Crypto media say Charlie Lee regrets creating Litecoin. What did he actually say?
On the Sep. 30 episode of CoinDesk Spotlight podcast, Litecoin creator Charlie Lee reflected on his crypto journey. He explained why he sold all of his litecoins in 2017 (adding nothing new to his past statements) and emphasized his deep belief in Bitcoin. He admitted that creating Litecoin cost him “a lot of headache” and didn’t bring much money. But did he say he regretted creating it?
Summary
- Charlie Lee said that he didn’t make a lot of money on Litecoin.
- He said he would have advised his younger self to buy Bitcoin, keep it away, never sell, don’t do anything else related to crypto, and stay anonymous.
- Some people saw his message as another sign that Lee doesn’t care about Litecoin, recalling how he sold his LTC holdings in 2017.
Did Lee say he regretted creating Litecoin?
In the recent episode of CoinDesk Spotlight podcast, Lee reflected on his interest in gold, crypto journey, days in Google, and, of course, about Litecoin and Bitcoin, with the latter seemingly being Lee’s bigger passion.
At the end of the episode, the host, Jennifer Sanasie, asked Lee what he would advise his younger self. Lee’s reply was
“Buy Bitcoin, store it away, don’t sell anything, and don’t do anything else related to crypto, and just sit on it and be anonymous. That would be my advice […] Creating Litecoin did not really make me more money. It was a lot of headache […] if you just buy Bitcoin, keep it away, stay anonymous, sit on it, don’t sell anything, it’ll be better off.”
Several media outlets that focused on cryptocurrency shared the clip of Lee’s reply and claimed he regrets creating Litecoin. Some of the posts were pretty misleading. For instance, ChainDesk Telegram channel put Lee’s words in the following way:
“Litecoin’s Charlie Lee says he regrets creating it and wishes he’d just bought Bitcoin.”
The post gained over 13,000 views; however, it’s notably different from what Charlie Lee actually said on the podcast. While Lee admits that creating Litecoin made his life harder, he by no means distances himself from his brainchild and keeps on dedicating most of his time to Litecoin.
During the same podcast episode, he said that as a director of the Litecoin Foundation, he participates in weekly board meetings aimed at furthering Litecoin’s adoption.
Launched in 2011 as a Bitcoin fork aimed at speeding small transactions, Litecoin is still one of the top 30 cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalization. In August, public medical company MEI Pharma announced its Litecoin pivot. It acquired 110.4 million in LTC. Luxxfolio is another example of a company seeing Litecoin as a strategic asset.
On Oct. 7, the Litecoin X account posted “Thinking about changing my name to No Ragrets Coin.”
What Lee actually regrets?
However, answering the very same question about the advice to a younger self, Lee emphasized another aspect of his life that is probably more regrettable, such as launching Litecoin. It is Lee’s lack of anonymity. He reflected on this at length, admitting he envies Satoshi Nakamoto’s anonymity. He said he hopes Satoshi is still alive and referred to his ability to stay unknown as “kind of powerful.”
Explaining to Sanasie why anonymity seems so important to Lee and why he finds it unfortunate for him that he didn’t apply it to his life, Lee pointed to security concerns:
“It’s important because these days you hear about a lot of things like kidnappings and other stuff like people getting the five-dollar wrench attack right. It’s something that’s always on my mind.”
Why are some crypto fans angry at Lee?
While Charlie Lee is a well-known person in the crypto community, his actions and views weren’t always a boon for the LTC bag holders. In 2017, he made headlines by selling most of his Litecoin holdings.
Lee explained this decision clearly: he saw his LTC holdings as a conflict of interest and sold them so as not to be influenced by price movements while working on the projects, announcing news, and so on. Here’s how he put it in the Reddit post:
“Over the past year, I try to stay away from price related tweets, but it’s hard because price is such an important aspect of Litecoin growth. And whenever I tweet about Litecoin price or even just good or bads news, I get accused of doing it for personal benefit. Some people even think I short LTC! So in a sense, it is conflict of interest for me to hold LTC and tweet about it because I have so much influence.”
Many people disliked the move, thinking Lee doesn’t care about Litecoin that much or that Lee actually values Litecoin less than fiat money. One of the comments to Lee’s Reddit post reads:
“If you don’t believe in what you work on enough to hold a stake of your personal wealth in it then I struggle to believe in it too.”
Eight years later, some people still see Lee as a liar and a hypocrite despite all of his efforts to keep Litecoin afloat.
Like Lee or not, he has a pretty distinct voice in the crypto space as he says things about his project that are unthinkable for other founders and CEOs. Some people liken him to Musk, but Lee says that, unlike Musk, who’s focused on increasing Tesla’s share price, Lee is focused on Litecoin adoption. The fact that his words didn’t sink Litecoin is a testament to the Litecoin community’s strength and the Litecoin Foundation’s effort.
