Today is Litecoin’s (LTC) birthday! The altcoin is already 10 years old today, making it one of the oldest cryptocurrencies on the market. In a series of tweets, Litecoin founder Charlie Lee takes us into how he brought Litecoin into existence and the major developments for the project over the years.
The blockchain for all intents and purposes is alive. I cannot shut it down and I know Litecoin will outlive me. These 10 years have been a wild ride. Here’s to 10 more. 🥂
It’s amazing what Satoshi Nakamoto has created. I am privileged to have played a tiny part in all of this. pic.twitter.com/1Zks4QzZbU
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 12, 2021
Bitcoin (BTC) was the first successful cryptocurrency and soon the altcoins sprang up like mushrooms. Many of these altcoins such as namecoin, lxcoin and locoin tried to piggyback on the success of Bitcoin, but have since died out. Not much later, the idea for Litecoin came about. Charlie Lee wanted a cryptocurrency that could be mined with processors, because that would be fairer (at that time bitcoin was mainly mined with video cards).
Litecoin is actually a copy of Bitcoin, however, a number of things have been changed. As a result, transactions with litecoin are faster and cheaper. Litecoin is often compared to silver, where bitcoin resembles gold. A group of 91 people eventually voted in a poll on Bitcointalk to launch Litecoin on October 12, 2011. And since then Litecoin is still with us in the top of the biggest cryptocurrencies!
In 2013, Litecoin was listed on crypto exchange Bitfinex, the first major exchange to list LTC. Other big names such as OKcoin and Huobi soon followed. Perhaps the highlight so far is the addition of the altcoin in PayPal’s new payment services. Litecoin thus consolidates its position between the old hands Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP).
Litecoin was recently the subject of considerable controversy. Suddenly, news came out that the major American Walmart will start accepting the cryptocurrency in all its stores. This turned out to be untrue. It turned out to be fake news with the aim of inflating the LTC price in a short time. Even the Litecoin Foundation itself fell for this.
