Differences Between a White Paper, Yellow Paper, and Beige Paper
By: Jerry Yu
When doing research on cryptocurrencies, you may stumble upon white, yellow, and beige papers. What are they and what purpose do they serve?
The White Paper
A white paper is a marketing document used to persuade potential customers to learn more or use the service or technology. It should contain a problem, the solution, how the token works to create the solution, the team, and the deployment plan. Think of it like a proposal.
The Yellow Paper
A yellow paper is a more technical version of the white paper. It presents the scientific details of the technology in a very concise way. If you think of a white paper as a proposal, the yellow paper can be a part two where all the specific details are.
The Beige Paper
A beige paper is a rewrite of a yellow paper for readability. It re-formats the yellow paper into a more organized format and is usually easier to understand. The information on the beige paper is not as difficult to grasp as a yellow paper.
What papers are necessary?
If a developer is trying to make a new coin, they need to have a white paper. They need it to present their idea and process. Not every company has a yellow or beige paper, but the more sophisticated companies do.
Is there a company with all three papers?
Ethereum is a great example with all 3 papers. Here’s the link to them
White paper: https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/White-Paper
Yellow paper: https://bravenewcoin.com/assets/Whitepapers/Ethereum-A-Secure-Decentralised-Generalised-Transaction-Ledger-Yellow-Paper.pdf
Beige paper: https://github.com/chronaeon/beigepaper/blob/master/beigepaper.pdf