In the end, Charlie Lee says Litecoin will have succeeded when it doesnt need him anymore. Heres what this means for the Litecoin Foundation.

In an exclusive interview with CryptoSlate, Charlie Lee shared the origin story behind Litecoin.

Initially, I was just in it for fun, he said about the coins creation. At the time, Lee was working at Google as a software engineer.

Lee positioned Litecoin as silver to Bitcoins gold. With faster block times and lower fees to facilitate cheap transactions, it complemented Bitcoin as a method for making cheap, fast payments. He doesnt see this changing anytime soon, either:

I positioned it to silver to Bitcoins gold when I first launched it. I think theres always going to be space for Litecoin to thrive so Im not worried about all these other coins coming into space. Theres always going to be tons and tons of coins. But I think Litecoin and Bitcoin will be really used as currency, Lee said confidently.

Created in October 2011, Litecoin predates the vast majority of blockchain projects. And soon after its creation, Litecoin quickly grew into one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. It maintained this title year after year, ranking as the fifth-largest coin with a $5 billion market capitalization.

Meanwhile, as Litecoin became a pillar in cryptocurrency Lees relationship to the project also changed. Now I feel responsible to shepherd Litecoin and also try to help Bitcoin, Lee shared.

Founded in April 2017, the Litecoin Foundation aims to advance the development and adoption of LTC. The Singapore based non-profit was created to help Litecoin in every way he can think of, said Lee.

Unlike other crypto foundations like the NEO Foundation or the TRON Foundationwhich funded themselves by retaining coins from their respective ICOsthe Litecoin Foundation went to the community to raise funds via donations and merchandise sales.

The Foundation gauges its success by the adoption it stimulates. Network hash rate, on-chain metrics, transactions, wallet accounts, and application downloads are all figures the Foundation watches closely.

Right now, aiding Litecoin adoption and running the Foundation are Lees full-time commitments.

In December 2017, near Litecoins all-time high, Charlie Lee sold his entire LTC holdings citing potential conflicts of interest given his influence over the coins price. The decision is a recurring point of criticism among investors.

People claim that Lee is no longer financially motivated to support Litecoin. And based on his comments, hes not. Charlie Lee seems ideologically driven.

To date, Charlie Lees statements and actions have proven he is still fully invested in the project. In fact, Lee even left his position at Coinbase as director of engineering to work full-time on Litecoin.

Lees finances affirm his commitment. Charlie Lees donations account for 80 percent of the Foundations funding, according to an interview with CoinDesk. Based on recent financial statements from the non-profit this would amount to roughly $800,000.

Instead of making money, Lee seems more interested in fighting for the freedom of money.

Despite Charlie Lees influence and power over Litecoin, his goal is for the community to outgrow his leadership.

What Id like to see with Litecoin is that it eventually it wouldnt need me so in the end its a decentralized currency. Having a centralized figurehead is counterproductive. Because then, I become a central point of failure.

That isnt to say the project depends on Lee. Similar to other politically decentralized cryptocurrency projects like Ethereum and Bitcoin, Litecoin would exist perfectly fine if the Litecoin Foundation disappeared, he said. Nonetheless, his involvement is still a point of failure, he argues:

If I get co-opted, or if I get attacked by government, for example, saying I have to put KYC into Litecoin or theyre going to lock me up, thats just bad. Theres no good end result if that happens.

Instead, Lee wants the community to grow to the point where Litecoin can thrive without himin a way thats decentralized and resilient to regulation.

I think over time I would need to step away. Start doing less, letting the community take over. And we have a great community for Litecoin. So Im not really concerned about that at all.

That isnt to say Charlie Lee is stepping down anytime soon. In the meantime, I think I do more good helping Litecoin along than harm.

In a Cincinnatus-esque fashion, Lee wants to eventually step down from power. And when that happens, people can rest assured that Litecoin will have succeeded in helping the world adopt the best form of money ever seen.

Litecoin, currently ranked #5 by market cap, is up 2.22% over the past 24 hours. LTC has a market cap of $4.84B with a 24 hour volume of $3.72B.

Chart by CryptoCompare

Litecoin is up 2.22% over the past 24 hours.

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Litecoin will have succeeded when it doesnt need Charlie Lee [INTERVIEW] - CryptoSlate