Anyone that has been keeping an eye on the Litecoin GitHub repository will have noticed how quiet it has been so far this year, with barely any commits in 2019. Last week, Charlie Lee – Litecoin Founder – spoke out against claims that developers didn’t care about Litecoin anymore, saying that Litecoin is more active than most people realize. However, leaked messages between Lee and several members of the Litecoin Foundation appear to show discontent in the Litecoin camp with the lack of developer activity.
No Progress on Promised Features
At the start of the year, Lee promised to bring confidential transactions (CT) to the Litecoin network. Yet, nearly 9 months later we’re still no closer to CT being implemented into the Litecoin network, and key Litecoin Foundation members are incredibly angry with Lee’s lack of enthusiasm towards implementing CT. In a leaked message, Franklyn Richards slammed Lee after he unknowingly lied about CT’s development on stage earlier in the year. Richards said:
I was extremely disappointed to discover that no progress had been made on CT since the announcement, especially when I stand on stage telling everyone it’s happening and we are actively working on it.
Money Won’t Fix the Issue
Litecoin is no stranger to signing big advertising deals, dropping millions to become the official cryptocurrency partner of the Miami Dolphins and to get its logo on the canvas of UFC 232. In a Twitter thread, Lee admitted to have spent too much time focusing on mass adoption rather than development of core features, but this is no excuse for completely abandoning Litecoin by the roadside to become nothing more than a joke in the developer community.
1/ Just want to set the record straight.
In the 8 years history of Litecoin, we’ve only had a handful of core developers working on Litecoin Core.
At various points in time, it’s been me, @wtogami, @thrasher_au, @shaolinfry, @TheRealXinxi, and @loshan1212.
— Charlie Lee [LTC⚡] (@SatoshiLite) August 11, 2019
Has Litecon Run its Course?
Back at the height of the crypto boom in December 2017, Lee sold his bags of Litecoin – virtually at the very top of the market, making millions in the process. Since then, his commitment to Litecoin has wavered, with very few new features being added. It looks very much as if this was Lee’s final goodbye to the project and now, as he has no skin in the game, he couldn’t care less. While he is still obliged to follow the Litecoin cause as its figurehead until it slinks away into the ether, Lee has lost all love for the project.
Even after the recent Litecoin halving event, prices of the coin barely budged outside of the general market trends. This isn’t good news for Litecoin and could be the signal for the end of Litecoin’s position in the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap.
Will Litecoin live to see 2021? The answer could be no unless the project finds a second wind sooner rather than later!
