ADVERTISEMENT

Litecoin is surging as first 'hard fork' date approaches

Litecoin cash has been called a scam by the founder of litecoin.

  • Litecoin cash is expected to fork from the original coin on Sunday evening.
ADVERTISEMENT

is up more than 27% Wednesday morning, more than any other major cryptocurrency, as its first 'hard fork' date approaches.

When litecoin hits block 1371111 — expected to happen at around 5 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 18 — litecoin cash will split from the litecoin blockchain, and give every litecoin holder 10 new coins for every one litecoin they own, the litecoin cash foundation announced Tuesday.

The new currency is not connected to the original litecoin in anyway. Its creator, Charlie Lee, has warned that any fork could likely be a scam, merely using the litecoin name as marketing.

ADVERTISEMENT

"Any forks that you hear about is [sic] a scam trying to confuse you to think it’s related to litecoin," he tweeted. "Don’tfall of it and definitely don’t enter your private keys or seed into their website or client."

Still, the team behind litecoin cash maintain that the new coin will make several improvements over the original litecoin — and that it is far from a scam.

Specifically, the team claim that litecoin cash’s new algorithm, called DarkGravity, allows the mining difficulty to be adjusted on every cryptographic block. Litecoin’s mining difficulty can only be adjusted every 2016 blocks. This allows the network to be more flexible to demand for mining power.

"While this [naming] convention isn't ideal, it will be instantly understood by most hearing the name that Litecoin Cash is a hard fork of Litecoin,” Litecoin Cash foundation's design lead, Michael Wyszynski told Business Insider. “We have no doubt that there will be Litecoin forks in the future that will be scams, as well as things presenting themselves as hard forks that are nothing of the sort."

Litecoin is currently on block 1368604, according to BlockCypher, meaning there are 2507 blocks until the fork, at the time of writing. Blocks are currently taking anywhere from one minute to six minutes to process.

ADVERTISEMENT

Most cryptocurrencies are in the green Wednesday morning, likely given a boost by South Korea’s appearance of backpedalling on plans to outlaw cryptocurrency exchanges in the country.

News reports the South Korean government would move to ban cryptocurrency mining and exchanges outright sent waves of fear and selloffs throughout the global cryptocurrency market in January, wiping out hundreds of billions of dollars of value.

Still, the rate of new cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs) hasn't slowed in 2018, despite rampant volatility and price swings of 10% in either direction for most coins.

FOLLOW BUSINESS INSIDER AFRICA

Unblock notifications in browser settings.
ADVERTISEMENT

Recommended articles

10 African countries with the highest number of migrants

10 African countries with the highest number of migrants

PHOTOS: Inside the hostel in Rwanda set to house migrants from the UK in July

PHOTOS: Inside the hostel in Rwanda set to house migrants from the UK in July

10 African countries with the weakest governments

10 African countries with the weakest governments

Zap unveils Africa's first non-custodial exchange

Zap unveils Africa's first non-custodial exchange

The future of healthcare on display: Day 1 of Medlab West Africa wraps up

The future of healthcare on display: Day 1 of Medlab West Africa wraps up

Nigeria suspends a Chinese business over discrimination charges

Nigeria suspends a Chinese business over discrimination charges

10 African countries with the greatest soft power influence over the world in 2024

10 African countries with the greatest soft power influence over the world in 2024

List of the smartest African Cities in 2024

List of the smartest African Cities in 2024

U.S. officials admit President Biden’s strategy for Africa is predictably failing

U.S. officials admit President Biden’s strategy for Africa is predictably failing

ADVERTISEMENT