Ep. 76: {Rebroadcast}: Sidechains, Stable Coins, and What’s Wrong with the ICO with Charlie Lee of Litecoin

‘There’s definitely some teams that are using [ICOs] and are able to fund their ideas better and more easily than the traditional VC way of doing things, but there’s just too many bad actors that just want a get rich quick scheme.’ Charlie Lee created Litecoin in 2011 while he was working as software engineer for Google. Litecoin is ‘the silver to Bitcoin’s gold,’ functioning as a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that complements Bitcoin. In the long-term, Charlie sees Litecoin becoming a payment currency used at both physical and online stores, and he is currently working to promote widespread merchant adoption. Charlie also spent four years with Coinbase, serving as the Director of Engineering for the digital currency platform. Today Charlie explains why he is not a fan of the ICO, discussing why it’s ripe for bad actors. We cover the future of cryptocurrency and the major debates in the ecosystem, including hard forks and Bitcoin Gold. Charlie shares his inspiration for dedicating his career to cryptocurrency as well as his ambitions for Litecoin. Listen in for Charlie’s insight around sidechains, stable coins, and the value of CryptoKitties. Topics Covered Chalie’s background Encrypted chat startup in 1999 Created Litecoin while working for Google Last four years at Coinbase Charlie’s take on the rise of the ICO Incentives not in line, receive money before product is built Too many bad actors Tack on token functionality as afterthought The future of the cryptocurrency space ICO regulations to reduce fraud Charlie’s ambitions for Litecoin Become payment currency (physical, online stores) Widespread merchant adoption Listed on exchanges Chalie’s insight around stable coins Crypto must be tied back to real world somehow Governments will eventually release cryptocurrencies (i.e.: crypto-USD) The deployment of sidechains Litecoin is decentralized, secured by miners Value of sidechain in smart contracts Why Charlie is excited about Monero Coin doing the right thing 100% private Charlie’s take on the major debates in the ecosystem Bitcoin Gold Hard forks What inspired Charlie to enter the crypto space Bitcoin as better version of gold Easy to transfer, store for nothing How CryptoKitties create value Limited supply of digital resource (scarcity) Concern lies in scaling Connect with Charlie Litecoin https://litecoin.org/ Litecoin on Twitter https://twitter.com/litecoin Charlie on Twitter https://twitter.com/SatoshiLite Resources Mentioned Coinbase https://www.coinbase.com/?locale=en-US Aragon https://aragon.one/ Monero https://getmonero.org/ Connect with Boost VC Boost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/ Boost VC on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/boostvc/ Boost VC on Twitter https://twitter.com/BoostVC