Ahhhhhhh, Litecoin.

You've been around so long. You hardly ever ruffle any feathers or get people in a heated debate about artificial wombs like Vitalik- lol.

But, are you really necessary? How do you maintain your place in the crypto-sphere?

Let's discuss. Actually, that's unfair. I get all the airtime . Nah, second thought- see you in the replies! :-)

Litecoin is one of the earliest crypto projects to follow Bitcoin's lead. Charlie made Litecoin to essentially mirror the things that make Bitcoin a strong economic and structural crypto solution to payments and holding value. Litecoin is meant to be a lighter, quicker, simpler Bitcoin. 

Litecoin holds to similar principles as its big gold brother, often touted as silver to Bitcoin's gold. The important ideologies remain consistent. There will never be more than 84 million Litecoin(s) (verdict is out on whether to pluralize these things), compared to Bitcoin's 21 million coin limit.

In all likelihood, there may never be enough fiat wealth to go around for everyone's target values on Bitcoin and Litecoin. It depends on people's stubborn determination to set their sell orders and leave them be. It's an interesting thing to consider. Imagine if, for instance, Build Back Better decided to dump $1.2 Trillion on printed money directly into Bitcoin, and then set up strict auditing routines to clamp down on everyone else who hasn't properly claimed their past crypto assets? We could easily see a massively expensive Bitcoin and very very little actually available in circulation. There could even be a political conspiracy among nations to place pressure on exchanges that had Bitcoin stored up in cold wallets to try to put a squeeze on what isn't in circulation.

The point here, is that coins like Litecoin tend to be a pressure-release valve for the upwards pressure of big bro Bitcoin, and there may be incentive at a later time, for people to think in terms of timeline over value. Let me explain.

Some people try to looks at Litecoin spot price and determine that it is likely to do the same thing as Bitcoin, but with a time lag. Where Litecoin is struggling around $106 right now, it saw well over $250 not too long ago and has been much higher very briefly. It is easy to assume, then, if Bitcoin can hit $70k in the near future, Litecoin can hit $300-500. It has only been a few years since Bitcoin was pushing upwards to break $1K for the first time. Was it purely a matter of pressure against short term market buys, or was it already stressing available circulation when pushing the high $60's? I actually don't think we have seen what happens when there is an actual limited circulation of Bitcoin quite yet, and definitely not for Litecoin.

The question of future growth in value for Litecoin largely comes down to it staying the course it is already on, but also how many distractions there are in the meantime. There are, at any given time, 15-30 projects in the top 100 that occupy the 1-2 dozen spots above Litecoin in market capitalization. Litecoin used to enjoy the top 2-3 spot with Bitcoin and Ether, but it's hands-off approach means that in many ways it is taken for granted, as that quiet reliable coin that's there when you need it, but never looking to raise a fuss. 

There are new innovations being added to Litecoin that should bring attention, including adding NFTs (good or bad, who knows), added privacy options, and an omnilite chain that lets people build their coins on top of Litecoin much the same way as Ether is know for token projects. There could be enough going on with Litecoin to make people pay closer attention, but in my opinion, the most important thing Litecoin can do is to keep on being Litecoin.

As much as people are looking to constant innovation in the space and also for the next big pump, the truth is that we need to see signs of long term stability, and Litecoin is the best example of that in my opinion. One important feature that may or may not be a plus, depending on your perspective, is that we know Charlie is the creator. There's no controversial origin story like Bitcoin, that offers space for people like Craig Wright to claim ownership to the Satoshi title, and with it attempt to lord their legal muscle to scare people into licensing their patents or face their day in court.

We don't see any of this with Litecoin. In fact, not only was there no pre-mine, Charlie sold all of his Litecoin(s) so no one could accuse him of manipulating the market to get rich.

Perhaps my favorite feature of Litecoin is the one that, in my opinion, matters the most... well equally to its no-fuss stability thus far. That feature is this; it is still super cheap to transact. I tested two transactions last week, one at the cost of an exchange account at 0.01 LTC, and one back to the exchange from my private wallet, where I set it at the absolute cheapest network cost. It took about 15 minutes for the latter to send with very low priority, and it cost me 1/3 of a penny. I don't know why anyone would remain locked in on gas fees or even choose to move Bitcoin around a ton if they didn't have to, when it is very easy, quick, and cheap, to simply convert to Litecoin when you need to send another coin, then simply swap back for a tiny fee.

I'm not really looking to speculate on any major points beyond this. Since I deal with LTC regularly, I had to question myself as to why I almost never mention it except in "top coins" context. The honest truth (is there another kind?) is that Litecoin does what Litecoin does best, when we hardly have to give it a second thought. That seems to be a feature the market truly needs.

And on that vanilla, uncontroversial point, a peaceful Crypto Gordon Freeman, for now... out.