Privacy risks for Litecoin, admits Charlie Lee

Charlie Lee, the creator of the digital currency Litecoin, is an iconic figure in the cryptocurrency community.

Lee became one of the first crypto enthusiasts who not only did not hide his identity, but also led active public activities. In addition to the fact that Charlie Lee is the creator of the third cryptocurrency in history - Litecoin, he is involved in the popularization of digital currencies, is an expert in various areas in the field of blockchain, and also periodically appears on talk shows and often publishes interesting posts on his accounts on social networks .

Litecoin creator Charlie Lee

Before developing Litecoin and making it one of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the world, Charlie Lee managed to work at Google and even gain experience in speculation in precious metals.

short biography

Charlie Lee was born and raised in Ivory Coast. Little is known about his childhood and adolescence (despite the fact that Charlie is a public figure, happy to communicate with the press and write on forums). At the age of 13, the future crypto enthusiast immigrated to California, USA. After graduating from school, he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received a bachelor's degree and then a master's degree in Computer Science.

Having worked as a software developer in various companies since 2000, in 2007 the young specialist got a job at Google Corporation. It was during this period that he became acquainted with Bitcoin after reading an article about it in one of the periodicals. After this, in 2011, an interested Charlie turned to one of the developers of the Bitcoin system core, Michael Hern, and bought Bitcoin from him. At that time, the world’s main cryptocurrency cost only $30.

After that, literally for several months, the talented IT specialist was thinking about the idea of creating his own currency, which would complement Bitcoin and solve some of its problems. Litecoin was created in the same year, 2011, and in 2013 Charlie left Google and got a job at the largest cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, while continuing to support and develop his creation. In the summer of 2017, Charlie Lee left Coinbase and focused entirely on developing improvements for Litecoin.

The Litecoin Network

Litecoin is a cryptocurrency that is a fork and almost a complete analogue of Bitcoin, with the exception of some changes in the block structure that make transactions with cryptocurrency faster and cheaper. Charlie Lee himself positions his creation as “silver that complements and makes operations with gold-bitcoin more convenient.”

The Litecoin Network is a system based on the principle of the Lightning Network, which allows for fast Litecoin transactions between users, as well as converting them into bitcoins and other currencies that support the network. This method allows you to further speed up transfers between users and greatly enhances the advantages of Litecoin.

Biography

Charlie Lee was born in West Africa. He doesn't talk much about his childhood. Most of the interviews he gives focus on his adolescence and adulthood. When Charlie was 13 years old, his parents immigrated to America, California. This opened up great opportunities for the guy. There he graduated from school, entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and successfully graduated, receiving first a bachelor's degree and then a master's degree.

Knowledge in the field of information technology has definitely come in handy for Charlie in his life. They helped him get a job in world-famous companies, and later achieve his own success. He started programming in 2000, when he began developing software for various companies.

In 2007, he became an employee of Google. During this period, his first acquaintance with cryptocurrencies occurred. He read about Bitcoin in one of the periodicals. A couple of years later, Charlie, driven by a rather strong interest, turned to Michael Hern, one of the Bitcoin developers. Lee then bought one bitcoin from him for just $30.

Is Charlie Satoshi Nakamoto?

Satoshi Nakamoto is the legendary creator of Bitcoin. It is still unknown whether this person actually existed, or whether a whole group of developers is hiding under a pseudonym, preferring not to disclose their real names. There is a version that Charlie Lee is Satoshi Nakamoto, who, having created one cryptocurrency incognito, decided to open up to the world (but not completely) after creating the second.

This idea was expressed on the Trading View forum by user Monocole Dundee. In his theses, he relies on the fact that Charlie created his cryptocurrency in just a few months and just two years after Bitcoin was created. At the same time, at that time not many people knew about Bitcoin, and it would have been difficult for an ordinary “person on the street” to collect and structure the necessary information in such a short time.

In addition, Monocole Dundee emphasizes that Charlie quite easily got a leading position in the largest cryptocurrency exchange - a forum member suggests that Lee could “open up” to the management of the exchange under the condition of maintaining his identity secret.

The motive for hiding his real name and surname in the first years of cryptocurrency activity for Charlie Lee could have been two factors:

Bitcoin quickly gained popularity on the Dark Web, and Lee did not want his name to be associated with dark operations.
At the time of its launch, Bitcoin was just a hobby project for Lee-Nakamoto; he did not hope that the cryptocurrency would take off, and maybe he was even afraid of criticism, so he preferred to remain incognito. Charlie Lee himself, having learned about such an interesting hypothesis in relation to him, preferred to laugh it off: “I've been outed! (c) Charlie Lee."

Biography of Charlie Lee

Charlie Lee

is one of the most famous and public figures in the modern world of blockchain. The first important event in the life of a Chinese boy born in the African Côte d'Ivoire was moving to the United States at the age of 13 with his entire family. The education he received in this country (Lee has a master's degree in computer science) allowed the programmer to subsequently find work at Microsoft and Google.

How did Charlie Lee learn about cryptocurrencies?

While working for well-known companies, Charlie Lee simultaneously became interested in speculation in the precious metals market. I wonder if this is where his comparison of Bitcoin with gold and Litecoin with silver comes from?

This new hobby led Lee to explore the issue of anonymous trading on the Internet. Therefore, it is not surprising that in the spring of 2011 he came across an article “The Silk Road” dedicated to Bitcoin. Charlie was so attracted to the idea of a decentralized currency that he quickly forgot about real gold and silver.

Charlie and his brother Bobby, head of the BTCC crypto exchange

Within six months, he finished developing the code for Litecoin, the third cryptocurrency, having managed during this time:

contact one of the creators of the BTC system core, Mike Hirn, and buy bitcoins for $30;
buy equipment and start mining Bitcoin;
participate in the launch of the Fairbix coin, which lasted no more than a month.

Is Charlie Lee Satoshi Nakamoto?

We will not bore you with listing all the features of Litecoin; there is a separate review for this; in terms of the biography of its creator, the more interesting question is: “How did Charlie manage to break into the world of cryptocurrencies so quickly?”

Last year, two users of the Trading View forum: “Jaw709” and “MonocoleDundee”, put forward a bold hypothesis about this. They stated that Charlie Lee is none other than the legendary creator of Bitcoin, hiding under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.

In support of their position, they collected the following data from Lee's biography:

LTC, as we wrote above, was created in just a few months. And this despite Charlie’s current busy schedule. Also, at that time, only a few people understood BTC well, and how could a “man on the street” understand it in such a short time and create a new project based on its code. What gives strength to this argument is the fact that LTC addressed the scalability issue early on, which would only be a few years away for Bitcoin.
In 2013, Lee immediately received the position of technical director at the largest crypto exchange Coinbase. According to MonocoleDundee, Lee told its management who he really was. At this job, Charles, by his own admission, devoted only 5% of his time to Litecoin, and the rest to the very first cryptocurrency.
For a cryptocurrency created at such a speed, Litecoin is developing too “smoothly” - without errors or scandals. And without a single hard fork. Therefore, its creator already had some experience.
Charlie publicly always defends the very first cryptocurrency and emphasizes that Litecoin is not a competitor to Litecoin, but was created to complement it. The Lightning Network was even specially created for this purpose.
After the LTC network went live, Lee changed his Twitter handle to @SatoshiLite.

At first, the programmer only laughed it off about the conclusions of this theory, then he openly declared that Nakamoto was not him. But conspiracy theorists had their own arguments for this, explaining why Charlie Lee does not want to be directly associated with Bitcoin:

This currency has been associated with many cases of its use for criminal transactions.
Lee was afraid that BTC might fail and was a hobby project for him, so he hid behind a pseudonym.

Apparently, the developer will never be able to get rid of such suspicions against him. Whatever he does or says, it will only benefit those people who consider him Nakamoto.

Is Charlie Lee an enthusiast or an unscrupulous businessman?

The actions of the programmer in recent years have forced many to ask a similar question. In the crypto community, he was accused of manipulating the rate of Litecoin and other coins to make money on them. It is alleged that to do this, he actively used his position on Coinbase and popularity on social networks (he has almost 800 thousand followers on Twitter).

According to this point of view, the following facts speak against Charlie:

He actively announced the introduction of LTC on Coinbase, but never talked about the timing, although he should have known them as the technical director.
I left the exchange on June 10, 2020, of my own free will, just a month after Litecoin was listed and after 3 years of working there.
He sold all his coins supposedly so that he would no longer be accused of selfish intentions, but as it turned out, he did this at the maximum of its value at about $326 (now the rate is just over $80). At the time “silver” was added to the exchange, it cost $4.
After that, he actively praised Monero, Decred, Nano, which had a positive effect on their rate and made them say that Lee had invested in them.

On the other hand, all these events can only be the result of Charlie Lee's great media activity. Information appeared online that he spent all the proceeds from the sale of LTC on donations.

Also in favor of his selfless service to the blockchain industry can be evidenced by his activities over the past year and its assessment in the community.

Charlie Lee is one of the three most influential people in blockchain

No matter how controversial the opinions about the creators of Litecoin may be, it was he who was in the TOP 3 among all figures in the blockchain world in 2017 according to Coindesc. For example, Ethereum developer Vitalik Buterin did not even make it into the top ten.

Lee has recently done and is going to do the following for the development of the cryptocurrency market:

He became a shareholder of DMG Blockchain Solutions, which is engaged in mining, and is going to create a pool for LTC and use the Lightning Network for this.
He worked to increase the security level of Litecoin and contributed to its appearance on the Hong Kong exchange “Gatecoin” and the Korean exchange “Korbit”.
Engaged in the implementation of real (and not just test) transactions between the Bitcoin and Litecoin networks based on the Lightning Network.
In the spring, I began negotiations with TokenPay CEO Derek Capo regarding the purchase of a German bank to create a center for working with cryptocurrencies on its basis.
In June, he participated in a conference in Taiwan on the development of “Blockchain Island” “Crypto nation” projects.
On September 14-15, 2020, he will be one of the speakers at the first summit dedicated to Litecoin, which will be held in San Francisco.

According to Lee himself, he is completely financially secure. Now he faces the following tasks:

Development of decentralization of the Litecoin network.
Expansion of LTC going offline as a means of payment.
Distribution of Li as a convenient way of fast microtransactions.

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Participation in the Lightning Network

The Lightning Network greatly simplifies working with cryptocurrency. The scheme proposed by Lightning Labs works as follows: Two or more users open a secure channel for themselves and replenish a common wallet (“safe”) with a certain amount. After that, they make transfers to each other, and, depending on the transaction balance, the percentage of funds in the safe that belongs to each user changes. At the moment when one of them decides to cash out, a final recalculation of transactions is made and each of the participants is transferred the amount that falls to their share.

The main advantage of Lightning relationships is that blockchain confirmation of the transaction is required only for the final transfer of funds, and all current transfers and payments take place “outside the system.” Charlie Lee is one of the main supporters of this system, which he regularly reports in the media and writes on his social media accounts.

In particular, in November 2020, Charlie Lee confirmed that he has his finger on the pulse of key events in the development of the “lightning-fast transactions” network, and commented on the first “cross-chain swap” (transfer of money between the Litecoin and Bitcoin networks). To carry out such transactions, an “atomic protocol” is used: both users must confirm that they are satisfied with the terms of the transfer, otherwise nothing will happen.

Charlie Lee notes that SegWit plays a huge role in simplifying the implementation of the system, which was adopted completely painlessly on Litecoin and with some difficulties on Bitcoin.

Charlie in the media space

Charlie Lee leads an active public life, appears in the press more often than many other crypto enthusiasts and creators, and uses the media to promote his ideas and further develop his main project – Litecoin. One of the main means for PR and conveying your thoughts and ideas to the audience for Charlie Lee is social networks like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Using social media for important announcements

Of all the social networks, Charlie Lee uses Twitter most actively. All important announcements from the life of the crypto enthusiast himself, his Litecoin project, as well as cryptocurrency news, trading volumes on major exchanges, analytics and other information on this topic are published here. Up to 15-20 new posts can appear on Lee’s account per day.

More than 300 thousand users have subscribed to his account. Each publication receives hundreds of “likes” and dozens of reposts. Charlie himself tracks the main figures in the cryptocurrency world and the most significant projects in this area.

As blockchain technologies develop and cryptocurrencies become popular, personalities like Charlie Lee enjoy increasing authority in the financial and IT communities. Even if Charlie Lee is not the legendary Satoshi Nakamoto, as the creator of Litecoin, Lee has left a significant mark on the fintech industry.