On October 8, 2011, Charlie Lee, creator of Litecoin and managing director at the Litecoin Foundation, released Litecoin (LTC) when its first block was mined. Subsequently, on October 13 of the same year, the LTC cryptocurrency went live.

Litecoin’s Remarkable Growth

In the intervening seven years since its launch, litecoin has achieved a crypto market ranking of number seven, boasting a market cap of over $3 billion and currently circulating 56 million LTC. It also holds a maximum cap of 84 million coins and processes at least $200 million worth of transactions every day. Undeniably, the past 7 years have seen incredible growth for Litecoin despite the fact that like other exchanges in the crypto space, it has also suffered losses due to price drops and fluctuations, especially within the last year.

Generally considered the most successful sidechain of the pacesetter Bitcoin, some interesting euphemisms have come up to describe this relationship. They include: silver to Bitcoin’s gold; Vegeta to Bitcoin’s Goku and Robin to Bitcoin’s Batman. Lee’s decided course from the onset to not compete with Bitcoin has advantageously positioned Litecoin.

Instead of functioning as rival with designs on upstaging bitcoin, Litecoin has instead developed a reputation as the crypto market lodestar’s second-in-command, in a relationship that has been largely symbiotic. It has also seen very little conflict and infighting compared to other Bitcoin sidechains such as Bitcoin Cash (BCH). in so doing avoiding the drama, legal tussles, community splits and security issues that have plagued other big blockchains.

Lightning Network

Litecoin engaged the Lightning Network in May 2017 even ahead of Bitcoin which enabled it to process transactions a lot more faster than previously. It was one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges to administer the network in its transactions. The first of these transactions was from Zurich, Germany to San Francisco and was performed in less than one second. It currently serves as one of the two major Lightning Network platforms.

Seven years after launching Litecoin, Charlie Lee continues to advocate for crypto adoption. His vision is for Litecoin to be ever-present in the daily experiences of its users, in keeping with his belief that positive long-term crypto results can only take place through mass adoption.

As the world celebrates Litecoin’s seven years on the market with its numerous successes and achievements, stakeholders as well as investors hope that this seventh year and the next seven years will be as ‘lucky’ and rewarding for Litecoin.