
Satoshi Lite, Charlie Lee, The Creator of Litecoin
Popularly called “Satoshi Lite,” Charlie Lee still pays for parking. Once inside the glass doors that represents one of the largest, most popular cryptocurrency platforms in the world, Charlie Lee receives a different kind of treatment.
While granting interviews either with CoinDesk or Draper Lee will continue to refer to social media where he boasts of about 500,000 followers worldwide. It is quite remarkable to know that his fan base has continued to grow at a time when the group of early developers of the platform has been torn down.
One remarkable thing about Lee that numerous reporters have observed is the fact that when arguing or taking a jab at Bitcoin Cash, or even speaking against the speculations that have been made about Litecoin, he always has this unseen confidence and taste. While being confident, Lee has refused to reveal either a code of cryptocurrency ethic or magical combination he tapped into. When asked by numerous reporters why he had such an outspoken personality, he laughed it off saying that he too had a lot of abuses.
Charlie Lee’s Story
His story began at the end of the year 2016 when he found a purpose for a project which he had absent-mindedly started in the early months of 2011. Lee was working as an engineer for tech giants Google; he developed the Litecoin project by just copying certain Bitcoin codes. When it was first launched, Litecoin was described as the “silver to the gold of Bitcoin.” This catchy and thought-provoking slogan was one thing that cemented the stand of Lee and the Litecoin project. The description clearly defines the project and also its wonderful relation to Bitcoin. In 2013, when the price of one BTC token soared to $1,000 Litecoin increased also. At that time, 1 LTC token was valued for almost $50.
As the popularity of the project increased, Charlie Lee joined hands with Coinbase which was a San Francisco based startup. This startup was so consistent that it was tagged the “Blue Chip” of the volatile market of the world.
By the middle of the year 2015, the future of the Litecoin project was unstable, and its general market was as good as dead. This happened because according to Lee, he was paying more attention to the Coinbase startup. He further went on to reveal that he did so because of the emerging state of the Litecoin market at that particular time. He went on to say that looking back, he had no regrets, because at that time the Litecoin project was not ready to grow. So all he could do was to ensure that Bitcoin succeeds.
Archenemy
The beginning of 2017 saw the developers’ community go from bad to worse. Non-existent fundings were experienced, and most importantly one technology that will prove to be the solution of the Litecoin market was caught up in a political gridlock. Also, the solution; Segregated Witness was unable to gather consensus. Lee stated that when he saw Bitcoin having scaling issues and also the feud between the acceptance of the Segregated Witness technology, he thought he could do something.
The first thing Lee did was to quit the start-up Coinbase. He also had to convince the Litecoin development community that the adoption of the SegWit technology was a step in the right direction. When the announcement was made that Litecoin will push through the scaling debate, the value of Litecoin increased back to $50.
After he convinced the development community to accept the adoption of the Segregated Witness technology, many miners refused to adopt the technology. It was not until a Skype call which lasted for four hours was made between the development team and miner that they agreed to adopt the technology. Just a month after the agreement was signed, the Litecoin platform upgraded to the Segregated Witness technology.
Like Litecoin other stakeholders decided to change the code of Bitcoin. A meeting was arranged, this meeting gathered luminaries in the cryptocurrency industry, and it was held in New York. A total of 50 people were present at the meeting, and an agreement was signed. This agreement was called; “Agreement of New York.” In the attempt to settle the differences that were existing, the agreement settled for a compromise that will ensure that Segregated Witness (SegWit) is passed and an upgrade was to be done and to allow about 2MB block. It will always be remembered that the approach adopted by the meeting is similar to that which was taken by Lee to effectively scale Litecoin.
The difference between the meeting held by Charlie Lee, the community of developers’ and Miners that was held by luminaries in the industry was that the former was productive. An agreement was reached by Lee and his team. On the other hand, the New York meeting angered numerous Bitcoin users; this made the developers of Bitcoin not only to boycott the agreement, they publicly spoke against it. When asked in an interview why the New York meeting failed, Lee stated that the meeting had in attendance investors and users without the developers being available. He went further to state that most users always follow the developers, and the developers at that time were doing all they could to ensure that the platform was safe. The faith the users had on the developers was why the meeting failed according to Lee. He went further to say that the New York meeting meant that Bitcoin had one major problem. If governments could control the activities of the platform, then it meant it was fragile, Lee said in an interview after he made a tweet about it.
Lee over the years has been watchful of his words and deeds. He even went further to admit that he was wrong in most of his public judgments and comments. He further went on to say that he has been thinking about a tweet that was made before China regulators sought to take exchanges offline.
Be the first to comment