As long as you don’t live under a rock, you’ve probably heard the word “Bitcoin”. Beyond that, however, there are few people who even know what that word means. If you’ve found yourself feeling lost about cryptocurrency, fear not; you’re not alone.
In a very, very simple nutshell, Bitcoin is a virtual currency. With Bitcoin, a single seller is in control of his/her funds. From there, however, the ins and outs of the technology get complex and even dicey. From its start in 2009, cryptocurrency has come a long way, and no one can really predict where it’s headed.
Several other names in the cryptocurrency have come about since Bitcoin’s original release, one of them being Litecoin (LTC). Litecoin’s developers stated they wanted to “create the ‘silver’ to Bitcoin’s ‘gold’. An interesting plot twist here, however: recently it has been reported that it’s actually smarter to invest in Litecoin than Bitcoin.
While the reasoning behind this is complicated, and I am certainly not qualified enough to tell you if this report is even true, another plot twist is here to tangle up the story. Charlie Lee, the founder of Litecoin, recently sold all of his coins. Huh? If LTC is a better investment than Bitcoin, why did the former company’s founder sell all his cryptocurrency? Well, it’s not for the reason you might think.
While Litecoin did rise in value recently, Lee sold his currency because of the conflict of interest between keeping all his LTC while simultaneously developing the currency itself. In a Reddit interview, he explained his choice:
“Over the past year, I tried to stay away from price-related tweets, but it’s hard because price is such an important aspect of Litecoin growth.
And whenever I tweet about Litecoin price or even just good or bad news, I get accused of doing it for personal benefit. Some people even think I short LTC!
So in a sense, it is conflict of interest for me to hold LTC and tweet about it because I have so much influence.
I have always refrained from buying/selling LTC before or after my major tweets, but this is something only I know. And there will always be a doubt on whether any of my actions were to further my own personal wealth above the success of Litecoin and cryptocurrency in general.
For this reason, in the past days, I have sold and donated all my LTC. Litecoin has been very good for me financially, so I am well off enough that I no longer need to tie my financial success to Litecoin’s success.
Don’t worry. I’m not quitting Litecoin. I will still spend all my time working on Litecoin. When Litecoin succeeds, I will still be rewarded in lots of different ways, just not directly via ownership of coins.”
Good for Lee for putting the company before himself. It’s also good to hear that he’s still seeing through the LTC project. If you’re invested in Litecoin, you can hang onto it a little longer!
Still confused about this cryptocurrency business? Everyone else is too. Here is why it’s probably the biggest scam since Bernie Madoff.
