I'm Charlie Lee, creator of Litecoin & Director of Engineering at Coinbase. Ask me anything!

[coblee]

First, some background...

I graduated from MIT with a Bachelors and Masters in computer science. Worked at various companies including Microsoft, Guidewire, and Google. I discovered Bitcoin in April of 2011 from an article on Silk Road. Of course! I created Litecoin in October of 2011. I left Google in July 2013 to join Coinbase as the 3rd hire. I'm now leading the Coinbase exchange and payments engineering teams.

What else do you want to know? Ask me anything!

EDIT: I will respond in the morning Pacific time.

[Bossman]

1) What are your plans once Litecoin reaches it's block limit.

2) What did you mean when you said "LTC does not need development right now."https://twitter.com/satoshilite/status/ ... 8740283393 (I know what you meant but trolls like to take this one out of context.)

3) You once said in the troll box "I will make sure to get LTC on Coinbase. If I can't, I will quit. How about that?", were you trolling or being serious?

4) If Coinbase is not profitable why are they not adding LTC on it's exchange at the bare minimum? Gemini has expressed interest in adding Litecoin will Coinbase be forced to add LTC once they do?

5) Are there any plans for the LTC devs to be more vocal like quarterly updates or monthly updates ? Getting information from the Litecoin Devs is like pulling teeth.

[nyeko_12]

Hi Charlie!

How is it going with the blocksize issue? What are Core Developers opinion regarding BIP 100 and especially BIP 101? Do you think it can be resolved even if Gavin might not go to the scaling bitcoin event in hong kong during Dec?
Also Coinbase has announced that it will support BIP101 proposal for now,what are opinions regarding that?



Also what do you think of theymos(on bitcoin reddit) blocking brian armstrong and potentially coinbase from the subreddit?

[LISAM]

Which digital currency (litecoin,dogecoin, peercoin etc) do you think will be the biggest competitor or which shows higher chance of success to bitcoin in 5 years

[rogerver]

Thanks so much for participating Charlie!

What percent of your time do you spend on Bitcoin things vs Litecoin things currently?
What do you see as the biggest difference between the two communities?

[Edward]

Did you ever see Litecoin taking over Bitcoin?

[ParkerLewis]

Hi Charlie,
Thank you very much for doing this.
1.) Litecoin creates the most volume in China. Are there any special events planned to maximize Litecoins Market Importance there? Are you in contact with the chinese community?
2.) Are there any plans to increase Litecoin adaption?
3.) Is Warren still the Lead Developer of Litecoin and/or part of the development-team?
4.) What do you think can be done to attract and encourage more people to be part of the Litecoin-community and maybe participate in more community-projects?
5.) If the block-size issue can't be fixxed in the nearer future,What role can Litecoin play/take in your point of view?
6.) What is your opinion about Ethereum in general and Smart-Contracts in particular? This seems to get a lot of attention right now.

Thank you very much
Michael

[Wilsonprrra]

Hi Charlie

• What do you think about the future of Litecoin... like now and the next 1 or 2 years?

• Do you think that bitcoin & litecoin will be THE future of digital money? Or will it don't excist anymore...? if that is possible...?

• What price do you think litecoin will have for each litecoin in 2016...?

Thankyou

Wilson.

[ParkerLewis]

Two Questions from Reddit

1.) Speedy1050 asked:

Do you see any particular development/ application in the pipeline that might take Litecoin and other cryptos into the mainstream?


2.) super_thalamus asked:

I recently ditched Verizon and switched to Google Fi, but I forgot to switch over all my Google authenticator accounts. Now I'm kinda locked out of my coinbase account. I tried going through the Authy procedure to set up a new phone but it following their instructions sends me in a big loop. Is there a way to get back in through email or do I have to talk to a human (yuck). Also hey! Thanks for doing doing an AMA and when will litecoin be going to the moon??

[schau]

Hi Charlie, where would you like to see Litecoin in 5 years from now? What's your game plan to take from where it is today, to where you envision it to be?

[Marshall]

Charlie,

Glad to see you are still riding my coat tails. :p. Wondering when you decided to let Warren take over the project.

[BitcoinXio]

Hi Charlie,

Thanks for doing the AMA!

Leaving Google to join Coinbase must have been a difficult decision, although the [bitcoin price] run up prior to July was pretty epic. Was there anything about that decision that you can share with us that helped you leave Google for a bitcoin company?

Thanks.

[creationlayer]

Hi Charlie,

I understand first and foremost your position is to keep the Coinbase machine running smoothly. Do you find it's tough to make time to innovate and do experiments on new ways to use this technology? Do you have any opinion on Blockstream's proposed implementation in terms of performance or security improvements? I won't ask if coinbase is considering

[ParkerLewis]

Hi Charlie,
Here is another Question from another forum i should ask you:
Robert01 asked: Can you give me a few reasons why Litecoin is more than a pump and dump coin right now and why i should invest more time and -in the end- money in it? Why Litecoin is necessary in the future besides Bitcoin? And is there a possibility that Coinbase will be available in Germany in the near future? Thanks

[LiteCoinGuy]

Hi Charlie,

are there plans that Litecoin adds some anonymity features in the future? i guess people would love this.



LiteCoinGuy

[losh11]

What's your opinion on the following technologies and which would you prefer if Litecoin were to suddenly have the same block size issue:

• BIP100
  BIP101
  BIP1**
  Lighting Network

Are you in favour of a hardfork to change the version number of multi-sig addresses. (Are you aware that many people are sending LTC to BTC multi-sig addresses?)

What services do you hope Litecoin should have in the next year? (so I mean do you think LTC ATM will be available, and other technologies?)

Where would you like to see the LitecoinAssociation go in terms of supporting and branding Litecoin? What do you think they can do to improve?

And of course, Litecoin at Coinbase?

[coblee]

1) What are your plans once Litecoin reaches it's block limit.

2) What did you mean when you said "LTC does not need development right now."https://twitter.com/satoshilite/status/ ... 8740283393 (I know what you meant but trolls like to take this one out of context.)

3) You once said in the troll box "I will make sure to get LTC on Coinbase. If I can't, I will quit. How about that?", were you trolling or being serious?

4) If Coinbase is not profitable why are they not adding LTC on it's exchange at the bare minimum? Gemini has expressed interest in adding Litecoin will Coinbase be forced to add LTC once they do?

5) Are there any plans for the LTC devs to be more vocal like quarterly updates or monthly updates ? Getting information from the Litecoin Devs is like pulling teeth.

1) It will likely take many years for Litecoin to reach it's block limit. By then, a solution like Lightning Networks will likely be available to help Litecoin grow it's transaction throughput without sacrificing security and decentralization. Bitcoin would have beta tested this for us.

2) I meant that other than general upkeep, there is no need to add new features to the Litecoin protocol. In order for Litecoin to grow today, we need more usage of Litecoin including users, miners, traders, and merchants.

3) I am being serious. But I didn't give myself a set timeframe as I know that this will take some time.

4) Adding LTC on the exchange will help Coinbase grow. But it comes down to the question of where is the best place to for our limited resources to focus today to drive revenue growth. If Gemini adding Litecoin will likely not affect Coinbase's decision.

5) Yeah, we can definitely do that.

[coblee]

Hi Charlie!

How is it going with the blocksize issue? What are Core Developers opinion regarding BIP 100 and especially BIP 101? Do you think it can be resolved even if Gavin might not go to the scaling bitcoin event in hong kong during Dec?
Also Coinbase has announced that it will support BIP101 proposal for now,what are opinions regarding that?

Also what do you think of theymos(on bitcoin reddit) blocking brian armstrong and potentially coinbase from the subreddit?

Having talk to most of the core devs, I think the majority of them are in favor of increasing the block size limit. The only question is how much and how fast. And they have not been able to come to a consensus on that. I think they are more in favor of BIP100 than BIP101, but still think that BIP100 is broken. I think the scaling bitcoin conference in HK will do a lot to help us reach consensus. I will be there.

I do not agree with Brian (Coinbase's CEO) w.r.t. supporting BIP101. I think BIP101 is way too aggressive and will hurt Bitcoin in the long run in terms of decreased security and decentralization. Brian wants Bitcoin's usage to grow, so he wants to push the decision to get something done about the block size limit. But I am definitely not in favor of implementing a solution before we reach some sort of consensus. I have trust in the core devs to reach a solution, and will haphazardly choose the nuclear option of forking the bitcoin protocol.

I think theymos is absolutely wrong in censoring reddit. My AMA here is to make that point. Censorship is never good and always backfire. I don't know what he's thinking. There has been a ton of Litecoin threads on Bitcoin reddit that were not censored even though it's an altcoin. The same should apply to BitcoinXT. If bitcoiners on reddit want to discuss BitcoinXT because the discussion is applicable to everyone, they should be able to discuss it without it being censored.

[coblee]

Which digital currency (litecoin,dogecoin, peercoin etc) do you think will be the biggest competitor or which shows higher chance of success to bitcoin in 5 years

Litecoin, of course!

I also think Ether has good staying power. Vitalik is brilliant and is doing very innovative things with Ethereum.

[antoineph]

Hi Charlie,

Would you ever counsel Litecoin as an investment?

[coblee]

Thanks so much for participating Charlie!

What percent of your time do you spend on Bitcoin things vs Litecoin things currently?
What do you see as the biggest difference between the two communities?

I spend about 95/5 split between Bitcoin and Litecoin since I work full time on Bitcoin at Coinbase. Although Litecoin is my thing, I know that in order for Litecoin to succeed, Bitcoin must first become adopted by the mass. My passion is to help crypto-currency become the reserve currency of the world.

Most Litecoin supporters are part of the larger Bitcoin community. I feel they are very similar... maybe a bit less trolling in the Litecoin community.

[coblee]

Did you ever see Litecoin taking over Bitcoin?

The plan was not for Litecoin to overtake Bitcoin. And I don't see that happening except for an extremely rare scenario. I think Bitcoin/Litecoin is a good 1-2 crypto-currency punch against the world of fiat currencies.

[coblee]

Hi Charlie,
Thank you very much for doing this.
1.) Litecoin creates the most volume in China. Are there any special events planned to maximize Litecoins Market Importance there? Are you in contact with the chinese community?
2.) Are there any plans to increase Litecoin adaption?
3.) Is Warren still the Lead Developer of Litecoin and/or part of the development-team?
4.) What do you think can be done to attract and encourage more people to be part of the Litecoin-community and maybe participate in more community-projects?
5.) If the block-size issue can't be fixxed in the nearer future,What role can Litecoin play/take in your point of view?
6.) What is your opinion about Ethereum in general and Smart-Contracts in particular? This seems to get a lot of attention right now.

Thank you very much
Michael

1) I plan to travel to HK/Taiwan/Shanghai next month. And I've asked Bobby Lee, my brother, to help me plan some stuff. What do you have in mind that I could be doing when I'm there?
2) Litecoin adoption is being pushed by the Litecoin Association and less by me. Though I tweet and give talks about it whenever I can.
3) Yes, Warren is still the lead developer of Litecoin.
4) Unfortunately, most people are motivated by greed. So they will participate if there's a potential reward. A higher Litecoin price will always encourage people to participate more.
5) Litecoin is already playing the role of helping Bitcoin with transaction throughput. See this recent post about it: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/commen ... _become_a/
6) I think Ethereum has a ton of potential. The strength of Bitcoin/Litecoin is in transaction of currency and store of value. There's room for Ethereum to be much more than that.

[coblee]

Hi Charlie

• What do you think about the future of Litecoin... like now and the next 1 or 2 years?

• Do you think that bitcoin & litecoin will be THE future of digital money? Or will it don't excist anymore...? if that is possible...?

• What price do you think litecoin will have for each litecoin in 2016...?

Thankyou

Wilson.

1) Litecoin will grow quite a bit in the next 2 years. The future is bright!

2) I really do believe the Bitcoin/Litecoin is THE future of money, and not just digital money.

3) Between $1 and $100.

[coblee]

Hi Charlie, where would you like to see Litecoin in 5 years from now? What's your game plan to take from where it is today, to where you envision it to be?

The plan has always to be for Litecoin to be used as money in everyday transactions alongside with Bitcoin. My plan is to first help Bitcoin/Litecoin reach the mass and I know Coinbase will play a big part in that.

[coblee]

Charlie,

Glad to see you are still riding my coat tails. :p. Wondering when you decided to let Warren take over the project.

It was early 2013. Warren was very active with Litecoin development and was the best person to lead the project.

[DannyHamilton]

1. Why did Litecoin choose to use the same version byte for Pay-to-Script-Hash as Bitcoin is using?
2. Is there any plan to change this soon?

This seems to result in confusion where users will attempt to send Litecoins to a Pay-to-Script-Hash address that is intended to be used for bitcoins (or vice-versa).

[coblee]

Hi Charlie,

Thanks for doing the AMA!

Leaving Google to join Coinbase must have been a difficult decision, although the [bitcoin price] run up prior to July was pretty epic. Was there anything about that decision that you can share with us that helped you leave Google for a bitcoin company?

Thanks.

Google did not have any crypto-currency projects at that time. Switching to work at Coinbase meant less pay, less benefits, and an hour commute. But it was pretty much a no-brainer since I now get to work on crypto-currency full time! I have not regretted this decision one bit... one lite.

[coblee]

Hi Charlie,

I understand first and foremost your position is to keep the Coinbase machine running smoothly. Do you find it's tough to make time to innovate and do experiments on new ways to use this technology? Do you have any opinion on Blockstream's proposed implementation in terms of performance or security improvements? I won't ask if coinbase is considering

Yes, Coinbase has been spending most of our resources addressing the current use cases of Bitcoin: trading, storing, and spending. Next year, we plan to spend a bit more time innovating and thinking up new ways to push this technology. Will see if we can come up with the next killer app!

Which of Blockstream's product are you referring to?

[coblee]

Hi Charlie,
Here is another Question from another forum i should ask you:
Robert01 asked: Can you give me a few reasons why Litecoin is more than a pump and dump coin right now and why i should invest more time and -in the end- money in it? Why Litecoin is necessary in the future besides Bitcoin? And is there a possibility that Coinbase will be available in Germany in the near future? Thanks

It is best for you to answer that question for yourself. I won't give investment advice. A lot of people think Bitcoin is a pump and dump also. For me, I will not be spending my time working on Bitcoin/Litecoin if I thought they were pump and dumps.

Litecoin is not necessary. It's a good trading pair with Bitcoin and is a good alternative decentralized currency protected by it's own set of machines. It can help Bitcoin handle the worldwide transaction volume. Due its security costing less, it would be better suited for small transactions due to less fees.