So Litecoin has its first hard fork happening today or more likely tomorrow, 2.18.18. The coin that forks off at block 1371111 is going to be called Litecoin cash. It has nothing to do with Litecoin, The Litecoin foundation or anyone involved in the development of Litecoin. Nor does it have anything to do with Bitcoin Cash. The founder of Litecoin , Charlie Lee has called Litecoin Cash a straight up scam. Others in the cryptoverse have said that Litecoin Cash is a solution to a problem that hasn't arisen yet. Only time will really tell.
Everyone who holds Litecoin in a cold storage wallet where they control the private keys will be able to claim 10 Litecoin Cash for every 1 Litecoin they hold. If you have your Litecoin on an exchange it is most likely you will never see any Litecoin Cash. The only possible exception to this that I am aware of is Binance. Binance has been very good about delivering forked coins and airdrops but there is still no guarantee. I do personally use Binance, along with Bittrex and my new favorite KuCoin Exchange, but I keep all of my Litecoin on my Ledger Nanao S. From what I have read and heard the Nano, Trezor and keepkey are the best places to keep coins in general but also to claim forked coins.
The price of Litecoin has gone up about 30% in the last week or so. A lot of the talking heads claim that the increase is due to people buying Litecoin to have for the fork so they can claim free Litecoin Cash. I gotta think that is a stretch. I dont think many people are buying a coin at over $200 a piece to get ten coins that could open up as low as 2 cents each.
I think the rise in Litecoin is simply because it has been way undervalued for a long time and it is a good investment even at its current price of $226. I pay a lot of attention to what Clif High of Half Past Human has to say, just as a lot of other people do. He has determined from his predictive linguistics program that Litcoin will get to and stay around one fifth of Bitcoin. Bix Weir from Roadtoroota thinks it will be more like one fourth of Bitcoin. Why is that important ? Well if other predictions are correct, and Clif High is right on course for his prediction from a year ago of a $13888 BTC price at the end of Feb. this year. He says look for BTC to be around $64000 at the end of the summer and $100,000 byn the end of the year. With BTC going mainstream and people like Ellen Degeres now pushing it on her show, those numbers are very possible. Last December was just a teaser for what is to come.
The point of all that is if BTC hits $100,000 and LTC hits its stride and is 1/5 or 1/4 of BTC that puts it at $20,000-$25,000 per LTC. For people like me that can not afford a full BTC, Litecoin is the next best thing. I currently hold 20 LTC. I bought most of them at $50 to $60, some i bought at $100 to $150. Not a bad deal, if they get to predicted prices thats around a half a million just in Litecoin. I am very diversified. I hold some BTC , Neo , OMG , Lisk , Populous , Raiblocks (Nano now), Ethos , EOS , IOTA , and others. Soon I will have 200 Litecoin Cash too. Ill be honest , If it comes out the gate at a very low price i wont be disappointed. I will just look at it as a buying opp and increase my position. I believe that its true value wont be realized until litecoin cash's full potential is met. That wont be until some crypto's encounter a problem and Litecoin Cash is there to solve it. LItecoin Cash might have a high initial price due simply to hype. If thats the case then i see a lot of people dumping their free coins for some fast profit and in turn driving the price down until it serves a purpose. Litecoin Cash definitly does not have a community of support to prop it up during hard times like some other coins do. The coins I hold, I believe in. I am in it for the long haul and will not sell unless the most drastic of consequences happens. People like me keep a coin from losing all value during down turns and "crashes". I do not have the love for Litcoin cash that I do for other coins but, i am going to give it a chance to prove itself before i do anything with it.
I am curious to hear what other people think about this whole Litecoin Cash fork deal. Please reply with your opinions, good or bad, Thats how we learn.
