LitecoinPool opens miner donations to support Litecoin development.
Litecoin Pool, the longest-running Litecoin mining pool, allows members to donate a portion of their block rewards to the Litecoin Foundation (LF), a Singapore-based non-profit organization led by Litecoin creator Charlie Lee. We have expanded our donation options to allow you to donate.
LitecoinPool previously allowed participants to donate to the pool and its maintenance. Following a recent proposal put forward by Lee in response to the BCH infrastructure proposal or block tax, Lee believed that ‘a better way to fund development would be for mining pools to voluntarily contribute.’ LitecoinPool has done just that, making it a first for Litecoin in particular. Implement the function. After hearing this news, Lee announced the change on Twitter as follows:
“The Litecoin Pool now has a setting where miners can voluntarily donate a portion to the Litecoin Foundation. If you mine in: @ltcpoolPlease consider donating 1%. @LTC Foundation. We hope to see more pools offering this option to miners!”
There have also been suggestions from other groups or organizations that could potentially be added to that list. We asked Fuller, who founded and runs LitecoinPool, what his plans are in this regard, and he told us:
“More options may be added in the future if there is sufficient demand.”
To be sure, LF, the largest entity in the Litecoin ecosystem, is not the same as the ‘Litecoin Core Project’, the group that develops and maintains the core implementation of Litecoin that makes up the majority of the network. Even though the two have a close relationship, LF acts more as an intermediary, giving LF greater influence and a say in Core if these donations are significant.
When asked if people were already donating, Pooler responded:
“Yes, some miners are already donating to LF. These donations are processed in batches by LitecoinPool and paid out at the end of each month.”
LitecoinPool has a history of allowing its members autonomy in decision-making. Specifically, Segwit allows each user to decide how their blocks are signaled. A similar approach appears to have been taken here, without any top-down decision-making. When asked if this donation option would potentially be turned into an opt-out to significantly increase funding for this development, Pooler said:
“Personally, I prefer to keep this selective to highlight the voluntary aspect of giving.”
This move has received a lot of positive feedback and appears to be a good first step. But it’s unclear how many people will follow suit and whether these donations will be significant enough to have a real impact.
