In the shifting-sand world of ICOs, the White Paper has been a constant: Every token sale project has to have one. A White Paper is a cotillion for your ICO — You debut your idea, parade your token (and how it works) and show-off your team’s credentials — to attract contributors to your project. A good White Paper can’t make a bad project successful, but a bad White Paper can certainly undo a good project.
When writing an ICO White Paper, it’s easy to get lost in the details. As the ICO market has gotten louder and more crowded, a greater focus on polish is necessary to stand out from the crowd and be appreciated for what you offer. As a Documentation Manager at New Alchemy, I’ve advised and written my fair share of ICO White Papers for clients, and I’ve noticed many ICOs make the same White Paper mistakes that prevent their projects from shining bright.
Are you guilty of any of these?
1. Not defining your target audience.
Early day ICOs targeted a crypto-savvy community that was already familiar with the basic technology. White Papers heavily laden in tech-speak earned the most crypto-cred. But as the ICO market has saturated and the crypto world is going mainstream, a project’s White Paper now needs to cater to a wider audience of future token users, many of whom are not crypto-savvy.
An eye to broader audiences means defining who you’re targeting with your White Paper, and writing it with the audience in mind. How much do they know about technology? How much explanation is required of the target industry? Ignoring questions like this will mean over- or under-explaining key facets of your project, potentially alienating your reader. Get in the mindset of your key target demographics and explain the project as simply as possible without obscuring important details.