I understand your concern, whitepaper is a free format document and unlike business plan that gives answers to key questions: market, demand, potential growth, just focuses on its strong points and omits what is really important in many cases.

My advice, if you don't understand what the whitepaper says - it is not worth contributing time and money.
In stock exchange world my advice would go like this - buy stocks of the companies whose products you  actually use. If you do not understand the concept- don't bother to figure it out.  Find what is clear and makes sense