Cryptocurrency Whitepapers

BtcTurk | Kripto
8 min readNov 13, 2020

What is a whitepaper?

A whitepaper is a technical document that a team or company creates to introduce the purpose, scope, innovations, and technical details of a product or solution. Cryptocurrency whitepapers are no different.

This document covers the origins, production/distribution and consensus mechanisms of various cryptocurrencies. They are written in a way that is understandable to both investors and tech experts.

We gather together links of whitepapers of cryptocurrencies those are listed in BtcTurk PRO.

Bitcoin (BTC) whitepaper

Bitcoin was introduced to the world on 31 October 2008 with a technical document titled “Bitcoin: Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. It was published by the anonymous Satoshi Nakamoto and first distributed among a small community called then Cryptography Mailing Group. Nakamoto’s niche proposal has now become a worldwide payment method.

You can find the Bitcoin whitepaper at https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Cardano (ADA) whitepaper

Cardano is an open source blockchain platform for smart contracts, ADA is its cryptocurrency.

The platform, which began development in 2015, was launched in 2017 by Charles Hoskinso (also a founder of Ethereum and BitShares).

Cardano’s developers consider ADA to be a third-generation cryptocurrency. Cardano was developed and designed using a scientific philosophy by a team of leading academics and engineers. Research drives the direction of the blockchain more than any other factor. You can access the technical document, which includes the starting point of Cardano and ADA and other details, at https://why.cardano.org/en/introduction/motivation/

Chainlink (LINK) Whitepaper

LINK is the cryptocurrency of the Chainlink network. It is an ERC-20 smart contract token produced on the Ethereum platform. Chainlink has been developed as a decentralised expert network that provides external data connectivity to smart contracts. Thanks to this, data which is not included in the blockchain can be stored with secure and verifiable smart contracts. Chainlink provides a reliable decentralised link between API and smart contracts.

Details of the Chainlink network and LINK cryptocurrency can be found in the technical document here https://link.smartcontract.com/whitepaper

Cosmos (ATOM) whitepaper

The Cosmos network is described as the “internet of blockchains” (IoB) and facilitates connections between different blockchains. The project was initially promoted as an ecosystem of networks rather than a network in its own right. can programmatically share data without any central party that facilitates efficiency.

ATOM, which went on sale with the ICO made in 2017, is the cryptocurrency unit of Cosmos Hub, which is a collateral proof of the Cosmos network, and you can access its technical document at https://cosmos.network/cosmos-whitepaper.pdf

DASH whitepaper

The Dash project was founded in 2014 and aimed to be a practical alternative to cash. Speed and easy exchangeability between users were the team’s priorities. It was designed for use in both online and physical environments, it was commended for its privacy and low transaction fees.

You can access the technical document where you can find details about Dash at https://github.com/dashpay/dash/wiki/Whitepaper

Ethereum (ETH) whitepaper

Ethereum is an open-source, public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform launched by crypto programmers Vitalik Buterin and Gavin Wood. Ethereum supports a computer protocol called “smart contract”.

Although the Ethereum project was launched in 2015, its technical document was first published in 2013. The Ethereum whitepaper has been updated many times since then, and includes the most up-to-date technical details and projects developed by communities, can be accessed on the project website https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/

EOS whitepaper

EOS is an open source blockchain protocol with high transfer speeds and flexibility. It is known as the first blockchain platform appropriate for the business world and was launched in 2017. The most basic feature that distinguishes EOS from competitors is that it was set up as an operating system built on blockchain. You can reach the EOS whitepaper at https://github.com/EOSIO/Documentation/blob/master/TechnicalWhitePaper.md

Litecoin (LTC) whitepaper

Litecoin (LTC) was launched in 2011 by Charlie Lee, a former software developer at Google. Litecoin, which Lee described as “silver to Bitcoin’s gold”, is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and open source software. Its infrastructure is very similar to Bitcoin. You can access the LTC technical document at https://litecoin.info/index.php/Main_Page

NEO whitepaper

NEO is an open source blockchain decentralised application platform. It uses blockchain technology to digitise assets and smart contracts in order to automate their management. It aims to create a “smart economy” for the digital world by combining a scalable distributed network with digital contracts. The project is founded by Da HongFei and Erik Zhang in 2014 and began development under the name Antshares in 2014 — the source codes were published a year later. In 2017, it was renamed as NEO with its updated vision.

You can find NEO’s technical document here https://docs.neo.org/docs/en-us/basic/whitepaper.html

Ripple-XRP (XRP) whitepaper

Ripple launched as a fast, low-cost and fair solution to combat legacy finance issues like low transaction speeds and high-cost money transfers. The Ripple protocol aims to replace the SWIFT system that dates back to the 1970s. The cryptocurrency of the Ripple network is XRP first emerged in 2013. Most banks and payment institutions using the Ripple network do not perform their transactions with XRP cryptocurrency however.

Access the whitepaper here for more information on the Ripple network and XRP cryptocurrency at https://ripple.com/files/ripple_consensus_whitepaper.pdf

Stellar Lumens (XLM) whitepaper

Stellar Lumens (XLM) is the cryptocurrency of the blockchain-based distributed ledger network Stellar, with low-cost transfers between banks, payment systems and individuals. The Stellar network was launched in 2014 by Joyce Kim and Jeb McCaleb and is managed by a non-profit organisation named Stellar.org.

The technical document can be found here https://assets.website-files.com/5deac75ecad2173c2ccccbc7/5df2560fba2fb0526f0ed55f_stellar-consensus-protocol.pdf

Tether (USDT) whitepaper

Tether (USDT) is a cryptocurrency that serves as a bridge between fiat currencies and crypto. Its value is pegged to $1. Cryptocurrencies, whose price is fixed to the price of a currency or asset such as gold are also called stable/fixed price cryptocurrencies. More than 80 percent of transactions with Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency in terms of market volume, are made with Tether (USDT).

Tether, was launched under the name RealCoin in 2014. It was renamed Tether in 2015 and is now the most widely used stablecoin today. You can access Tether’s technical document at https://tether.to/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/TetherWhitePaper.pdf

Tezos (XTZ) whitepaper

Tezos is an open-source blockchain platform where developers can create decentralised applications and smart contracts, immune to censorship or removal. The feature that distinguishes the Tezos blockchain from others is that the blockchain can be self-developed and changed without having to split.

Tezos is promoted as a democratic blockchain ecosystem, where all Tezos (XTZ) owners can participate in protocol management. You can access the Tezos whitepaper here https://tezos.com/static/white_paper-2dc8c02267a8fb86bd67a108199441bf.pdf

TRON (TRX) whitepaper

TRON is an operating system for Blockchain-based decentralised applications, based on the TRX cryptocurrency It first emerged in 2014. The TRON network offers a strong infrastructure with its high transaction capacity, scalability and accessibility options. A key moment came in 2017 when the TRON Foundation was established in Singapore under the leadership of Justin Sun. The TRON blockchain’s genesis block was created on 25 June 2018. You can read the technical document written for TRON and TRX at https://tron.network/static/doc/white_paper_v_2_0.pdf

Polkadot (DOT) whitepaper

Polkadot was developed by Gavin Wood, a former Ethereum executive; Peter Czaban, Director of Technology at Web3 Foundation and Robert Habermeir, a software developer. It seeks to establish a network between independent blockchains and exchanges. This doesn’t mean apply to just tokens — information forms such as documents and contracts can be linked too.

DOT is a digital asset created for the network’s governance, staking and bonding needs. It was launched with an ICO (Initial Coin Offering) in 2017.

You can access the Polkadot Network whitepaper, which includes technical details and ideas for future use at https://polkadot.network/PolkaDotPaper.pdf

USD Coin (USDC) whitepaper

USD Coin (USDC) is a stable cryptocurrency which was created in partnership with United States-based companies Circle and Coinbase and developed by the Centre Consortium. Its price is pegged to 1 USD.

The Centre keeps 1 USD in a private bank account for every 1 USDC it releases into the market. This account is constantly monitored and audited.

You can access the USDC technical document, which includes all the technical details of its open-source infrastructure at https://f.hubspotusercontent30.net/hubfs/9304636/PDF/centre-whitepaper.pdf

Uniswap (UNI) and technical document

Uniswap is a protocol developed to facilitate the exchange of ERC20 digital assets on the Ethereum platform. It also provides liquidity for these transactions. On the Uniswap platform, transactions are carried out directly on the Ethereum blockchain using Ethereum wallets.

Take a look the exchange process and find out more about the Uniswap protocol in the project’s whitepaper here: https://uniswap.org/whitepaper.pdf

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