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When you think of LItecoin, you think of a stable and well-designed alternative to most altcoins.
The existence of Litecoin today was only made possible by the Ivory Coast-born Computer Scientist Charlie Lee. (we tell you more about that below).
Charlie Lee (born in 1977) created Litecoin, one of the first Bitcoin derivatives, and today, he is a highly successful entrepreneur and influential figure in the emerging crypto industry.
Under his leadership, Litecoin remained one of the top cryptocurrencies in an exceptionally volatile market—unlike other altcoins that launched in the early 2010s and have since crashed.
Lee built and launched Litecoin (LTC) in 2011 while still a software engineer at Google.
In 2013, he became an Engineering Manager and, in 2015, Director of Engineering at Coinbase.
In 2017, he left Coinbase to work full-time at the Litecoin Foundation, a non-profit organisation he founded in 2016.
As of March 2022, he still serves as the Managing Director at the Litecoin Foundation, where his primary focus is promoting the awareness and adoption of Litecoin.
Early Life
Charlie Lee was born to Chinese parents in the Ivory Coast, West Africa, where his parents had lived since the 1960s. His parents moved to Ivory-Coast in the 60s when Africa was getting rid of colonial rule, and the economies were taking root and opening up to the world.
When he was 13, his family moved to the United States. After graduating from the Lawrenceville School in Jersey in 1995, Lee obtained both a Bachelor of Science (1999) and a Master of Engineering (2000) in Computer Science from the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Lee’s father also graduated from MIT, and his brother Bobby Lee, another crypto entrepreneur, also became the Founder and CEO of BTC China, a Bitcoin crypto exchange in China.
Charlie Lee’s Career
Charlie Lee began his career with KANA Communications in 2000 and joined Guidewire Software in 2003. In 2007, he moved to Google, where he contributed significantly by writing code for the Chrome OS and the YouTube mobile app.
While still at Google (2007 – 2013), Bitcoin was launched in 2009 as the first truly scarce digital asset created by the anonymous “Satoshi Nakamoto.”
In 2011, Lee became intrigued by Bitcoin and blockchain technology. He bought Bitcoin and started mining cryptocurrencies after meeting Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn.
He then created Fairbrix, his first cryptocurrency project, a clone of a failed crypto project called Tenebrix. Fairbrix later collapsed due to a string of technical issues.
His curiosity and deep research about cryptocurrencies in 2011 helped him conceptualize, establish, and release Litecoin in October 2011. This creation, which he developed at Google, was based on Bitcoin’s blockchain technology.
In 2013, Lee made a big move, one inclined to his new journey in cryptocurrencies, to accept a role at Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges.
Joining Coinbase marked a significant transition for Lee, especially since the exchange later listed Litecoin.
Charlie Lee served as engineering manager and director of engineering from 2013- 2017, and is now working full-time towards Litecoin’s adoption through the Litecoin Foundation.
His commitment and passion for cryptocurrency make him a pivotal figure in the digital currency landscape.
Charlie Lee’s Net Worth
Even though Charlie Lee’s net worth is unclear, sources estimate it to be around $1.2 billion. Part of his wealth came from Litecoin.
Lee recorded most of his net worth from the returns from selling his Litecoin in December 2017.
However, Charlie Lee’s earnings from his time at Google and a four-year stint at Coinbase also contributed to his net worth.
Charlie Lee’s Litecoin Net Worth
Charlie Lee’s goal with Litecoin was to create a cryptocurrency that could be an alternative to Bitcoin for micropayments.
In an act of transparency and fairness to the crypto market, after mining only 150 coins, Lee took Litecoin to the public.
(Charlie Lee aka coblee announces the launch of Litecoin on bitcointalk.org)
However, in December 2017, after many accusations of his tweets influencing Litecoin’s price for self-gains, Lee announced on Reddit that he had sold and donated nearly all of his Litecoin holdings but kept a few physical ones as collectibles
Charlie Lee’s Future For Litecoin
At a conference in 2019, Charlie Lee stated that he aims to “create sound money.”
Ever since he was introduced to Bitcoin, Lee has believed that cryptocurrency is “a better form of money than any form human civilization has ever seen.”
When asked if he believed central banks would eventually start issuing cryptocurrency, Lee replied that he saw no advantage in that scenario.
The principal characteristic that defines cryptocurrencies is decentralization, so government control or a centralized bank would make crypto “effectively no different than a digital version of a U.S. dollar.”
Lee believes that eventually, the market will wither out, and only a few cryptocurrencies (likely Bitcoin, Litecoin, and a few others) will be left in the market.
At that point, those surviving cryptocurrencies could “actually represent real value” and even become interchangeable: someone could pay in Litecoin, and the recipient could resend that same Litecoin in Bitcoin, which would be converted automatically.
He anticipates that, as merchant adoption grows and user experience improves, consumers will begin to trust cryptocurrency, leading to mass adoption, and crypto will be used globally like traditional money. “Things will get simpler, and that is when things will take off.
