Brought to you by the Coin Desk Podcast Studio, brought to you by Bito, which founded the first institutional-grade Bitcoin wallet in 2013. Bit Go is the gold standard in custody staking and payments today. Bit Go supports over 800 coins and processes 20% of all Bitcoin trading actions by value. Check it out now on bito.com. Like I said, we’re going to be here all day. We have a lot of powerful people joining us and one of them like coin creator Charlie Lee Charlie has joined us now. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. of course. Thank you for being here. Now, let’s ask the same thing we asked Danny. What excites you about this consensus? What makes this consensus different from other consensuses you’ve been a part of? Honestly, they’re all pretty crazy. Well, I’ve been to a few places and they were about the same craziness. Well, it’s been a while since we came to an agreement. I think the last time I did it was about five or six years ago. Now, when we say the consensus is pretty crazy, we define crazy. It’s getting bigger every year. Like the first event, which was a decent size, but now it’s like a huge event. That’s pretty impressive now, what was light corn like five or six years ago compared to today? Well, Litecoin has gained a lot of adoption and usage over the past 56 years. For example, at bitpay, one of the largest cryptocurrency payment processors, Litecoin has actually overtaken Bitcoin to become the top cryptocurrency used by people who pay with cryptocurrencies. This is a surprising event in some ways, but it is also a very promising event. It’s been five years since I joined Consensus, but I’ve been in this industry for a long time. I know you talked about consensus in one of the OG talks here. I’d love to hear some of your war stories. You know, as much as there are certain stories that people watching can learn from, especially from the construction industry, not everyone has been in this industry long enough. Hmm, I think the biggest pitfall of this space is that people come in when prices are at their peak. That’s because there is so much news, everyone is talking about it, people are hearing about Bitcoin and buying at the highest price. And, as you know, Bitcoin is very volatile and can drop by as much as 80% to 90% within a year or even six months. And when that happens, oh, those people get wiped out, invest at high prices, sell. , on the low end, it’s like being swept out of space. So, what I’ve learned over the years is you just have to have a strong hand, and you have to have faith, and basically just buy, buy, and slowly keep buying, It means you have to be able to hold and not get wiped out by volatility. Charlie, we’ll call you Diamond Hands. Yeah. Now, Charlie, I’d love to hear your take on ETF S, right? We have a Bitcoin ETF and it looks like there will be some ETFs coming soon, the Litecorn ETF is the one you would expect. And what will it take to get there from regulatory concerns? I think the Litecoin ETF will be easily passed over because it is a commodity just like Bitcoin. Um, it’s more of a demand issue, uh, if there’s more demand from people who want to invest in the Rico ETF, that’s what will happen. I think it’s just a matter of time. Unless I want to know what you think about ETFs. We talked to some other ogs on set yesterday, and ogs are big on decentralization, right? That’s what attracts people to this space. ETF S is attracting new types of people into the space, but they’ve been in the space for so long that it actually brings an interesting element of centralization. Well, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of the latest ETFs that everyone is talking about this year. Honestly, there’s no downside to this. I think Bitcoin is a new asset class. This is one of the best performing or best performing asset classes of all time. Well, ETFs allow anyone to invest in Bitcoin. I think it’s good in terms of space. Well, from a decentralization perspective. The best thing about Bitcoin is that you always have the option to sell control, move it around on the chain, and have complete control over your money. And that will always be the case, which is why Bitcoin is so powerful. Now, Charlie, this year around consensus, I’m seeing a lot of people who, when I look at gaming companies and things like that, I don’t necessarily think these people care about technology. Sometimes you hear these referred to as token generation events, or airdrops, but they may not be talking about the technology of decentralization, but rather about the opportunity to make money. Well, what do you think about the current state of the industry?I think it’s always been that way. Most people are here for the money, not the skill, and I think that’s fine. right. That’s what draws people to this space. But the underlying core strength of Bitcoin is technology, and it’s not going anywhere. Um, but the money aspect is what draws people to this space. And unfortunately, that’s also what attracts scammers to this field. Yeah, it’s interesting that the money aspect attracts people to the space. Do you think the people who are attracted to money are the fickle ones, the ones who don’t see a return to consensus year after year, the ones who have been through bear markets, uh, they’ve been here forever. It will take some time, but it may not be long. Yes, I think that’s true. As always, every time we come to a big event like this, there’s a consensus, but there’s a lot of new people who are joining the space for the first time. They’re just here for the money, and after a few years they, they’re gone. So how do you get people to stay, Charlie? Well, we’re not, we don’t have to try to make people stay. So if they believe in the exponential growth of this space and community, they’ll stay. So, I’m not worried about that, but how do you make sure the Litecoin community continues to grow? We’ve been here a lot lately about Layer 2 of Bitcoin and other ways to use this core technology in ways we haven’t imagined. Do you expect that to be reflected in Litecoin? For Litecoin, the focus is on Likes as a payment method, and the adoption of Likes as a payment has increased significantly over the past few years. And that’s a really good sign. Well, that’s the core and the main focus in terms of community growth. Most people using Litecoin don’t know who I am. That’s good. We use Litecoin because it is a very convenient currency, it is fast, has low fees, and is accepted everywhere, so you don’t actually need to know its creator to use it. And that’s the best thing about Litecoin. Where is Litecoin being adopted the most? Which regions are using it as payment more than others? Hmm, third world countries are actually using cryptocurrencies simply because it’s convenient. I think so, right? In the United States, people are adopting Bitcoin Lite Coin for speculative purposes rather than actually using it. Because it’s not really necessary. But in countries where the local currency is hyperinflated, storing that value in cryptocurrencies can be a lifesaver for them. That’s where I get hired the most. Do you think more countries will accept or engage with Bitcoin the way El Salvador has? Furthermore, I don’t know, but do you think some countries will accept the coin as more than just a cryptocurrency that exists outside of state control? Yeah. I think the next big thing for cryptocurrencies is for them to be adopted by nations in the sense of having them in their treasury, uh, actually accepting it, uh, legalizing it as a national currency, yeah. Right? And we are seeing that in El Salvador, and I believe that we will increasingly see the same in other countries in the future. What happens next has not been agreed upon for years. What are you making? What are you looking forward to on the roadmap? Yeah. Right now, we’re hard at work on a feature we recently released, as we have for the past two years, called M web. This is a privacy and Fung il feature. It’s like a layer on top of the coin that allows you to send transactions without anyone else seeing the amount being sent. Only you and the recipient know. And I think that’s kind of the functionality that Bitcoin is missing. This is a layer of files and privacy that helps protect you from the eyes of spies, right? When you spend money, you don’t want anyone to know how much money you have in your bank account. Charlie. Thank you very much for joining us this morning. It’s great to see you at Consensus. I hope you enjoy it. Yeah. Thank you for having me. wonderful. It was Charlie Lee, director of the Litecoin Foundation.
