In brief:
In the heat of the 2017 Crypto Market bull-run, many traders were quick to liken Litecoin (LTC) to being Bitcoin’s little brother. One of the reasons behind this was the fact that LTC price movement mirrored BTC in terms of gains. As Bitcoin peaked at $20,000 that year, LTC would also experience its All-Time-High value of $420 around the same time. Additionally, Litecoin’s founder, Charlie Lee, has always maintained that Litecoin was created to complement Bitcoin.
However, over the years, the Litecoin project has faced a lot of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) due to the following events:
However, LTC has weathered the aforementioned FUD and plans to implement confidential transactions on the Litecoin network through MimbleWimble by the end of the year. The idea of adding confidential transactions for Litecoin was first made public by Charlie Lee through the following tweet last year.
Confidential transactions obfuscate the amounts being transacted over the network but not where the coins are being sent. In a progress update on LitecoinTalk, a key developer hinted at Confidential transactions being available via a Testnet as early as the end of the Summer of this year. He stated:
End of Summer: MW Testnet Launch – This will include all block & tx validation rules, basic p2p messaging, transaction pool, syncing, and the ability to mine blocks. This will NOT include a usable GUI wallet for casual users to test it out. Transactions will likely need to be created manually at first, or via a cli or automated tool.
When MimbleWimble is finally implemented on the Litecoin network, confidential transactions will be an extra reason for frequent users of cryptocurrencies to use LTC for their day to day transactions. Benefits of Confidential transactions include and are not limited to:
Although Confidential transactions do not provide 100% privacy, they will drive up demand for the LTC and possibly its value in the markets. Litecoin will once again be great in the crypto-verse.
(Feature image courtesy of João Victor Xavier on Unsplash.)