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white papers as reference. Afterwards, you will conceptualize your own cryptocurrency and construct it's white paper.

[TOC]

## References

For the following whitepapers (save for perhaps Bitcoins's), the goal is not to get bogged down into the technicalities and specifics of their technology, but rather to briefly scim and digest them so as to get a sense of how their creators dealt with issues such as **scaliblity, security, and consensus.** What seems to be the driving principles and philosophy behind the project; what problem are they trying to solve?

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#### [Bitcoin Whitepaper](https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf) 
The Bitcoin Whitepaper is most well known for it's relative brevity, and it's structure that notably differs from traditional scientific reports. As you read, it may be helpful to consider how the closely preceding **2008 Financial Crisis** may have affected the principles, language, and design choices reflected in this whitepaper (so much so that Satoshi included a reference to it on the [Bitcoin Genesis Block](https://miro.medium.com/max/663/0*yXKX_m5U2m9UTWMM). Additionally, consider the most sensationalized element of Bitcoin's whitepaper: the anonymity of [Satoshi Nakamota](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Nakamoto).

#### [Ethereum Whitepaper](https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/)
A notable departure from the Bitcoin Whitepaper's styling, Ethereum's Whitepaper is fair bit more rigourous and lengthy. Ethereum was evidently heavily influenced by the creation and shortcomings of Bitcoin, as can be seen in the [History](https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/#history), [Mining Centralization](https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/#mining-centralization), and [Scalability](https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/#scalability) sections in particular.

#### [Monero Whitepaper](https://github.com/monero-project/research-lab/blob/master/whitepaper/whitepaper.pdf) 

CryptoNote (which would later become the basis for [Monero](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monero)) approached it's whitepaper as not so much a product launch but rather a way to "study and propose solutions to the main deficiences of Bitcoin", going so far as to have an entire section titled **"Bitcoin drawbacks and some possible solutions."** As such, it can be insightful to see what the developers saw as the main real failings of Bitcoin. Additionally, Monero is fairly unique in that it expands upon the traditional cryptocurrency problems of scalability and consensus to challenge an issue not discussed as much in the previous whitepapers: **privacy**.

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Students are allowed (and encouraged) to study other whitepapers to help them in their design process, such as [Solana's](https://solana.com/solana-whitepaper.pdf), [Binance's](https://www.exodus.com/assets/docs/binance-coin-whitepaper.pdf), and so on. Additionally it may be helpful to look at blockchain technologies that don't have whitepapers and rather just bodies of research, such as [Cardano](https://whitepaper.io/document/581/cardano-whitepaper).

## Assignment
For this assignment, you are tasked with using everything you have learned about blockchain technology thus far to create your very own whitepaper. While this assignment is designed to be as freeform as possible, there are certain specifications your whitepaper must meet, such as containing discussion about a consensus algorithm, previous whitepaper's shortcomings, and the issues you are trying to address. Consult the **grading section at the  bottom of this page** for a full list of requirements. 

Feel free to be as creative, logical, or scientific as you want with your whitepaper. Some additional fields of discussion may be whether your whitepaper's creator decides to remain anonymous, how your whitepaper is acting as a response to the world's current circumstances, choosing a relevant/significant cyrptocurrency name, etc...

Your assignment must be **greater than 1000 words**, but **no more than 1500**.

## Handin

1. Log into [Gradescope](https://www.gradescope.com/).
2. Submit your whitepaper as a PDF to the assignment titled **Written 1: White Paper**

## Grading

This assignment is out of **100 points**. Your grade will be determined by whether or not your whitepaper contains sufficient discussion of the following topics:



| Criteria                                                   | Points |
|:---------------------------------------------------------- |:------:|
|*Consensus Algorithm and How it is Secure*                  |   10   |
|*Scalability, Security, and Resource-Efficiency*            |   10   |
|*Previous Whitepaper Shortcomings*                          |   20   |
|*Goals and How Your Cryptocurrency Achieves Them*           |   20   |
|*Basic Cryptocurrency Structure (blocks, hashs, etc...)*    |   20   |
|*How Tokens Will Be Issued, and Its Consequences*           |   20   |
|**Total**                                                   | **100**|
















