While most cryptocurrencies remain stable but positive, Litecoin has surged over 12% in the last day, now securing the 4th position on CoinMarketCap with a valuation exceeding $2.2 billion.
Litecoin up by Twelve Percent
Data sourced from CoinMarketCap indicates that the price of Litecoin has surged by over 12% within the past 24 hours. Presently, LTC stands as the leading altcoin in terms of price increase over this trading period.
Now priced at $36 and climbing, LTC has reached its highest point in over three weeks, nearing its year peak of $40, but still far from its all-time high of $362 recorded in December 2017.
Much like the wider crypto market, Litecoin experienced a drastic decline during 2018, a bearish year for the market, as the altcoin, crafted by Charlie Lee, an ex-Google engineer, dropped more than 90% amid plunging crypto prices.
Speculation suggests that the newly declared partnership between the Litecoin Foundation and Beam is a key factor in LTC's current price boost. Bear in mind, this rally might be brief.
The initiative for a Beam partnership and the integration of Mimblewimble.
In a blog post published by Beam On Thursday, February 7, 2019, it was announced that talks were underway between the company and the Litecoin Foundation regarding the potential Mimblewimble protocol on the Litecoin blockchain.
An excerpt from the post reads:
\"We have initiated steps to explore the incorporation of privacy and fungibility features into Litecoin. This would be achieved by facilitating on-chain conversion between regular LTC and its Mimblewimble variant. Such conversion would enable fully confidential transactions using Mimblewimble LTC.\"
Team has been chatting with the @vcorem and @beamprivacy discussed the integration of MimbleWimble on Litecoin using Extension Blocks. It's notable that Beam has already adopted switch-commitments with ElGamal as a precaution against quantum computing undermining CT soundness.
— Charlie Lee Ⓜ️����️ (@SatoshiLite) February 6, 2019
These discussions suggest that Litecoin may be gearing up to incorporate privacy features. Through the use of extension blocks with a Mimblewimble framework, LTC users could access privacy tools that aren't original features of the Litecoin system.
Litecoin Usefulness
Beam's collaboration with Litecoin to introduce privacy features comes amid a sweeping debate on Litecoin's continued relevance. Some suggest that Lightning Network and other innovative off-chain Bitcoin protocols could deem 'Bitcoin-like' altcoins obsolete.
In previous discussions, the primary argument for Litecoin was the potential saturation of Bitcoin's network, which could drastically slow transaction processing. Consequently, a more lightweight framework like LTC would see broader use, especially for smaller transactions.
However, the advancement of SegWit and the expanding Lighting Network is challenging these assumptions. By shifting focus to the privacy domain, Litecoin could potentially find a new niche within the rapidly evolving crypto landscape.
The Rest of the Market
LTC's rise coincides with a day of minor, yet positive movements across the crypto market in general. All of the top ten coins, and most in the top-100 list, are reporting gains in 24-hour performance.
Bitcoin saw a $20 increase early today in an unexpected surge given current happenings, climbing nearly 1% since February 7, 2019. Leading gains beyond the top ten are HyperCash (HC), Veritaserum (VERI), and Quant (QNT), with an average uplift of 16% over 24 hours.
Meanwhile, Basic Attention Token (BAT) has seemingly hit a downturn, mini-rally following a recent announcement by Coinbase. BAT is down by over 3%, with Bytecoin (BCN) and THETA (THETA) being among the day's other notable losers.
