Litecoin Undergoes Third Halving, Founder Charlie Lee Creates Silver Cards to Commemorate

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Litecoin Undergoes Third Halving, Founder Charlie Lee Creates Silver Cards to Commemorate

Litecoin, one of the oldest and largest blockchains, underwent the third “halving” in its 12-year history, a key milestone for a project often referred to as “digital silver” in comparison to Bitcoin’s reputation as “digital gold.” The event in the blockchain’s lifecycle was expected, since it was programmed into the decentralized network’s underlying coding, prescribed to happen roughly every four years. This halving meant that the “block subsidy” – the predetermined reward miners receive for processing transactions and securing the network – was reduced from 12.5 litecoin (LTC) to 6.25 LTC.

The reduction in rewards can reduce incentives for miners to continue working on the network, but there are theoretical benefits for the cryptocurrency’s strength, in that there may be less freshly minted supply hitting the market. The reduction took place on Wednesday around 15:06 UTC (11:06 am ET) when the network reached block height 2,520,000.

Litecoin, a “fork” or clone of Bitcoin, is sometimes affectionately referred to as “digital silver.” It still ranks as one of the industry’s most valuable, at about $7 billion. It also provides the security for the Dogecoin blockchain, which despite being created as a joke in 2014, has become a top-20 project with a market capitalization of $14 billion.

Litecoin founder Charlie Lee says these disinflationary halvings help achieve mass adoption without sacrificing network security. “Satoshi chose four-year block halving so that it gives enough time for the network to grow in time for the fees to eventually take over,” Lee explained during a Twitter livestream last week.

To commemorate the blockchain’s third halving, Charlie Lee and his brother Bobby Lee, CEO and co-founder of Ballet, created 500 collectible cards made of 99.9% pure silver. The cards themselves – the silver alone – could carry a value of roughly $40 a card, but they would also be loaded with 6.25 LTC, or $581 worth. All proceeds from the sale will be donated to the Litecoin Foundation to further the blockchain’s adoption and development.

“Like I’ve previously said, a lot of the price action is a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Lee said. “Just because people think the halving is going to cause the price to go up, they will buy ahead of the halving or even right after the halving.”