Disturbing Fact: ICO's are outsourcing their shitty white papers for approximately $200.
Photo Credit: Peshkova
I am not an investor, but a strategic gambler. I attempt to read one white paper per day. Most are shit. Complete shit. I have read enough to know the signs of worthless trash. If I had to guess, I would say most buying crypto don't bother to read the details or check out who the teams are. I do. It's just who I am. I don't bet on ideas. They are a dime a dozen. I bet on people because at the end of the day execution is the only thing that matters.
While I was in the shower this evening after a long day, I was thinking about how ridiculous many white papers are. A solid white paper breaks down a complex topic in a concise manner. It is meant to help the reader understand the issue at hand and provides a solution to the problem. If it can't be done in 12 pages, it's not a good sign. This is not an easy task unless you know what you are trying to explain. As many of you know the Bitcoin white paper is just a mindblowing piece of brilliance. When I read it back in 2011, I got it right away but it wasn't until I read it for the third time that I really understood how brilliant the creator is. Yes, I do have my thoughts on who the 3 people known as Satoshi are/were, but I will keep this to myself because everyone has their own opinions, beliefs and stirring this pot is the not reason for this post.
The reason for my post is related to something I realized months ago, but only discovered tonight after my shower. I decided to fire up my browser to do a quick search on various freelancer sites. I noticed the number of requests and offerings for 'white paper writing' is staggering. Check out this screenshot from one service.
Screenshot Credit: @alakazam
This is some fucked up shit. I am not sure how many of you have ever dealt with venture capitalist but if you have, you know that outsourcing your "business plan" is not going to fly. Same goes for demoing your software. VC's want to see that your team understands the product inside and out and your code was not outsourced. Same goes for a white paper. Ideally, if writing a white paper one team member will lead the white paper efforts and another team member will lead the technical side so they gel. Obviously, if your team is more than 2, others fill in the gaps. To put this in context with something everyone can relate to. It is my understanding that the Bitcoin Whitepaper was written by one brilliant person who could also code. The second person (also brilliant) did most of the C++ coding and the third person (yes, brilliant) was also highly technical and they tested/ audited the code while providing feedback. All three were high level and understood what was being designed.
With this being said, outsourcing a white papers to people who don't know jack shit is a scary thought. Combine this with good marketers (Hired based on a hefty percentage of the money raised during ICO.) who know all the tricks and all you really have is a scammy shit coin.
In short, read as many white papers as you can before you wager your hard-earned money then research the team. I will do a future post on how to identify a good team. If a white-paper is poorly written there's a good chance they don't understand the problem they are looking to solve or they hired someone to write their bullshit. Now, if the paper is remarkedly brilliant you won't even need to check out the team's background. In fact, it won't matter if they use a pseudonym. See what I did there? ;)
Now, if you find the latter... pure fucking brilliance early in its life. Contact me so I can check it out and if it is truly off the chart brilliant, send me your BTC address and I will send you a nice donation for thinking of me.
If you are wondering... Aside from Bitcoin's white paper, I have discovered a handful of what I believe are brilliant crypto white papers and or concepts. There's has to be more if CMC has 1578 Cryptocurrencies listed. Are all my bets based on white-papers? No, but the good ones often are.
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"With this being said, outsourcing a white papers to people who don't know jack shit is a scary thought. '
At the same time I think many people can benefit if they would outsource a white paper. When I was helping my gf to establish her own small business, then we ordered 2 "business plans" just to see what else can we learn from 3rd party.
So it's not such a bad idea to be able to work with those who can make a "draft" and then you can use it to improve your own work.
Does it make sense?
If you want to flesh out a biz plan I would keep it within the team assuming my focus is pitching my VC’s. Buying a white paper proves two things: they don’t know what they are doing and they can’t explain it in a concise manner. I’ve had VC tell me to write the plan on a index card and come in with the demo. True story and it was a good meeting.
If I am going to ask people to spend their money on an ico, I am, going to sit in front of that computer to get my thoughts down. White papers are diffucult but they are more like a thought exercise. Nobody who specializes in white papers is good at it unless they are doing it for themselves and not to make money. White papers are written by a academics who are experts in their fields. These jerks are giving them bullet points to the freelancer to touch upon. It’s a scary thought and more people need to know. Please REsteem to spread the word. Feel free to agree or disagree to speak a discussion on you Resteeming. I’ll be sure to swing on by the comments.
The truth is that Im very curious how those outsourced white papers could even look like. How valuable could it be.
Thx one more time
They can’t look good. I read a lot and I suspect 20% or more are outsourced. Not worth the paper they are printed on.
Can you restreem this for me? I’m wondering how this function works. Like how many see it?
that is indeed quite disturbing
just like you said "This is some fucked up shit. "
voted
It’s worse if you read the reviews. “I wasn’t expecting much, but the paper blew me away”
Sure! These folks are not smart enough to be launching a coin. I doubt they know what public key is? The only positive I can think of is that they buy the paper and hopefully realize there’s more to the ico process than the paper so they quit. I’m embarrassed for these people.
Thx for your reply. I totally appreciate.
If someone is stuipid to rely fully on those outsourced white papers then I cannot forsee great future for such a person.