Litecoin is another great example of the power of open-source cryptocurrency. In 2011, the founder of the project Charlie Lee took the BTC source code and released a competing coin. Litecoin had 4 times faster block times and other optimizations for faster speed and lower cost.

Again, one might think that a lot of competition for Bitcoin is bad. However, Litecoin has made a significant contribution to Bitcoin. For example, there was a huge debate in 2016-17 over SegWit, Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP). Segwit proponents argued that this would increase Bitcoin's bandwidth (capacity), enable the BTC-based Lightning network to be built, and bring other benefits such as Schnorr signatures.

Unfortunately, there were many people in the Bitcoin community who opposed SegWit for various reasons. Some miners thought the Lightning Network would lower their transaction fee income. There were also security issues with such a major update.

Thus, Litecoin went ahead and activated SegWit to Bitcoin in 2017. It became quite clear that it was safe and reliable. Shortly after, Bitcoin adopted SegWit. In 2018, the BTC Lightning Network was launched on Bitcoin, and now, SegWit and Lightning allow traders to send transactions quickly and cheaply.

This is just a small look at the innovations happening in DeFi and cryptography. The space is developing so rapidly that it has become impossible to keep track of all interesting projects.

Marc Andreessen is one of the most influential thinkers and investors in the world of high technology. He created the first modern web browser Mosaic, in 1991 at the age of 22. He co-founded Netscape and eventually founded the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) together with his co-founder Ben Horowitz. Wired magazine calls Andreessen a man who makes the future.

Marc believes that cryptocurrency will ultimately be as destructive as the Internet. And recently, a16z raised an impressive $ 2.2 billion trust fund to invest in blockchain technology. He calls cryptocurrency a fundamental technological breakthrough.