Litecoin — long called the digital silver to Bitcoin — is seeing a rise in activity ahead of its MimbleWimble implementation in September this year.
Privacy update sparks Litecoin activity
Yesterday, Litecoin Foundation director David Schwartz noted the cryptocurrency had over 92,278 active wallets in the past 24 hrs (from August 6-7); putting it ahead of both Bitcoin Cash and BSV ( the two had 90,446 in total).
#Litecoin had 92,278 active wallets the past 24 hrs. More than #BCH and #BSV combined (90,446).
— David Schwartz (aka – Dasch) (@DaddyCool1991) August 6, 2020
The metrics indicate Litecoin is seeing a resurgence in terms of investments, transactions, and transfers. It comes as the broader crypto market sees better public sentiment and positive fundamentals overall.
A significant reason could be the upcoming launch of MimbleWimble, which brings privacy features to Litecoin. The implementation is on track for a September rollout, as lead developer David Burkett confirm in a July project update.
For the uninitiated, MimbleWimble—a Harry Potter reference—was first proposed in 2016 to fill privacy lapses in the Bitcoin protocol. The latter gives away transactional information that allows firms like Chainalysis to tie transactions to an individual.
But last year, Litecoin founder Charlie Lee said confidential transactions were soon coming to Litecoin:
Fungibility is the only property of sound money that is missing from Bitcoin & Litecoin. Now that the scaling debate is behind us, the next battleground will be on fungibility and privacy.
I am now focused on making Litecoin more fungible by adding Confidential Transactions. ?
— Charlie Lee [LTC⚡] (@SatoshiLite) January 28, 2019
But privacy is not the only benefit of MimbleWimble. As Burkett stated in his update, a new syncing process brings faster transactions on the Litecoin network — courtesy of an innovative block processing model.
The Litecoin community could also see a partnership with Cardano, if a tweet exchange last month between Lee and Charles Hoskinson, the Cardano founder, is anything to go by:
At the time, Lee replied with a “Sure!” and stated that “someone from the Foundation” would get in touch with Hoskinson about a collaboration.
@SatoshiLite it would be great to do something together. I love the idea of testing cross chain communication between Litecoin and Cardano. We got a lot of ideas and I’m sure you guys do too
— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) July 7, 2020
Litecoin a “leading” indicator?
Trading wise, Litecoin led gains among all large-cap cryptocurrencies in the recent rally. Lee even remarked on Twitter that the digital currency was once again leading alongside Bitcoin, cementing its strong demand and use even as newer tokens aim to displace the status quo.
In this run up, Bitcoin is destroying ratios of all the major altcoins except for one. ?? pic.twitter.com/YKl2vCExNI
— Charlie Lee [LTC⚡] (@SatoshiLite) July 28, 2020
Litecoin has historically served as a leading indicator of Bitcoin prices (one that moves ahead of BTC instead of “lagging” the pioneer).
Willy Woo, a prominent trader and on-chain analyst, pointed this aspect out in a tweet in April. At the time, he noted that “LTC has a habit of leading BTC.”
Meanwhile, the charts show a tight for Litecoin. It’s currently hovering between $56-$60 range after a run-up from sub-$40 in the first week of August.
But it’s above the 34-exponential moving average on the four-hour charts, meaning the bullish trend remains in place.
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