Charlie Lee (computer scientist)
American computer scientist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charlie Lee (born 1977[1]) is an American computer scientist, best known as the creator of Litecoin. He serves as the managing director of the Litecoin Foundation.[2][3]
Charlie Lee | |
|---|---|
| |
| Born | 1977[1] Ivory Coast |
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Early life
Lee was born in Ivory Coast to ethnic Chinese parents.[1] He moved to the United States at the age of 13, and graduated from high school in 1995.[4] He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science in 2000.[4]
Lee's brother, Bobby C. Lee, is the founder and CEO of cryptocurrency exchange BTC China.[5]
Career
For a decade in the 2000s, Lee worked for Google. His work for the company included writing code for ChromeOS.[6] In 2011, Lee became interested in Bitcoin.[7] In October 2011, he released Litecoin on Bitcointalk.[8] He had written the blockchain technology based on Bitcoin in his spare time while employed at Google. He released Litecoin to the public after mining only 150 coins.[6] Lee has stated that he did not intend to compete with Bitcoin but meant Litecoin to be used for smaller transactions.[7]
In July 2013, Lee left Google and began working at Coinbase, before the cryptocurrency exchange adopted the coin he had created.[6] Lee held the position of engineering director until 2017.[9]
In December 2017, Lee announced on Reddit that he sold almost all of his Litecoin holdings due to a perceived conflict of interest.[10] He had been criticized for his tweets, which had a possible effect on the price of the coin.[11] Lee sold or donated all of his coins except for a few minted in physical form, which he kept as collectibles.[12][13]
Lee is currently working full-time with the Litecoin Foundation on fostering Litecoin adoption.[14] In June 2025, it was announced that Lee had joined the advisory board of digital infrastructure and technology company Luxxfolio.[15]