Litecoin-Monero Merger: Cryptocurrency Founders Talk Partnership

Litecoin and Monero are two of the most notable alternative cryptocurrencies being traded and, if the founder of Litecoin has his way, could soon join forces to create an interoperable cryptocurrency.

Rumors of a merger between the Litecoin Enterprise Alliance and the Monero Enterprise Alliance were sparked last week after a meeting between the founders of both organizations that resulted in the suggestion that the two alliances combine into one.

Following the meeting, Monero project lead Riccardo Spagni tweeted that he was able to sit down with Litecoin founder Charlie Lee and “talk about a possible merger between the Litecoin Enterprise Alliance and the Monero Enterprise Alliance.” Spagni joked that they would call the combined alliance “LAMEA.”

It’s not clear if Spagni’s comment about a merger were originally intended to be made in jest, but a number of people took the message seriously—and among them was Litecoin founder Charlie Lee.

In a tweet of his own, Lee said Spagni was joking but said, “I think it would be good for Litecoin and Monero ([two] of the top non-scam coins) to work together.” Lee continued by revealing he proposed working on a way to allow people to do “on-chain atomic swaps” of Litecoin and Monero—essentially transactions that allow two parties to exchange cryptocurrencies without risk of one party backing out or defaulting on the trade.

Lee continued by calling such an arrangement “a win-win” for investors in both cryptocurrencies. “It gives [Monero] users access to [Litecoin’s] liquidity ([Litecoin] is on close to all exchanges) and gives [Litecoin] users easy access to anonymity and fungibility of Monero,” he explained .

“Of course, it will take some work for atomic swaps to work properly on Monero and it's up to Monero devs and community to decide if this is a good idea. If this happens, I think it's going to be huge, but no longer an unexpected surprise,” Lee concluded.

Lee has always been a little on the unconventional side. The Litecoin founder grabbed headlines last year when he announced he was selling all his holding in the cryptocurrency in order to avoid any conflict of interest when he talks about his creation.

Even for Lee, the arrangement between Litecoin and Monero seems to be an out there idea. While it wouldn’t be a merger like originally joked about by Spagni, it would represent a unique situation among cryptocurrencies.

The idea received some pushback online, where investors in Litecoin expressed concern about any connection with Monero. Some pointed out that Monero is rather volatile in its price, while others expressed concern about the cryptocurrency’s reputation. Because Monero transactions are totally anonymous, it has become a popular cryptocurrency for illicit purposes.

It’s not entirely clear how atomic swaps would impact the value of each coin. Since conversation of the arrangement started, both Litecoin and Monero have lost value—though it’s hard to say if it is due to the “merger” discussion or general uncertainty in the cryptocurrency market that saw Bitcoin drop below $10,000.