Do you see any developers currently working on LTC? Any that have commit access to the official source that are working? Have the previous developers handed over responsibility to anyone they can trust? I put it to you that LTC development is in a very precarious state and these are questions anyone investing heavily in LTC needs to ask themselves.
There are new devs that now have commit access to the ltc repo.
Coblee is on-board with a few of us working on the code and rolling in updates - many of which are in test and we're aiming to start more regular release cycles of the client.
We're being careful to ensure we can provide a clean upgrade mechanism for users as we build new functionality and roll in important changes from the bitcoin source.
...when they compare it to the "gold standard" of Bitcoin...
Yes - many, not all, developers on bitcoin set a high standard. We're aware that some like to compare "gold" to "silver" - we think there is an appropriate niche for both.
With Litecoin worked closely with the bitcoin developers in the past - adapting the niche we think we service - we look forward to continue doing so as time unfolds.
I'm disappointed by the lack of backbone in the LTC 'economy'. Basic services and structures are hard to find or do not exist. The speculators were in because there was lots of talk of building these things, but when the months go by and they don't get built, and people talk less and less about actually building them, it gets hard to maintain the faith. Besides, who wouldn't move out of the coin when it stops to drop? Even the faithful know to move out and buy more at the bottom. So now maybe the faithful will buy more.
Rome wasn't built in a day.
Rome's architects didn't abandon it though...
That's an unfair and invalid argument ck - Coblee did a Satoshi for a number of personal reasons - he's around and reachable by the current team - but he doesn't have time to commit with the everyday dev. We do talk with him when it comes to major changes or for brainstorming - but we also have scope to bring about change.
Gavin stepped in and did a great job of moving bitcoin forward - building upon a solid foundation and helping to turn it into what bitcoin currently is today. Give us a chance to see if we can do the same for litecoin.
There are limited services currently with ltc - and that's largely our responsibility to work out and fix.
This is something we are heavily into at the moment and I think over the next few months you'll find a lot more possible with LTC other than speculating or hedging against with btc.
On btce ltc is heavily traded - with very healthy volumes which I think is a very good sign.
We're also looking to deal with a number of hostile actions by some who believe that btc should be the only coin.
In the past few months the blockchain & many of the pools have been attacked by those who believe it should be taken down - sadly it appears that one of the contributors to the bitcoin code also have it out for litecoin - which tarnishes the image of not just bitcoin but all cryptocoins.
We've weathered these attacks pretty well I think - we've learned a lot and now in a more solid position to take Litecoin to a new level.