A white paper is like a Blueprint that outlines the technical details. Not to be rude but I’m assuming you’re relatively new to Bitcoin. In the past on-chain worked pretty well but now has become a topic of controversy. If you know how to run Linux then both should be easy but I think there are also beginner friendly tools that help you run nodes, & operate lightning channels. I would advise take time researching, & asking others for help to learn. I learned a lot from asking questions on Twitter, & other crypto circles like discord, telegram, & simplex, etc.