Litecoin, also known as Digital Silver, celebrated its 8th birthday on Sunday, October 13th. One of the oldest cryptos in the space, today Litecoin ranks sixth in terms of capitalization in the CoinMarketCap rating.
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The network was launched on October 13, 2011, and this date is considered the official reference point for the history of LTC. The source code of the project, its creator Charlie Lee published, however, six days earlier.
Happy 8th birthday to Litecoin! 🎉
— Charlie Lee [LTCâš¡] (@SatoshiLite) October 13, 2019
Litecoin network has been up and running continuously for the past 8 years with zero downtime. And in that span of time, over $500,000,000,000 worth of LTC have been transacted. 😮
Looking forward to the next 8 years and more! 🚀 pic.twitter.com/ItcDWrdCf1
In a published tweet, Lee notes that over eight years of Litecoin's existence on the network, transactions worth more than $500 billion have been carried out.
The cryptocurrency met its eighth birthday at a time when the Litecoin Foundation behind its development is experiencing certain financial difficulties. Assumptions that the organization is on the verge of bankruptcy, Charlie Lee however categorically rejected, asking users not to spread false information on the network. According to him, the money available today is enough for at least 2 years of work.
In August, Charlie Lee confirmed the reduction in salaries to fund employees, but, according to him, they took this step on their own initiative in support of the organization. Donations from the creator of the cryptocurrency account for up to 80% of the total funding of the Litecoin Foundation.
We also note that compared with the beginning of 2019, LTC is trading 88% higher (about $57 as of October 14), although during this time the cryptocurrency had to survive a correction of 60% of the June maximum.