Litecoin, a decade-old cryptocurrency is set to release its long awaited network update called Mimblewimble through extension blocks – also known as MWEB.
This is the most consequential updated for the Litecoin network after the activation of Segregated Witness (SegWit) a few years ago. Mweb is a privacy-focused update.
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Often disregarding original coins for the latest flavour of the week, the crypto market forgot about an old yet robust player in the space. Indeed, Litecoin has been one of the most popular cryptos over the last decade. However, due to the large expansion of other networks such as Solana (SOL), which has gone offline 4 times, Litecoin lost its position as a top 20 asset in the market, coming in at 21st place just after Cosmos (ATOM) per data from Coingecko.
Other coins like Avalanche (AVAX) and Dogecoin (DOGE) also took the altcoin limelight in 2021.
Despite this, Litecoin developers have been working on MWEB to bring fungibility to LTC transactions. Fungibility is a necessary property for good money which makes any coin equally substitutable with another coin; the same way any Dollar can be substituted with any other physical Dollar regardless of its history. Per a recent tweet from the Litecoin Foundation, MWEB is the largest upgrade to hit the LTC network ever, promising fungibility and scalability on an unprecedented level.
#MWEB is set to be the largest upgrade to the Litecoin network ever, promising to provide fungibility for all, while improving Litecoin’s scalability.
— Litecoin Foundation ⚡️ (@LTCFoundation) January 31, 2022
Additionally, the Foundation explained that the upgrade is an ‘opt-in feature’, making the crypto the most fungible in the industry. Over time, the update could make Litecoin the most widely used digital payment instrument in the space.
Lead developer David Burkett, who for several years worked on Litecoin’s blockchain by testing, developing, reviewing and auditing code along with other developers also mentioned Taproot as being part of the update.
David Burkett said:
MWEB is a crucial next step in Litecoin’s evolution. The optional confidentiality MWEB provides gives the user notable and needed protections for small everyday items, to salaries or even buying a home.
Recently, Litecoin Founder Charlie Lee emphasised the importance of financial privacy while speaking on the Doug Polk Podcast. Underlining this concept as a basic human right, Lee said that he would “like to see a world where people care about financial privacy more and are pushing back against government tapping or spying on their financial transactions because they’re giving away their rights without even realising it.”
The founder also said that Litecoin development has been a true community effort based on donations, supporters and contributors like Andrew Yang and Hector Chu, both of whom made extensive improvement proposals and code reviews.
At the time of publishing, Litecoin is the 21st largest cryptocurrency in the world according to Coingecko. Litecoin holds a market capitalisation of $8.8 billion and can be purchased for $127 at the time of writing.
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