The creator of Litecoin, Charlie Lee, is able to rejoice the coin’s tenth anniversary. What higher solution to do it than by giving the general public the oral historical past of Litecoin. After all, that’s a determine of speech. Because it’s 2021, he gave us that “oral historical past” by way of a Twitter thread. And what a thread it’s. It takes us again to the very starting of the cryptocurrency house and, utilizing documentation and pictures, lets us in on the secrets and techniques, the internal jokes, and the wholesomeness of occasions previous.
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On this first installment, Charlie Lee will cowl essentially the most essential a part of the story: Litecoin’s truthful launch. Buckle up folks, it’s going to be a wild trip!
Charlie Lee On Altcoin’s Prehistory
Plenty of initiatives noticed the sunshine of day after Bitcoin and earlier than Litecoin. He names:
- Namecoin.
- Ixcoin
- Iocoin
- Solidcoin
- Tenebrix
And somberly declares, “Each one in all these cash at the moment are lifeless.” In accordance with Charlie Lee, the rationale for his or her demise was a scarcity of equity. “Most of those altcoins have an enormous premine. Tenebrix for instance had 7 million cash premined. Meaning the creator has incentives to pump the coin to a excessive worth so he/she will be able to revenue massively with out a lot work.”
Most of those altcoins have an enormous premine. Tenebrix for instance had 7 million cash premined. Meaning the the creator has incentives to pump the coin to a excessive worth so he/she will be able to revenue massively with out a lot work. You get issues like creators bribing exchanges for itemizing.
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 7, 2021
Then, Charlie Lee provides us the definition of “Ninja mining.” “If a coin was not premined, you get issues like ninja mining. That’s when a coin is launched silently to family and friends.” And tells us that a few of these initiatives launched with out releasing the supply code to the general public. The kicker, in fact, is that Litecoin was a response to all of that nonsense. Equity was essential, and it’s the primary cause the challenge nonetheless exists at the moment.
LTC worth chart for 10/08/2021 on Kraken | Supply: LTC/USD on TradingView.com
Litecoin’s Prehistory
After Charlie Lee settled on the title Litecoin, his first motion was to purchase all of the associated domains. “What a fantastic transfer in hindsight. So now, we don’t have one thing like http://litecoin.com selling Litecoin Money as an alternative of Litecoin. $38.85 properly spent!” Pictures fired! Pleasant photographs, although, however photographs nonetheless.
One of the best half was that each one the domains had been accessible. So on 10/4/11, I purchased all of them on GoDaddy. What a fantastic transfer in hindsight. So now, we do not have one thing like https://t.co/TFymqt9pKY selling Litecoin Money as an alternative of Litecoin. $38.85 properly spent! 😂 pic.twitter.com/ur0ckkHMsh
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 7, 2021
An attention-grabbing proven fact that Lee provides us is that, although coding the coin was simple, the toughest factor to create was the genesis block. “The toughest half was truly to create the genesis block. Satoshi by no means documented how he did it and the code to do this was not checked in with the Bitcoin supply code.” So, he did “some reverse engineering” and created this block right here. After which, Charlie Lee provides us one other wonderful factoid. “What lots of people didn’t know is that I put the headline of Steve Job’s dying within the genesis hash. This proves that the genesis block was created after 10/5/11.”
So I needed to do some reverse engineering and managed to create the genesis block on 10/7/11https://t.co/lArbbucLGU
What lots of people did not know is that I put the headline of Steve Job’s dying within the genesis hash. This proves that the genesis block was created after 10/5/11. pic.twitter.com/Zn7tnRBgUM
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 7, 2021
Litecoin’s launch thread in the legendary Bitcointalk boards is an archeological artifact from forgotten occasions. The story begins with:
“Litecoin is the results of a few of us who joined collectively on IRC in an effort to create an actual various forex just like Bitcoin. We wished to make a coin that’s silver to Bitcoin’s gold. Varied various currencies have come and gone. Some introduced innovation, however all of them had issues.”
A hilarious story is {that a} younger Vitalik Buterin hated the Litecoin title and stated so within the launch thread:
I forgot to say that I selected Litecoin as a result of Litecoin is the lighter model of Bitcoin. It is sooner, cheaper, and simpler to make use of.
And we bought to see a younger & unknown (on the time) @VitalikButerin hating on the title. I favor Litecoin over Etherium. Wait, is it Ethereum? 😂 pic.twitter.com/kCLUUNbiel
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 7, 2021
Again to the Twitter thread, Charlie Lee tells us, “The code was accessible for anybody to obtain and compile. To allow them to examine the code to verify.” And afterward, that “Folks had been capable of instantly mine on testnet to verify all the pieces works on their system. This is essential.” The desk was set for…
Litecoin’s Truthful Launch
Since everybody that wished to was “ready to mine at launch,” Litecoin had the coveted truthful launch. “To perform this, I in fact needed to share the genesis block with everybody. However I can’t simply do this as a result of folks can mine an extended chain in personal from that genesis block.” After which, Charlie Lee reveals how he hid it.
With out these 2 parameters, one can’t begin mining on the mainnet, however they’ll simply mine on testnet.
So I lied, there was a 2 block premine of 100 cash. 😂
The genesis cash can’t be spent.Then I did a ballot on what time we must always launch the coin:https://t.co/BWvGGFjNBN pic.twitter.com/AuXkqMB4QT
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 7, 2021
And he confesses, “So I lied, there was a 2 block premine of 100 cash. The genesis cash can’t be spent.” Nonetheless, he had already informed this to the group in that Bitcointalk thread:
“Litecoin will include 150 premined cash: simply the genesis block and the primary 2 blocks to verify the genesis is legitimate.“
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Then, Chalie Lee created a ballot to ask the group when to launch. The choice that he wished didn’t win. Since equity was what he aimed for, he ready all the pieces for the day the small group had determined. After which, he rickrolled them!
Over the following few days, I did all the pieces to assist folks get their system arrange.
A couple of minutes earlier than the precise launch time, I posted this. After all this was a hyperlink to Rick Astley’s video. I needed to. 😁 pic.twitter.com/isJIRPhEDv
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 7, 2021
Then, he posted the lacking configuration parameters on the Bitcointalk thread and all people was off to the races.
At launch, I posted the config paramters that had been wanted to mine on mainnet. All everybody needed to do was paste that into their litecoin config file, restart their shopper, and they are going to be fortunately mining actual LTC.
After all, there was a mad rush of individuals mining LTC at the beginning. pic.twitter.com/ZyUcQ1UEe3
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 7, 2021
And, as they are saying, the remaining is historical past. To shut this chapter, Charlie Lee leaves modesty apart, “I believe I managed to drag off the fairest launch of any coin. And that is without doubt one of the greatest explanation why Litecoin succeeded. Surprisingly, very only a few cash copied Litecoin’s launch.”
I believe I managed to drag off the fairest launch of any coin. And that is without doubt one of the greatest explanation why Litecoin succeeded. Surprisingly, very only a few cash copied Litecoin’s launch.
Okay, that is it for now. I’ll tweet extra later about what occurred between launch and now.
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 7, 2021
Tomorrow, be part of us and Charlie Lee to recollect what occurred between the launch and the current. The article goes to be as filled with easter eggs and wonderful tales as this one.
Featured Picture: Screenshot from the Bitcointalk boards | Charts by TradingView
