Charlie Lee

Charlie Lee is a computer scientist born in 1977 to Chinese parents in Ivory Coast. At the age of 13, he moved to the United States, where he completed his education. Lee holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree incomputer sciencefrom theMassachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT), graduating in 2000.

Charlie Lee worked at various companies throughout his career. He spent nearly six years atGoogle,contributing to projects such as ChromeOS,YouTubeMobile, and Play Games. During this period, Lee became interested in Bitcoin and blockchain technology. In October 2011, he created Litecoin, a cryptocurrency based on the Bitcoin protocol. Litecoin was designed to facilitate smaller transactions, making it a more accessible alternative to Bitcoin. He released Litecoin publicly after mining 150 coins.

Charlie Lee left Google to join Coinbase in 2013, a prominentcryptocurrencyexchange, where he worked as Director of Engineering until 2017. His tenure at Coinbase ended just before Litecoin was adopted by the platform.

Charlie Lee donated most of his Litecoin holdings due to concerns about a potential conflict of interest in December 2017, though he retained a few coins for their physical collectable value.

Currently, Charlie Lee is the Managing Director of the Litecoin Foundation, a role he has held since 2016. He focuses on promoting the adoption of Litecoin and advancingblockchain technology. Lee also serves as a board member at Valkyrie and BTCS Inc., companies involved in cryptocurrency and blockchain innovation.