Charles Lee is a

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus ( ...

, best known as the creator of

Litecoin Litecoin ( Abbreviation: LTC; sign: Ł) is a decentralized peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and open-source software project released under the MIT/X11 license. Inspired by Bitcoin, Litecoin was among the earliest altcoins, starting in October 2011. ...

. He serves as the managing director of the Litecoin Foundation.

Early life

Lee was born in

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

, moved to the United States at the age of 13, and graduated from high school in 1995. He graduated from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

with bachelor's and master's degrees in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includin ...

in 2000. Lee's brother, Bobby C. Lee, is the founder and CEO of cryptocurrency exchange

BTC China BTCC is a United Kingdom-based crypto exchange established in June 2011. It is one of the world's longest-running crypto exchanges, with a 24-hour trading volume of over $6 billion. The exchange underwent a significant restructuring in 2018, closi ...

Career

For a decade in the 2000s, Lee worked for

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

. His work for the company included writing code for

ChromeOS ChromeOS, sometimes stylized as chromeOS and formerly styled as Chrome OS, is a Linux-based operating system designed by Google. It is derived from the open-source ChromiumOS and uses the Google Chrome web browser as its principal user interfac ...

. In 2011, Lee became interested in

Bitcoin Bitcoin ( abbreviation: BTC; sign: ₿) is a decentralized digital currency that can be transferred on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network. Bitcoin transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public di ...

. In October 2011, he released

on Bitcointalk. He had written the

blockchain A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of growing lists of records, called ''blocks'', that are securely linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, ...

technology based on the Bitcoin in his spare time while employed at Google. He released Litecoin to the public after mining only 150 coins. Lee has stated that he did not intend to compete with Bitcoin but meant Litecoin to be used for smaller transactions. In July 2013, Lee left Google and began working at Coinbase, before the

cryptocurrency exchange A cryptocurrency exchange, or a digital currency exchange (DCE), is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies. Exchanges may acce ...

adopted the coin he had created. Lee held the position of Engineering Director until 2017. In December 2017, Lee announced on

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news news aggregator, aggregation, Review site#Rating site, content rating, and Internet forum, discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") subm ...

that he sold almost all of his Litecoin holdings due to a perceived conflict of interest. He had been criticized for his tweets, which had a possible effect on the price of the coin. Lee sold or donated all of his coins except for a few minted in physical form which he kept as collectibles. Lee is currently working full-time with the Litecoin Foundation on fostering Litecoin adoption.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Charlie Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Computer scientists Ivorian emigrants to the United States MIT School of Engineering alumni 1970s births People associated with cryptocurrency People associated with Bitcoin