Charlie Lee has done more for Bitcoin than nearly anyone, including most Bitcoin developers – and Litecoin has been a fantastic project, creating one of the most honest, and liquid cryptocurrencies. Not to mention, Litecoin helped Bitcoin win the scaling debate - shortly before Charlie unceremoniously sold his entire position.
I have exhaustively written of my journey through Litecoin – having owned it as “silver to Bitcoin’s gold” in amounts nearing 10% of my Bitcoin position, but sold it all after Bitcoin SegWit locked in and the first crypto-dividend (BCash) was announced in July 2017. At that point, I viewed Litecoin’s use case as dead – with its only assets being liquidity, and Charlie Lee.
When Charlie sold in January 2018, it was a big blow to the story – itself, a telling sign in a world where decentralization is the ultimate goal. Hash rate continued to rise – in my view, due to inertia…but ultimately, without a defined use case, growth is difficult to maintain.
Perhaps Charlie’s promise that Litecoin would implement MimbleWimble this year sustained LTC’s hash rate - but as we said yesterday, Litecoin MimbleWimble is way behind schedule. Moreover, given my work on MWC, I’d be quite shocked to see ANY coin adopt MimbleWimble - let alone, a well-established one like Litecoin - until it is thoroughly tested by MimbleWimble coins like MWC, Grin, and Beam. Which is probably why, as validated by Charlie’s comments yesterday, Litecoin’s hash rate significantly declined this summer.
https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/litecoin-hashrate.html#2y
Today’s article refers to damning comments he made this weekend – that he is trying to walk back, despite the genie already being out of the bottle. Which were, “the honest truth is, that no one is interested in working on Litecoin protocol development work,” followed by “I was extremely disappointed to discover no progress had been made on CT (MimbleWimble) since the announcement - especially when I stand on stage telling everyone it’s happening and we are actively working on it.”
https://twitter.com/Andy_Hoffman_CG/status/1160741101654773760
- Andy_Hoffman_CG
In response to MY tweet, he gave a detailed explanation of what he meant. I take no issue with his comments, as I fully believe efforts are being made to advance Litecoin with its existing dev team. However, the fact that he no longer owns Litecoin makes me scratch my head – as frankly, I can’t see his motivation to develop or market it; and if “no one is interested in working on Litecoin protocol development,” how will it ultimately grow?
https://twitter.com/SatoshiLite/status/1160436023974739968
- SatoshiLite
What it comes down to, is UPSIDE POTENTIAL. Developers are in most cases unpaid, so they typically work to enhance the value of the positions they already have - which is great, when you envision UPSIDE POTENTIAL. However, I simply cannot see how big Litecoin holders can honestly look at their position and think it will be able to again trade above .01 BTC price again - outside another dotcom-like altcoin mania, which is possible, but NOT fundamentally based.
When it comes down to it, Litecoin is simply Bitcoin with 4x the supply and less than 1% of the hash rate – that doesn’t do anything unique, and never will. It doesn’t pay a dividend or receive airdrops, and is no more a “TestNet” for Bitcoin than any other coin.
For that matter, if the latest “hook” is that it will be a TestNet for MimbleWimble, that’s ridiculous – as not only is Litecoin MimbleWimble development not occurring, but REAL development is occurring in ACTUAL MIMBLEWIMBLE COINS like MWC, Grin and Beam.
Litecoin was FORKED from Bitcoin in 2011 with 4x BTC’s supply, to create a “faster” Bitcoin for transactional use; frankly, no different than Bitcoin Diamond’s fork in 2017 with 10x BTC’s supply, expecting to utilize the Lightning Network to be faster…i.e., “better” than Bitcoin. Both are indeed “faster,” but principally because they are not used – and now, Bitcoin, too, has the Lightning Network.
The fact that Charlie inadvertently built a cult around Litecoin – that peaked during the 2017 scaling debate – is a tribute to his hard work and marketing savvy. However, the FACT is, Litecoin has no discernible use case – which is its hash rate has declined, its price continues to weaken against Bitcoin (despite last week’s halving), and Charlie made such comments. Litecoin’s not going anywhere, but with each passing day, it gets more difficult to envision a scenario of LTC materially improving its valuation relative to Bitcoin.
Conversely, there’s Bitcoin Rhodium – a UNIQUE BLOCKCHAIN launched in December 2017 with the SPECIFIC GOAL of isolating Bitcoin’s store-of-value properties. That is why it was created with just ONE-TENTH Bitcoin’s supply, and pays a regular, in-kind dividend - but ONLY if you “BRODL”; i.e, HOLD your XRC, through each quarterly payment period.
Additionally, XRC was distributed as a BTC airdrop to foster the creation of strong, loyal investor and mining communities – and now, is genuinely building privacy features, that WILL be incorporated next year. Which is why it’s so exciting that XRC can still be acquired at a mealy $20 million market cap…BEFORE it is listed on the major exchanges that will dramatically improve its liquidity and credibility.
Just four days ago, Trezor provided XRC support whilst simultaneously, coinmarketcap.com gave XRC it’s long-awaited market cap ranking. When said exchanges IMMINENTLY arrive, XRC’s “mainstreaming” process will be complete - enabling this REAL store-of-value coin to start taking SIGNIFICANT market share from FAKE store-of-value coins like Bitcoin Diamond, Bitcoin Gold…and Litecoin.
https://twitter.com/Andy_Hoffman_CG/status/1159220106238365701
- Andy_Hoffman_CG
This is why I two weeks ago stated that swapping Litecoin for Bitcoin Rhodium – particularly, for less risk investors – may well be the best investment opportunity of my lifetime.
With the HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT Bitcoin Rhodium’s devs promised six weeks ago IMMINENT, why not take a flyer on the potential for an emerging $20 million gaining ground on a mature $5.5 billion asset, whose de facto leader essentially admits is losing interest?
Bitcoin Rhodium currently trades on p2pbp2.io, WhiteBit, Trade Satoshi, Fat BTC, Sistemkoin and Bisq. If you have questions about anything XRC-related, including OTC trading, please email me at ahoffman@cryptogoldcentral.com, or DM/PM me on Twitter or Discord.