Litecoin to Complement Bitcoin as Payments Currency

[Domithra]

Cryptocurrency-fueled scams seem to keep Litecoin founder Charlie Lee up at night, based on a report in Business Insider. Lee, who is an alum of both Google and Coinbase, spoke about the speculative nature of bitcoin and other cryptocurrency investing, saying that it’s not “bad” but instead a “natural progression,” adding that he sees nothing wrong with it.
But Lee, who himself has had to fight off rumors of manipulating the price of Litecoin, pointed to pervasive scams in which participants are just in it for a quick buck. Lee is quoted as saying:
“It’s quite easy for a founder to pump a coin and make it seem like it’s the latest and greatest and it will cure world hunger, and the price can go up to $10 billion. And it’s easy for whoever did that to cash out.”
As a result, people will lose money, he warned, which saddens him. Lee also pointed to the rush of ICOs, many of which are behind white papers comprised of fancy tech jargon, promising the world and raising hundreds of millions of dollars in the process. “These coins will likely just go to zero,” he said.
Fellow blockchain veteran Vitalik Buterin of Ethereum recently pointed to the social good that is inherent in the genesis of blockchain and what the “crypto community” should be focused on. Like Buterin, Lee would like to see a shift in the focus to technology and advancing the industry.
Lee in December sold his entire Litecoin portfolio, with the exception of a handful of “collectibles,” to prevent what he said could be construed as a “conflict of interest.”