SILVER TO BITCOIN'S GOLD.
Charlie Lee’s Litecoin launched publicly on 13 October 2011.
Charlie Lee bends toward a silver-lit computer in an open engineering lab. A second machine glows gold behind him. The two rigs and the arcs of blocks are a visual metaphor for two independently operating networks, not a documented photograph of his workspace or the precise hardware used at launch.
Lee introduced Litecoin to the Bitcoin forum on 9 October 2011, shared the source and binaries ahead of release, and invited people to test the software. In a follow-up to that same thread, he recorded the public launch as Thursday, 13 October, at 03:00 GMT. That launch - rather than the earlier announcement - is the date on this card.
Litecoin drew directly from Bitcoin's code, but chose Scrypt for its proof-of-work mining instead of Bitcoin's SHA-256. The original announcement set a target of roughly two and a half minutes per block, against Bitcoin's ten, and projected a maximum of about 84 million litecoins. Faster blocks did not make every payment instantly final; Lee explicitly noted the security trade-off in waiting for confirmations.
The aim was not to erase Bitcoin. Lee's announcement described a coin that could be silver to Bitcoin's gold: familiar in its foundations, different in its mining and rhythm. In the picture, the gold machine is still running as the silver one comes to life. One paper on the workbench reaches back to the earlier Whitepaper card, while a new chain begins to find its own place.
Sources & the artist’s interpretation
Lee's original Litecoin announcement and launch follow-up support the 9 October preview, 13 October public launch, silver/gold language, Scrypt, block target and supply. The Litecoin Foundation's proof-of-work reference explains the mining algorithm. The engineering lab, paired machines, Charlie's gesture and flying blocks are symbolic, not documentary details. The Whitepaper sheet is an intentional cross-card callback to 005 The Whitepaper , not a claim that this physical paper was on Lee's desk.
