In this interview recorded at the Malta AI & Blockchain Summit, host CryptoGranny (Speaker A) speaks with Bobby Lee, co‑founder of Litecoin and brother of its creator Charlie Lee. Bobby shares his excitement about Malta’s progressive regulatory stance, describing the island as a leading European jurisdiction for blockchain. He explains his personal connection to Litecoin, noting he was not involved in its creation but is part of the family that built it. The conversation shifts to how to bring crypto‑curious people on board: Bobby advises starting with small, affordable Bitcoin purchases to gain exposure, while simplifying jargon to lower the barrier to entry. Speaker C, representing Finland’s largest Bitcoin community, asks about Litecoin’s role; Bobby likens Litecoin to “silver” for Bitcoin’s “gold,” emphasizing its faster confirmations, lower fees, and suitability for newcomers, whereas large‑scale investors should favor Bitcoin. Both participants express confidence that Bitcoin and Litecoin will remain relevant for the next decade and beyond.
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TranscriptAuto-generated · 8 min
So, Mobily, it's my honor and I'm really excited that you had time for CryptoGranny. Thank you so much.
Yes, yes, great to be here.
Tell me, how do you find the Malta AI Blockchain Summit? You've been extremely busy. I know you were just giving a presentation up on the stage.
Yes, I just gave my keynote presentation. Yes, very excited. Talked about the future of money. Yes, how it's going to be digital money, decentralized, natively digital money like Bitcoin. Yes. So I'm excited. This is my first time in Malta. First time at the Malta AI and Blockchain Summit.
Okay.
You get to see lots of enthusiastic people here. I think this is really quite the center. Yes. Malta has become the destination for good regulatory jurisdictional coverage for blockchain. I think that's very important.
Yes, it is.
It's a leader in that area in Europe. I think that's great.
I think so too. Originally, CryptoGranny as well as ConsenSys Network team comes from Finland.
Yes.
And obviously we are kind of a with excitement, waiting for our decision makers and politicians to kind of hopefully follow the lead of Malta. Because I think we are a very innovative country. We are the Nokia country. So obviously we have the doers and the knowers. So basically all we would need now is to have the green light for the industry to really start to bloom. But I know, and I would really much as a Crypto Granny, because I don't know that much really, but I know you are related to Litecoin. So would you like very briefly tell about that?
My brother is the creator and founder of Litecoin.
Yes.
Charlie, yeah.
Yes, that's true. But you are obviously involved with it. When your family gets involved, everyone is involved, right?
Yes, yes. So in this case, my brother Charlie, he created Litecoin in 2011. Yes, in the fall of 2011. So I wasn't actually part of the creation process. Okay. He did that on his own. I was living in China at the time.
All right.
Yeah. Okay. But it's great that, you know, to be part of that family.
Yes, and not, you know, just between us two, I have some Litecoin myself. Oh, good. That's part of my experiment because obviously the Crypto Granny approach is to simplify everything related to this amazing technology, but also the cryptos. So to get to understand what this is all about, I needed to test it. So I needed to download the wallet, I needed to buy with probably the minimum amount, but nevertheless, some currencies. And one of my choices, just a couple, was Litecoin. I was kind of impressed that that could be the case. But to the people sharing my views or my knowledge or background, I would like to ask you that you as an active actor, obviously within the scene and very knowledgeable person, How would you see, what do you think, how do we get these people who are not involved as yet, who maybe are already interested and curious about the technology, but especially crypto, to get involved? Because I do think, and I've heard that a lot, that many people are very hesitant because they don't really like understand what we are talking about. Yeah. And we are using terminology that is strange or difficult to relate to. So what is your view on this? What could we do?
My view is I think the first step is start getting people investing small amounts of money in Bitcoin. So the idea is for them to find an easy way to invest small amounts of money and to get started. I think in the past it's always been very difficult. The solutions are too difficult. And in the past, people don't get exposure. And when you don't get exposure to Bitcoin, there's no incentive for you to learn more about it through the media, through articles. Exactly. And the advancements in the field. So I think once they have a monetary exposure, whether just $100, you know, or $1,000, they can then really get engaged. I think that's the way for them to do it.
Yes, that is true. And then obviously one part of all the big thing is that maybe to simplify the discussion so people would feel more, let's say, the ease of joining this conversation and get more curious, more interested in finding out more rather than believing the rumors and the headlines maybe. So that could be something also because I think some of the discussions even I kind of feel I know something or I understand something, but still sometimes I feel them a bit like, okay, you need to simplify this to me or clarify a bit the terminology maybe. But I do believe that there are so many people kind of ready to join. So it's just a question of that they feel the courage or they get the courage to try and test and make all the questions.
Yeah, I think now that Bitcoin is 10 years old, for the next 10 years, I think we're going to see a lot of people come on board, participate as Bitcoin grows to be bigger and bigger.
Absolutely.
So this is very important.
Yes, it is. And I'm so looking forward to those days to come. But thank you so much, Bobby. It was a real pleasure talking to you and enjoy the rest of your stay in Malta.
Great, thank you.
Thank you. So
yeah, I represent the biggest Bitcoin community in Finland, and we do have a lot of Litecoin fans there as well. And I was just wondering, what is your personal stance on— what do you think Litecoin is? What is the role of Litecoin? Like, we talk about in the Telegram groups as the testnet of Bitcoin, you know, the silver to the gold, and just variety. People like different things. What do you think? How do you see Litecoin?
Yeah, certainly it's silver to people's gold. I think if you look at the world, silver moves around at a higher velocity than gold, maybe. So that's what Litecoin serves as that role. Silver is more abundant, there's more abundance of it. It has lesser value. So I'll give you an example. In real— they're both very heavy, gold and silver are very heavy. What's the best way to protect— if you have a large, large physical holding of gold, what's the best way to protect it is build a large wall of silver around it, right? So if you build a silver wall that's like, you know, whatever, 1 feet thick or 1 meter thick, that's a huge, huge block. People can't get to the gold. So that's how traditionally people store their gold. They put the gold in the middle, they build a silver wall around it, and you can't get to it because by the time you get to it, you can't move it out. It's too heavy. Interesting. So silver has a role to gold, just like I think Litecoin has a role to Bitcoin.
Yeah, that makes sense in the metal industry, but what about cryptos? Like, do you think—
The early adopters— sorry, not the early adopters— the people who are new to it can start playing with Litecoin first. Litecoin has faster confirmation, the fees are lower, but if you invest large amounts, you want to invest in Bitcoin. Does that make sense? So if you want to just buy small amounts, you could buy Litecoin because it's faster and lower fees.
I would have started with Litecoin, to be honest.
Exactly, exactly. But if you want to make large amounts, investment amounts, countries, national governments, central banks, or family offices, if you want millions of dollars, then it would make sense to have that in Bitcoin.
Do you think there's a future in, let's say, 10 years, another 10 years, Ghost Pi and Litecoin are still there?
Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Litecoin and Bitcoin, they're both here to stay. Absolutely.
That's all I'm going to ask you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Bobby.
