Ripple’s late 2020 rise was due partly to a massive airdrop of Flare (FLR) tokens. Now, the smart contract solution is adding support for Litecoin (LTC). An FLR airdrop to Litecoin users is in the works.
XRP wallets included in the December snapshot will receive a Flare tokens (worth a huge amount of money, potentially).
Now, in a Jan. 8, 2020 tweet, Flare says that they will “reduce” the number of Flare tokens for the project’s founders by 5 billion. This extra will be distributed to “Litecoin participants.” The Tweet promises clarification in the coming week.
A Flare for airdrops
Tokens on the Flare network, known as Spark, will be used for governance and as collateral following the expected token drop in Q2, 2021. The company plans to bring smart contracts to Ripple’s XRP. Previously, Ripple was seen as a vehicle for funds transfer, and Flare claims that Spark tokens will add value.
With this tweet, the company is announcing what was somewhat unexpected: that the network will support other cryptocurrencies besides XRP, namely Litecoin.
Flare received a huge amount of press and hype before the December snapshot for the airdrop to XRP holders.
For what it’s worth, the company is naming their FLR tokens XFLR tokens (for XRP) on their site. There may be LFLR tokens for Litecoin. But it might not stop there. Flare could add support for other currencies.
Flare has said it may support other networks in the future, but this was given little attention. Support for, say, the Bitcoin network could have huge implications and give ETH a run for its money.
Smart contracts and Ethereum competition
The short version of the purpose of Flare is to facilitate smart contracts on protocols that do not have them built in. Flare is backed by XRP, and the airdrop to most XRP-hodling wallets cast Flare into the limelight.
The last few weeks have seen insane interest in Ethereum, and as the time-tested and secure smart-contract chain, that is no surprise. The #2 crypto may have new investors interested if they feel like they “missed the boat” with Bitcoin.
But the tech backing Ethereum’s value is the smart contracts. Though there are many other similar protocols that are potential rivals (DOT, ADA, EOS), Ethereum still reigns supreme.
However, if other networks (like XRP or LTC) could support smart contracts, that would widen their appeal. If these protocols could be interoperable via the Flare network, that would be a coup for Spark tokens (Flare has not suggested they have plans for this).
Back to the XRP bankers
Even if this new Litecoin airdrop results in free money, not everyone is likely to be happy about Flare’s success.
For one thing, the bank-haters of crypto see an association between Ripple, which backs Flare, and XRP, which is designed to play nice with banks and governments.
For another, the US SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple and the possibility of delisting put the token on shaky ground. Massive fines for Ripple and a ban from working within the US could be coming (though that’s not a given). That fear could spill over into Flare.
With XRP’s rally of almost 50% last week, it seems that the emotional market was quick to forget about the despair of XRP trading freezes. And there’s nothing like an airdrop to get people’s attention.
