The most prominent item follows on from the story we discussed in the issue covering August 3rd, 2019 – and suggests exactly why the Litecoin Foundation decided to change its donation address to include ‘confidential transaction’ technology.
In addition to FUD surrounding what has widely been misreported as general pay-cuts, there has been a growing concern surrounding the sharp drop in Litecoin hashrate since the ‘halvening’ event earlier in the month.
Top News
Welcome to the bi-weekly roundup of the most discussion-worthy news content related to the Litecoin blockchain network & its cryptocurrency LTC. Plus a brief look at periodical price movements.
August 28th
Primary Litecoin Foundation Donor Revealed, Causes FUD
Charlie Lee is not having an easy time when it comes to its PR with the media and community right now regarding Litecoin, which has been facing controversy and intense speculation regarding the impact of the ‘halvening’ event on the token economy. This is where the mining rewards were halved on the network.
At the same time, Lee and other executive level colleagues have also been attempting to tackle anxieties raised in the press regarding the recent revelation that he accounted for the vast majority of donations made to Litecoin Foundation.
In an exclusive statement delivered to CoinDesk, Lee admitted that the 2017-2018 bear market had a significant impact on the funding of the Litecoin Foundation. Specifically, he detailed that he had been accountable for approximately 80% of all funding received by the foundation since 2017.
Conversely, Lee compared the extent of this to that of other crypto organisations which were also in operation at this time. Continuing to clarify that this is something that is not only historical, but intended to continue into the foreseeable – at least until it becomes “self-sustaining”.
At present, the Litecoin Foundation raises funds through a variety of external sources. These include merchandising sales (such as clothing and novelty items), ticket proceeds from the annual Litecoin Summit event, private donations, and profits from partnership deals (such as with the Miami Dolphins and GLORY kickboxing).
Another reason for the FUD being spread is the fact that employees at the company have taken reduced pay cuts, with some publications reporting that they are “many”. Charlie Lee refuted this claim, stating that there had only been “a couple of instances”.
Xinxi Wang is a member of the Litecoin Foundation directors’ board, and was among the employees who chose to ask for a pay cut. In an interview with XCong (via LitecoinTalk forum), Wang corroborated Lee’s message of how donations had dropped as a result of the broader bear market – but he pinpoints it closer to the Q1 2019 period.
As Litecoin is a private organisation, It is difficult to definitively quantify the volume of staff members who offered to work for less or how much less they offered to work for. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to presume that the majority (if not all) of these colleagues were at an executive level – like with Wang.
The previous address was a standard Litecoin address, which is likely how news first spread about how much money was being paid and from what addresses.
Now, it is difficult to assess how much is being donated by whom – as the Litecoin Foundation made the decision to publish a new LTC account ID for donations in early August. This new address includes the ‘confidential transactions’, which is a technology that provides the means to obfuscate the values associated with transactions made between public ledger addresses.
Considering the timing, it seems that the introduction of the new address is a means of attempting to prevent members of the community or press from easily being able to quantify transaction values or address funding in the future.
In essence, Lee and Litecoin really did not want this funding information to come to light – and it reveals a potential lack of investor interest in the product.
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August xxth
#PayWithLitecoin? Hashtag Campaign Highlights Mainstream Adoption Drive
What better way than a large social media initiative to help drown out what has become an air of uncertainty and a relative lack of positive news?
In light of the questions that the Litecoin Foundation has been facing regarding funding and staff pay-cuts (above), Litecoin proper has been ramping up its official support for the #PayWithLitecoin “movement” that has been spreading on social media platforms.
The movement signifies the ongoing efforts which Litecoin is making towards achieving mainstream adoption and facilitating blockchain and cryptocurrency based payments in retail.
An article was published on the Litecoin Foundation website recently which celebrated the hashtag being officially adopted by Litecoin – referring to a “flurry of videos across social media showing users spending their LTC at these name brand retailers.”.
It continued to celebrate the positive impact that its recent partnership with Flexa and its SPEDN app have had on mainstream LTC adoption. Litecoin has actually been available on SPEDN since early July 2019, and the app advertises that users can spend LTC and other cryptocurrencies at “almost” 40,000 restaurants across the United States.
Another strong example for its mainstream adoption campaign is the forthcoming, special-edition, LTC enabled ‘Litecoin BlockCard’ debit card. Created in partnership with Ternio and Bibox.
Among the community, the hashtag has been gaining traction for quite a while now – yet the following month or two will tell as to how well it will do in comparison to FUD related discussion.
August 23rd
Litecoin Hashrate Sees Sharp End-Of-Month Drop, Following Halving of Mining Rewards
A notable drop in litecoin hashrate has been observed on Twitter and in crypto media, dividing opinion between users as to what this truly signifies for Litecoin post-halvening – in correlation with other indicators, such as price and market cap.
Whilst many have been worrying about these numbers, others claim that this is normal and that everything will recover. A popular example cited for this is the previous time that miner rewards were halved in August 25th, 2015 – from which Litecoin recovered quickly.
Price Movements
Information correct as of 23:53 AM (GMT+1), 4th September 2019
