20VC: Litecoin Founder, Charlie Lee on Why ICO's Are The Biggest Threat To Crypto, Why Ethereum Will Run Into Huge Scalability Problems & How To Assess The Trade Off Between Decentralisation & Scale
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 15 September 2017
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Charlie Lee is the creator of Litecoin, the most popular alternative currency to Bitcoin, which Charlie created as a side project in 2011 while working at Google. Today Litecoin has a market cap of $3.29Bn. As well as creating Litecoin, Charlie is also the Director of Engineering @ Coinbase, working alongside recent 20VC guest and Coinbase founder, Brian Armstrong. Prior to this, Charlie held roles at Microsoft, Google and Guidewire.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Charlie made his way from Google to Coinbase to founding Litecoin in his free time? What were Charlie's biggest takeaways from being at Coinbase?
2.) What does Charlie believe is the biggest barrier to the world of cryptocurrency and BTC? What is the holy grail to securing this and the future of the space within mass consumer usage?
3.) How does Charlie think about the largest problem for crypto and BTC, scaling? Why does Charlie believe that Ethereum will have large problems scaling? How does Charlie assess the balance of centralization, scaling and transaction efficiency?
4.) Why is Charlie's biggest concern the current ICO market? Why does he believe it is the "wild west"? What happens to alternative currencies when the ICO market crashes? Who are the ultimate winners in the ICO markets?
5.) How does Charlie analyse the differing communities when comparing ETH to BTC to LTC? Does community serve as a core form of IP for currencies and their stability moving forward?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Charlie’s Fave Book: Game of Thrones
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Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the 20 minute VC in a very special episode of Founders Friday with me, Harry Stebbings, |
| 0:05.0 | at H Stebbings with 2Bs on Snapchat. But why are the very special show today? Well, we've had many |
| 0:10.0 | people who've created companies on the show before, but very few who've created currencies. Well, |
| 0:14.7 | today's guest has, and I'm thrilled to welcome Charlie Lee to the hot seat today. For those that |
| 0:19.0 | don't know, Charlie is the creator of Lightcoin, the most popular alternative currency to Bitcoin, which Charlie created as a side |
| 0:25.3 | project in 2011 while working at Google. Today, Lightcoin has a market cap of $3.29 billion. As well as |
| 0:32.3 | creating Lightcoin, Charlie is also the director of engineering at Coinbase, working alongside |
| 0:36.5 | our recent 20-minute VC guest and |
| 0:38.7 | Coinbase founder, Brian Armstrong. Prior to this, Charlie held roles at Microsoft, Google, and Guidewire. |
| 0:44.1 | I do also want to say a huge thank you to Brian at Coinbase for the intro to Charlie today, |
| 0:47.7 | without which this episode would not have been possible, so we're very grateful for that. |
| 0:51.2 | But before we dive into the show today, if you're an early stage startup, the right infrastructure and support systems are critical. And that's where First |
| 0:58.1 | Republic's resources, network and expertise, allow entrepreneurs to customize a solid |
| 1:04.3 | foundation for your business across all stages. So why First Republic? Well, you get to leverage |
| 1:09.3 | their incredible network of VC firms to prepare you for future fundraising events. |
| 1:13.3 | You get to count on a single point of contact that will be there for you and your employees when you need them. |
| 1:18.0 | You get access to exclusive events and networking opportunities. |
| 1:21.2 | But don't trust me on this. |
| 1:22.3 | Their clients include the likes of Instacard, e-shares and Wish, just to name a few. |
| 1:26.5 | Check it out by heading over to |
| 1:27.6 | Innovation.1stRepublic.com. And speaking of incredible startups there, one that really is a must |
| 1:32.8 | is Segment. Why? Well, Segment allows you to collect data from every platform, mobile, web, |
... |
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