#以太坊行情技术解读 Bitcoin is the king, but its story is much more than that — in the eyes of many developers, Litecoin is the perfect complement.

A Chinese engineer, Li Qiwei, made a "big innovation" in cryptocurrency with three small tweaks. In 2011, he adjusted the block generation time, total supply, and mining method based on Bitcoin's source code, giving birth to Litecoin. These changes seem simple but completely altered the game rules.

Specifically, Litecoin achieved a 2.5-minute block time (compared to Bitcoin's 10 minutes), set the total supply at 84 million coins (4 times that of Bitcoin), and adopted the Scrypt algorithm to enable ordinary computers to participate in mining, preventing large mining pools from monopolizing. Because of these differences, the phrase "Bitcoin gold, Litecoin silver" spread widely.

The most notable moment happened in 2017. While everyone was aggressively bullish at the top of the bull market, Li Qiwei took a contrary move — he liquidated all his Litecoin holdings. His reason was straightforward: he didn't want to be accused of making money through hype. This action led to him being called a "traitor," but also respected as an "idealist of the crypto world."

Time has proven the value of this choice. Litecoin has gone through multiple bull and bear cycles, maintaining a market cap within the top ten. More importantly, it became a testing ground for Bitcoin — key innovations like the Lightning Network and SegWit were first tested on LTC before being implemented on the Bitcoin network. This role has helped Litecoin find its niche in the ecosystem.

Looking at a longer timeline, Litecoin's path is not about rapid wealth but stable iteration. Over the past 12 years, it has consistently maintained fast and stable payment features, standing out among mainstream cryptocurrencies. Not claiming to be number one, but establishing an unshakable position in the payment field.

The significance of this story is — great innovation doesn't necessarily have to overturn everything. Sometimes, fine-tuning existing systems and finding a unique value proposition can lead to greater success. Satoshi created digital gold, while Li Qiwei crafted digital silver; together, they complement each other and complete the entire cryptocurrency value system.