the need for exchange liquidity between zones. Instead, all inter-zone token transfers go through the Cosmos Hub, which keeps track of the total amount of tokens held by each zone. The hub isolates each zone from the failure of other zones. Because anyone can connect a new zone to the Cosmos Hub, zones allow for future-compatibility with new blockchain innovations.

Read more here: Cosmos Whitepaper

13. Ampleforth whitepaper
Synthetic commodities, such as Bitcoin, have thus far demonstrated low correlation with stocks, currencies, and precious metals. However, today’s synthetics are also highly correlated with each other and with Bitcoin. The natural question to ask is: can a synthetic commodity have low correlation with both Bitcoin and traditional asset groups?

Read more here: Ampleforth whitepaper

14. Electroneum whitepaper
Where previously cryptocurrency usage has been almost entirely the domain of speculators and the tech-savvy, Electroneum is set to become the first digital coin to enter common usage due to its groundbreaking ease-of-use for the ordinary mobile user.

Read more here: Electroneum whitepaper

15. Celsius whitepaper
Unbank Yourself is the motto of Celsius. Or as they put it themselves: An economy where financial freedom doesn’t come with a price tag. Where the interests of the people are put first. Where ethical behavior is the baseline, and where everyone – and we mean everyone – has the opportunity to succeed financially. With a little bit of humanity and honesty, and the power of a digital currency that’s as strong as it is accessible, we’re ushering in the new economy today. Their goal is to disrupt the financial industry by providing a platform of curated services with fair interest, zero fees, and lightning quick transactions

Read more here: Celsius whitepaper

If you are looking for a different whitepaper, our white paper overview has 3000+ ICO, STO and DeFi whitepapers. Learn more about doing your (whitepaper) research here and don’t forget to check out our Cryptocurrency News section! You can also buy our entire database of 3000 whitepaper PDF’s for your research or let us promote your whitepaper as our Whitepaper of the Week!

How to find new cryptocurrency projects?

One of the biggest challenges in the crypto space is to find the right projects at the right time. There are hundreds of projects launched each month and it’s very difficult to pick the right ones. Most of the projects won’t last a year and some of them are only launched to scam you out of your money fast. The only option you have to navigate through this jungle of crypto projects, is to Do Your Own Research. I’ve made a short list with tips on how to find new cryptocurrency projects and how to research them. Hopefully you learn some new tricks and pick the right project!

Where do I find new tokens?

1. Social media
Check the buzz on social media. What I usually do is going to the accounts on Twitter that have a lot of followers. Those followers take every chance to shill their investments in their replies to the ‘crypto influencer’. Click on the articles, links and cash tags (the project’s abbreviation > $ followed by a few letters) and start your research. Or take a look at sites that keep track of new or trending accounts, such as Semrush. You can also subscribe to different trading groups in which lots of new projects are shilled. Those groups are risky though, because there are a lot of scammers in there and people who want to dump their bags on dumb investors, so do your proper research before jumping in.

2. Crypto charts
There are a few websites out there that make charts for almost every token. A great example is dextools.io. If you go to the site you can see the trending tokens (top 10). Click on those and start your research.

3. Trending coins
Coinmarketcap and coingecko both have a trending coin section. These are usually the coins that are looked up the most on the sites. Go to these project’s pages and research the tokens.

4. Verified Ethereum contracts
Etherscan has a great little features that not many know about, an overview of the smart contracts that have their source code checked. You can check all the verified contracts here. This is a great start for your research. I look for a project with a normal name  and high number of Txns and start from there. You click on the contract and on the contract page under ‘More Info’ you click on the Token Tracker ( if any). The next step is to look at the ‘Holders’ tab to see what the distribution is. The little document icon means that it’s a contract and contracts that look like this are burn addresses > 0x0000000000, so you can ignore those holders. You can check if the distribution is fine, not too many whales and not too many tokens airdropped via e.g. Disperse.app. I also check the tab ‘DEX TRADES’ to make sure the token is traded properly and is not being dumped (dextools is also good to check that).

5. Track whale wallets
To find these wallets you need to do some digging. There are multiple telegram and twitter accounts that show the big trades of whale wallets. When you have found these wallets, go to etherscan, check what they have in their bags and go from there. Always check if they bought these coins themselves or if they got them for advising or promoting, since this will make a difference in their ‘commitment to their bag’. You can also subscribe to certain services, such as nansen.ai, on which you can see all the trades of the wallets. Take into account that you aren’t the first to see those trades, so invest with caution.

6. Track newly registered crypto domains
This one requires a bit more knowledge of the existing crypto projects and their domains, but if you know what to look for you’ll definitely find some new projects early on! The trick is to go to websites like Whoisds or DNPedia and to research all the newly registered domains on a daily basis. Search for domains with tld’s like .finance or .app, depending on the current trend. Also look for domains that contain ‘token’, ‘swap’, ‘seigniorage’ or anything that is hyped. Make a list of all those domains and check them regularly for any updates and filter out the nonsense. I find about 2-5 domains each time that are promising. After you found the domains, start your research!

I’ve written multiple guides on whitepaper research, here’s one: Cryptocurrency Whitepaper Research for Beginners. We have thousands of whitepapers on file here.

How do I research these tokens?

1. Read the whitepaper :)!
For me this is always the first step. Don’t worry about the technical buzzwords, you just need to verify the following things.
– What problem are they solving?
– What is the token distribution/token economics? How much tokens are allocated to the team, used for marketing, % for public sale
– What is the token price for each stage of investments? Was their a seed sale and for how much? When do these tokens unlock (vesting)?
– What’s the public sale price? Fully diluted market cap? Runway for the team?
– Etc.

2. Social media
Search the project on social media. Go to their Twitter, Telegram, Discord etc. and read what the community says about the project. Focus on the people that are unhappy to see if there’s anything you should know, it’s ok to be skeptical, since you’re about to invest in the project. Follow the right people and ask questions.

3. Contracts
As explained above, you can get a lot of useful information by looking at the contracts and token on etherscan. Check if the contract is verified. You can also go to certain telegram groups to get them verified. Look at the trading patterns under DEX Trades, because when everybody is selling it’s usually not good news. Next thing is to check the holders and how the tokens are distributed and if there’s been a massive airdrop. Go to the wallets of the Whales (biggest holders) and see how they got their tokens, multiple buys or airdropped etc.).

4. Github
As a no-coder Github looks difficult. The best tip I can give is to check the number of commits. The more commits from different developers, the more work is done on the project and the bigger the chance is that they’re the real deal. Remember that Github is open source and most crypto projects will keep the most important parts of their code to themselves to avoid being copied, so when in doubt always ask the team if/when they’re open-sourcing their code.

5. Google is your friend
Google is your friend. Search the project’s name, the team, the token, partners etc. Make sure they are the real deal and can deliver what they promise. Google certain texts on their site and the whitepaper to verify that they’ve written that themselves and are not a copy or fork of a different project. Make sure to put the text between ” and ” to search for those exact words.

6. Ask questions
On discord, telegram, twitter you name is. There are no dumb questions and the team should be willing to answer them or to direct you to the right place with the answers. Do check pinned messages, medium articles and FAQ’s first since that would cover the most of your ‘dumb’ questions.

Conclusion

So that was my short list on how to find proper cryptocurrency projects and how to research them. I will update this list regularly and add things I missed!

John,

CEO All Crypto Whitepapers

Follow me on Twitter or Linkedin.

 

Cryptocurrency Whitepaper Research For Beginners

In this article I will give you some pointers in how to recognize scam coins & projects through whitepaper research. Although most projects that turned out to be a scam had a great whitepaper, some of them gave away their bad intentions in the whitepaper.

What is a whitepaper?
So what is a Whitepaper exactly? When a company intends to launch a new cryptocurrency, they usually set out all the details in a Whitepaper. This document contains the technical, financial and commercial information about the project. This document normally explains in plain language what they’re planning to build, to attract investors and other interested parties. In other words, the whitepaper explains the project’s purpose and process, the Why and the How.

Not every project or coin starts with a whitepaper. Litecoin started by giving a video presentation on ‘Creating Litecoin’ at a Coinbase event. Loom Network decided not to write a whitepaper, but immediately started developing and delivering code. Others are just forks of existing projects, like Bitcoin, so they don’t have their own whitepaper. Some projects bring out a Pink Paper, Green Paper or Yellow Paper and other projects, such as Cardano, bring out multiple whitepapers to describe every part of the tech they are building. Luckily, 99% of the cryptocurrencies and ICO’s still release a whitepaper at some point to outline their project and tech. So if you thinking about investing in a new coin or ICO (and to avoid scams) your first stop is reading the whitepaper.

What parts of a whitepaper do I need to check to avoid scams?
Although scam projects are getting better and better in not raising any suspicion, there are some sections of the whitepaper which you need to take a closer look at to filter out unreliable projects.

Technology – The most important thing is the project’s proposed (technical) solution to a real and relevant problem. It makes no difference if it’s something new or a better application of existing tech, when the problem they’re trying to solve doesn’t need solving, there’s a big chance the project will fail or is set up to raise a quick buck. This is usually the most difficult to verify, but keep an eye out for common buzzwords that are solely used to confuse u without really explaining what the project is about.

Team, Advisors & Partnerships– The people behind the project should be easy to verify. Check their Linkedin, online profiles, company profiles, any addresses you find, advisors, partnerships etc. Don’t be afraid to openly ask them if they’re involved in the project. Fitrova, a project that did an exit scam, boasted about great partnerships, but after checking with those partners they denied even knowing the CEO. Declouds, also a scam, wanted to prove his alleged partnership with a bank, by photoshopping himself into a picture of the board members of that bank. And finally I almost participated in an ICO with fake team members, but just in time the community found out that all the pictures where stolen from some Australian School Board website. So always doublecheck the information provided to you about the people behind the project and don’t forget to do a reverse image search on their pictures.

Roadmap – Technical development always takes longer than promised, but a roadmap gives you an idea if they’re realistic about their goals. If the roadmap states that a mainnet will be delivered within a few months, that would be great, but could also indicate that they’re trying to make a quick buck (unless the started the development way before the ICO of course).

Token Allocation & Price – Things to look at are the amount of tokens they are going to bring out. It’s a difficult factor, but it might give you an idea if they’re realistic about the project or just want to make a lot of money. If their total token supply and pricing results in a really high marketcap, you should be suspicious about their intentions. Other thing to look at: Will the tokens be locked up (vesting) for team members? Will they burn unsold tokens? Can they bring out extra tokens whenever they decide to do so? Normally the best token allocation for investors is projects with a low token supply, so you get a bigger piece of the pie when you invest, but this strongly depends on the other factors.

The Rest – There are so many things that could be red flags. Make sure to also verify the information on their websites and social media, does it look real or are they just using empty words, fake testimonials and social media bots. It wouldn’t be the first time that you are let to believe they already have a nice User Interface for their wallet, but in reality that are just stolen pictures from another project. Also beware of dubious statements, like stating they’re SEC-compliant or already have secured listing on big exchanges. Or things like saying their product can be used in any store or with every bank. Watch out for Ponzi Schemes like Bitconnect, with promised returns on investment for holding their coins. Sometimes they bloat with big whales who have invested already. Always check out the contribution address and try to trace back those big whales, to make sure it’s not the team contributing to itself faking that they already have landed investors.

Conclusion
In the end, you must feel safe about the project’s intent after reading the whitepaper. A lot of projects that turned out to be a scam had a legit whitepaper at first sight. But after looking closer into the promises they make in the document, how they’re going to build it and with whom they plan to make it a success, it should’ve been possible for investors to pick out the red flags. Of course there are many other factors that could lead to the conclusion that the project is a scam, but researching the whitepaper is one of the most accessible ways for you to verify it yourself.
Fortunately, www.allcryptowhitepapers.com has the largest whitepaper database in the world. With almost 1700 projects in our database, it’s the best place to start your research. Also don’t forget to check out the Whitepaper of the Week and News section, so you don’t miss out on anything. Knowledge is power!

The SEC also has made a great website to warn people about risky ICO’s and scams and they also included a whitepaper about their fake-scamproject, in which you will recognize many of the pointers I brought up in this article, You can check that out here:Howeycoin.

Also, here are 5 pointers to consider before buying crypto:

5 things you need to check before buying crypto


Rapper Akon launches Akoin, a cryptocurrency for 600 million africans

The artist, producer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Akon has spent the last few years doing great things in Africa. One of his biggest accomplishments is starting the Akon Lighting Project, which brought electricity through solarpanels to 32.3 million people. Since launching the project in in 2014, Akon’s group has operations in 18 nations, including Guinea, Senegal, Mali, Niger, Benin and Sierra Leone.

Akon’s next project is Akoin, a cryptocurrency powered by a blockchain based eco-system of tools and services designed for entrepreneurs in the rising economies of Africa and beyond. Akoin is using the Stellar technology to build its eco-system. Akon has an impressive network and desire to bring positive change to Africa, this will give this project a significant boost. The question is, will such a boost be necessary? Africa has 600 million+ inhabitants and South Africa houses the 5th highest number of cryptocurrency users globally, providing the example of another leapfrogging moment where the pressures of local currency instability and lack of trust in government made digital currency a better “store of value” than a paper currency (including prepaid minutes). Akoin might just be the project to reach those 600 million africans, and with the success of the Akon Lighting Project he might already have enough households in his addressbook to give the coin a boost.

Background information on Akoin:

Akoin is a multi-currency digital wallet attached to an online marketplace that simplifies local and global exchanges of value. The marketplace will be a hub for DApps, apps, and financial services for entrepreneurs and other users to access and utilize. The platform includes proprietary Atomic Swap technology that allows users to seamlessly transition in and out of the network with fiat, cryptocurrency, or prepaid minutes. Users are able to learn, earn, spend, and save Akoin across a plethora of entrepreneurfocused applications. The Akoin ecosystem provides the tools, resources, and ease-of-use necessary for running a successful business or gig-based career.

The Akoin marketplace itself will represent a unique access point to the DApp & App-based service market for rising entrepreneurs in Africa. With over 444 million mobile phone users on the African continent, the Akoin marketplace and the benefits of blockchain technology will be accessible by millions of people.

The marketplace allows entrepreneurs and small business owners access to numerous applications that accelerate their business goals. Individuals or businesses using the Akoin marketplace for access to business-critical services will benefit from the variety of DApps, giving them a better chance of launching and sustaining their businesses. Among their many contributions, Akoin Ambassadors will help by acting as part of the local test population for the Akoin MVP and Beta releases. These early users will benefit from a system of rewards and recognition based on their interaction with the Akoin ecosystem. The Akoin token is central to the ecosystem and is discussed in detail in the Token Economics section.

Akoin seeks to minimize the barriers to entry for entrepreneurs and small businesses in Africa, while simultaneously providing a gateway for global brands currently struggling to access this demographic. The Akoin platform and token will leapfrog traditional banking and service platforms currently found in Africa. It will help entrepreneurs overcome the challenges of inflation, restrictive government regulation, and lack of access to leading business tools and services, all from their internet-enabled mobile device.

With a built-in multi-currency digital wallet and decentralized exchange, the Akoin marketplace enables participants to learn, earn, spend, and save cryptocurrency with ease, all done directly from their smartphone. The Akoin token will provide a more trusted currency alternative to the current 40+ currencies currently utilized across 54 countries in Africa. This will enable entrepreneurs to build and grow their business with a seamless transition in and out of the network via fiat, cryptocurrency, or prepaid minutes.

The Akoin ecosystem offers an exclusive suite of sustainability and growth-building crypto-based apps that offer immediate and ongoing revenue-generating opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs in developing countries. Furthermore, through the Akoin multi-currency wallet, entrepreneurs are able to trade with each other interchangeably without the major hurdles or fees of traditional money exchanges.

Akoin White paper:

Akoin Whitepaper

Most read cryptocurrency whitepapers in 2019

All crypto whitepapers, the largest crypto whitepaper database

These are the most read whitepapers in 2019 on our site:

  1. Bitcoin
  2. Ripple
  3. Ethereum classic
  4. Chainlink
  5. 0x
  6. Binance Coin
  7. True UDS
  8. Facebook Libra
  9. Electronic Energy Coin
  10. Blocktrade (former Hedge project)

There are quite a few surprises in there, but that might result from the fact that we have some unique whitepapers that you cannot easily find somewhere else.

Bitcoin, Ripple and Binance have been around for quite some time, but it’s good to see that people are still researching the fundamentals of the big players. Also, our Binance whitepaper is the original 1.1 version of the whitepaper, which still states that tokens will be burned based on profit, which isn’t the case anymore. Facebook Libra is obviously a big player that is entering the crypto market. The whitepaper is very popular and we can expect big things from them. Chainlink, Ethereum Classic and 0x also prove to be pretty popular and we’re looking forward to their contributions to the crypto market. That leaves True USD, Electronic Energy Coin and Blocktrade, who have gained quite the interest last year, so the people researching them could be onto something special.

So, if you want to make sure that you’re not missing out on the next big thing, make sure to read the abstracts and whitepapers below!

Bitcoin Whitepaper

A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution. Digital signatures provide part of the solution, but the main benefits are lost if a trusted third party is still required to prevent double-spending. We propose a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer network.

The network timestamps transactions by hashing them into an ongoing chain of hash-based proof-of-work, forming a record that cannot be changed without redoing the proof-of-work. The longest chain not only serves as proof of the sequence of events witnessed, but proof that it came from the largest pool of CPU power. As long as a majority of CPU power is controlled by nodes that are not cooperating to attack the network, they’ll generate the longest chain and outpace attackers.

The network itself requires minimal structure. Messages are broadcast on a best effort basis, and nodes can leave and rejoin the network at will, accepting the longest proof-of-work chain as proof of what happened while they were gone.

Ripple Whitepaper

While several consensus algorithms exist for the Byzantine Generals Problem, specifically as it pertains to distributed payment systems, many suffer from high latency induced by the requirement that all nodes within the network communicate synchronously.

In this work, we present a novel consensus algorithm that circumvents this requirement by utilizing collectively-trusted subnetworks within the larger network. We show that the “trust” required of these subnetworks is in fact minimal and can be further reduced with principled choice of the member nodes.

In addition, we show that minimal connectivity is required to maintain agreement throughout the whole network. The result is a low-latency consensus algorithm which still maintains robustness in the face of Byzantine failures. We present this algorithm in its embodiment in the Ripple Protocol.

Ethereum Classic

In this next wave of the digital revolution, digital currencies have emerged as what many believe to be the greatest innovation since the advent of the internet. For the first time in history, value can be sent anywhere in the world at the same speed as information in a secure and trustless way. However, digital currencies are more than just payment facilitators. They offer an alternative to the economic, political, and social systems run by a handful of large institutions. Powered by millions of peers within globally distributed networks, digital currencies are democratizing information and value in
incredible new ways.

We believe in a future of multiple digital assets, each with unique comparative advantages that enable them to play distinct roles in driving economic growth and in diversifying investment portfolios.

Chainlink Whitepaper

Smart contracts are poised to revolutionize many industries by replacing the need for both traditional legal agreements and centrally automated digital agreements. Both performance verification and execution rely on manual actions from one of the contracting parties, or an automated system that programmatically retrieves and updates relevant changes. Unfortunately, because of their underlying consensus protocols, the blockchains on which smart contracts run cannot support native communication with external systems.

Today, the solution to this problem is to introduce a new functionality, called an oracle, that provides connectivity to the outside world. Existing oracles are centralized services. Any smart contract using such services has a single point of failure, making it no more secure than a traditional, centrally run digital agreement. In this paper we present ChainLink, a decentralized oracle network. We describe the on-chain components that ChainLink provides for contracts to gain external connectivity, and the software powering the nodes of the network. We present both a simple on-chain contract data aggregation system, and a more efficient off-chain consensus mechanism. We also describe supporting reputation and security monitoring services for ChainLink that help users make informed provider selections and achieve robust service even under aggressively adversarial conditions. Finally, we characterize the properties of an ideal oracle as guidance for our security strategy, and lay out possible future improvements, including richly featured oracle programming, data-source infrastructure modifications, and confidential smart-contract execution.

0x Whitepaper

We describe a protocol that facilitates low friction peer-to-peer exchange of ERC20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. The protocol is intended to serve as an open standard and common building block, driving interoperability among decentralized applications (dApps) that incorporate exchange functionality. Trades are executed by a system of Ethereum smart contracts that are publicly accessible, free to use and that any dApp can hook into. DApps built on top of the protocol can access public liquidity pools or create their own liquidity pool and charge transaction fees on the resulting volume. The protocol is unopinionated: it does not impose costs on its users or arbitrarily extract value from one group of users to benefit another. Decentralized governance is used to continuously and securely integrate updates into the base protocol without disrupting dApps or end users.

Binancc Coin Whitepaper

In our view, there are fundamentally two different types of exchanges: the ones that deal with fiat currency; and the ones that deal purely in crypto. It is the latter one that we will focus on. Even though they are small now, we strongly believe that pure crypto exchanges will be bigger, many times bigger, than fiat based exchanges in the near future. They will play an ever more important role in world finance and we call this new paradigm Binance​; Binary Finance.

With your help, Binance will build a world-class crypto exchange, powering the future of crypto finance

True USD Whitepaper

TrueUSD is a USD-backed ERC20 stablecoin that is fully collateralized, legally protected, and transparently verified by third-party attestations. TrueUSD uses multiple escrow accounts to reduce counterparty risk, and to provide token-holders with legal protections against misappropriation. TrueUSD is the first asset token built on the TrustToken platform.

Facebook Libra Whitepaper

The world truly needs a reliable digital currency and infrastructure that together can deliver on the promise of “the internet of money.”

Securing your financial assets on your mobile device should be simple and intuitive. Moving money around globally should be as easy and cost-effective as — and even more safe and secure than — sending a text message or sharing a photo, no matter where you live, what you do, or how much you earn. New product innovation and additional entrants to the ecosystem will enable the lowering of barriers to access and cost of capital for everyone and facilitate frictionless payments for more people.

Now is the time to create a new kind of digital currency built on the foundation of blockchain technology. The mission for Libra is a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people. Libra is made up of three parts that will work together to create a more inclusive financial system:

  1. It is built on a secure, scalable, and reliable blockchain;
  2. It is backed by a reserve of assets designed to give it intrinsic value;
  3. It is governed by the independent Libra Association tasked with evolving the ecosystem.

Electronic Energy Coin Whitepaper

Are you an energy producer and are forced to sell your energy at a low price?
Are you a business owner and the energy cost is more than you can bear?

E2C is the latest blockchain platform designed to provide a solution to this problem. It was developed by using ERC-20 infrastructure for easier market adoption and compatibility. Once the platform is more mature, we will transition into Proof-of-Stake system to make our platform fairer and, at the same time, more ecological-friendly. Two hundred years after the invention of electricity, humanity continues to encounter global problems related to it. Electricity is excessively expensive but what is worse is that millions of people around the world still don’t have access to this vital resource. This is the purpose behind our platform. E2C allows people around the world to trade electricity easier and in a more cost-efficient manner while simultaneously helping to build a greener and more sustainable future. We understand that generating and producing energy is difficult for many. We are developing a new generation of solar panel that is lower in cost and take up much lesser space. The current way we produce electricity is not sustainable, cost-effective or healthy. What the world needs now in the face of this is to move the revolution into the mainstream, a model for energy trading that gives people around the world the power of a co-created energy future. That platform is E2C.

1Blocktrade Whitepaper (previously known as Hedge project)

The rapid expansion of crypto space and the continuously increasing influx of institutional money into the market have created the need for the introduction of indices tracking this market and investment options allowing easy diversification and introduction of derivatives allowing investors to hedge their exposure to the crypto market. Evolution of entirely new asset class is indeed bringing many possibilities but also many threats to investors. Diversification and hedging are key concepts in finance that every investor should be aware of and take into account when either investing for long term or day trading. The mitigation of risk is what determines success or failure, even more so, in the crypto space.

We have recognized an enormous market opportunity in developing a platform that is based on a professionally designed, rule book basedcrypto indices. Hedge Project presents first commercial crypto indices with official rulebooks modeled on best principles in index construction and governance. We have successfully launched – the CCX30 (Crypto Currencies Top 30 Index). Our product offering will expand to meet the demands of the crypto community. Following on from the introductions of our indices, various complimentary financial instruments will be the first on the crypto market – Crypto Traded Indices (CTIs).

Crypto Letter Quiz 2020

Crypto Letter Quiz

Fill in your answers to our 2020 Crypto Letter Quiz via the link below!

If we get enough responses we will do a nice Giveaway! To participate
– Fill in the correct crypto related projects corresponding to the logo/letter here
– Follow us on Twitter (@allcryptowps)
– Like/Retweet our Pinnned Tweet about the Quiz (see below)
– Provide us with your Twitter handle (last question) so we can verify your participation

Thanks for joining the fun!

Crypto Letter Quiz

How do you write a white paper?

White paper?

How do you write a white paper?

A cryptocurrency whitepaper should contain the following elements:

  • Introduction
  • What is the problem you have encountered?
  • How are you going so solve this problem?
  • What is your (technical) solution to that problem? e.g “We are going to use blockchain to build a registry of whitepapers”
  • What is the use of your cryptocurrency?
  • How are you going to raise funds? For example, through an ICO, STO or IEO.
  • How are you going to use these funds?
  • What is the token allocation? Meaning, how many tokens are being sold to investors, used for marketing, paid to the team etc.
  • What team is behind the project? What is their experience?
  • What is the roadmap of your project?What are the development phases?
  • Conclusion

The elements above will get you started with writing a crypto whitepaper, but of course there are many other elements you could add. In general, the more you can explain about the project is good, but don’t make it too difficult!

In what format should a whitepaper be?

In our opinion, the best format for a whitepaper is the Bitcoin whitepaper format. It still is the best way to explain the technology behind your project and it looks clean and professional. The great thing is that you can highlight your whitepaper abstract on the first page, just like the example below, and use some keywords. The Ethereum white paper and Ripple white paper also used the same format. Don’t use too much colors, graphics etc., unless you are targeting a specific audience. In our experience, the biggest projects all have a clean looking whitepaper. Below an example of Ripple’s whitepaper, which is a great example of how much information you can give away on your first page in a clean overview.

Ripple white paper

But what is a White Paper in cryptocurrencies?

A white paper is a detailed explanation by a cryptocurrency project of what they are building and what problem they are solving. Technical, financial and commercial information about the project is explained in this document. Normally they aim to provide a document that explains in plain language what they’re planning to do, to attract investors and other interested parties. The Whitepaper is usually accompanied by a One Pager, he project summarized in one page, and a Position Paper, which details the competition and their (better) position in comparison with the competition.

Some companies do not have Whitepapers, but bring out a Blackpaper, Litepaper, Pink Paper or they just do a video explainer or presentation.

If you thinking about investing in a cryptocurrency that is doing an ICO (Initial Coin Offering) or any other crypto project, your first stop is reading the Whitepaper. Especially information about the their solution to a specific problem, the Token Allocation, the Team behind the crypto and the roadmap are important factors in assessing a cryptocurrency.

The first and most popular cryptocurrency Whitepaper is the Bitcoin Whitepaper: Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System by Satoshi Nakamoto.

This is the abstract of the Bitcoin white paper, just to give you an idea what the content of this site is about:

A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution. Digital signatures provide part of the solution, but the main benefits are lost if a trusted third party is still required to prevent double-spending. We propose a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer network. The network timestamps transactions by hashing them into an ongoing chain of hash-based proof-of-work, forming a record that cannot be changed without redoing the proof-of-work. The longest chain not only serves as proof of the sequence of events witnessed, but proof that it came from the largest pool of CPU power. As long as a majority of CPU power is controlled by nodes that are not cooperating to attack the network, they’ll generate the longest chain and outpace attackers. The network itself requires minimal structure. Messages are broadcast on a best effort basis, and nodes can leave and rejoin the network at will, accepting the longest proof-of-work chain as proof of what happened while they were gone.

Conclusion

Make sure you tell the truth in your whitepaper. There is no need to make things bigger than they are or claim things that aren’t finished (yet), like partnerships and approvals from authorities. The same goes for any graphics and content you use from third parties, this should be your own work or properly credited. Your potential investors will do their own research and review your whitepaper, so is has to be to the point, self-explanatory and people should feel excited to contribute to your goals.

Thanks for reading!

John

Photo credits: Alexey Sokolov

Cryptocurrency Airdrops are dead, so here are 7 tips for marketing your cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency Airdrops are out of fashion, so let’s try something else. Below are 7 tips on improving your marketing efforts and gaining more adoption for your cryptocurrency

As we saw in the recent Stellar/Keybase airdrop, getting new users to your platform or crypto project is hard. They had to shut down one of the biggest airdrops because of spammers and people gaming the system. Even President Maduro of Venezuela is trying to improve adoption by airdropping half a PetroDollar to each person living in Venezuela, which they will probably sell ASAP. After a lot of unsuccessful airdrops in the last couple of months, it’s safe to say that big airdrops are out. This includes sending your coins to random ER20 addresses, because that only confuses people and they do not want to register on some obscure exchange to offload the $1 worth of your token.

So, here are a few tips on improving adoption of your coins by upgrading your marketing efforts, in no particular order and with no particular projects in mind:

  1. Dedicated content contests (Informational videos, infographics, reviews, memes etc). These are a great community booster and with the right rules you could reach a lot of new people. If you do it on a most liked/viewed/upvoted base, you will have to have some good checks in place, since it’s easy to buy likes/votes and ask for them in upvote-4-upvote communities.
  2. (Mainstream) Partnerships. Partner with other crypto projects & companies and find mutual ground for your coins. Give users interest for storing your coins in a certain wallet and give them discount (or a cashback) on anything they purchase with that wallet. Partner with your local coffee chain, supermarket, bars etc. Be creative! Non crypto people will not HODL. They want to SPEND, so make sure they can use your coin accordingly and won’t be too influenced by volatility, if possible.
  3. Build your Brand. Reach out to the right influencers. A 1000 small influencers are sometimes better than one big influencer. Let them promote your coin and make sure their followers truly benefit from interacting with your coin. Go viral, work on your branding and make sure the mainstream audience cannot ignore your project.
  4. Your own content should be king. Make sure you are clear about your mission and how your unique coin is solving real world problems, by actually showing the solutions and how people can use them. Your content should look awesome and one of a kind to stand our from the blur of crypto projects.
  5. Expand your Social Channels. Don’t stop at Twitter and Medium. Use TikTok, Twitch, Instagram TV and don’t be afraid to go to the niche platforms and make yourself visible.
  6. Go out in the real world and show people how to use your product. Make it fun. Hide Easter Eggs, do GeoCaching, advertise in random places, flyer etc. Anything to reach people that aren’t active on the regular social channels, but are interested in taking more control over their money/data/ etc.
  7. Think about merging with another crypto project. This is something people in crypto appear to be afraid of, but there are quite some similar projects out there. Trust me, I’ve seen 3000+ whitepapers and not every project is unique. Combining forces might be a great way to survive the Altcoin bearmarket. Reach out to your competitors and find a way to work together instead of working against each other.

In general, these are bad ideas:

  • Letting your followers shill ref links or give out bonuses for sign-ups. This depends on your service/product, but his might come over like spam on peoples feeds. For example, have you heard anything about Initiative Q lately?
  • Purchasing an audience for your social media channels. You can have 23.000 followers, but if you only get 2 likes for your posts or have no interaction in your Telegram channel, it doesn’t look good on you.
  • Ignoring your audience. Regularly update them with what you are working on, how long it will take and prepare them for delays. You’re developing a new product, this will take you 3-4 times longer than you imagine, which is common in IT, so be upfront about it.
  • Trading competitions. They just do not work. Only bots and whales will trade your coin and profit from the competition. General traders will feel left out.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, especially since it’s impossible to compare all the crypto projects out there. Hopefully you get inspired and think of a new angle to market your coin!

Article by John van Rijck

CEO of All Crypto Whitepapers

This is how Bitcoin will reach $150.000 before the end of this year

ICO Whitepaper

After thorough technical and historical analysis our conclusion is that with the right course of action Bitcoin has the potential to reach $150.000 dollar before the end of the year. The only thing we need to is edit the Bitcoin Logo and attach a Banana to it. This way, investors are willing to pay $150k for each bitcoin, just like they did with the piece of art here.

A purely banana-to-banana version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution

If you’ve gotten this far, this is obviously a joke. We have no idea what Bitcoin’s price will be, but we do knkow that you should do your own research before investing in any cryptocurrency. You can start by reading the project’s whitepaper and go from there.

China is investing heavily in blockchain tech

A recent report from IDC states that China will contribute about 68% of all blockchain spending in Asia/Pacific the upcoming 5 years.

“The adoption rate of Blockchain technology has been growing at a steady pace. Use cases leveraging on Blockchain are maturing as well, filtering out the overhyped or solutions overselling the technology from the implementations where blockchain brings value to the ecosystems. The technology is here to stay, organizations need to assess the benefits that blockchain can bring to the business like the way it assesses other emerging technology. Identifying realistic areas of implementation where the technology can reduce cost and increase efficiency. With proper analysis, leveraging the adoption of blockchain, can assist organizations to enhance their digital transformation journey,” says Jeff Xie, Senior Market Analyst at IDC Asia/Pacific.

With China launching their Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) initiative they mean serious business and definitely do not want any other country beating them to it.

The race to be the first country that adopts blockchain on a country-wide scale has begun!