$LTC surged in price/value this week and the miner support also has surged in recent days -- now at 58% of the 75% required votes have now come in to make the switch.

See updated chart info on the vote, below about 1/2 way thru this post. In that chart, I have bolded + italicized the key line of total support you want to take note of.

On February 3 this year, Litecoin miners began to signal (vote) on the Segwit integration. (Segregated Witness)

Some of you know that I have been personally watching the Litecoin market and news, knowing this network vote was coming for many weeks now.... why????

Generally Litecoin has been called the "silver to Bitcoin's gold" -- because the 2 crypto currencies share so many common features and coding.

That is why the BITCOIN community is watching the progress on this vote on the network.

Litecoin Upgrades include:

Fix malleability,

Possible block size capacity optimization. (Likely meaning more transactions processed / block and speed up the transaction queue.

Furthermore, implementing Segwit means the Lightning Network can be applied to the Litecoin protocol as well.

( The Lightning Network: A protocol made to increase the speed of transactions & assist Bitcoin’s current tech. limits in regards to scaling on the network as-is. It is commonly known that right now, it can only process fewer than 10 transactions per second, vs. the thousands that other payment processors are handling currently. )

It is pretty cool, you can watch the network/miners' (voters) process here!

-- http://litecoinblockhalf.com/segwit.php

This is the site and chart I use below for my series updates and paste the numbers unedited right into my post here for you.

The threshold for it to implement is 75% of miners/witnesses/votes to approve it and then it will kick in. (see the 3rd line from the bottom on the link above there)

It should be noted that Litecoin developers as well as the currency’s creator Charlie Lee have all endorsed the soft fork, and the community is pretty excited about it. I know I am for the reasons stated above.

LIVE UPDATED INFO PASTED RIGHT FROM THE SEGWIT SITE AS OF TODAY - as I wrote this post: (Unedited)

Is Segregated Witness Active? No

322/576 (55.90%) blocks signaling in the past 24 hours!
Activation period #5 block range (8064) 1177344 - 1185408
Current block height 1177787
Blocks mined since period start 443
Current activated soft forks bip34,bip66,bip65
Current pending soft forks csv,segwit
Next block retarget 1179360
Blocks to mine until next retarget 1573
Next block retarget ETA 2 days, 17 hours, 32 minutes
Segwit status started
Segwit activation threshold 75%
Segwit miner support within the last 24 hours (last 576 blocks) 322 (55.90%)

Segwit miner support (percentage of segwit blocks signaling within the current activation period) 255 (57.56%)

CSV miner support within the last 24 hours (last 576 blocks) 337 (58.51%)
CSV miner support (percentage of CSV blocks signaling within the current activation period) 264 (59.59%)
The Segregated Witness (segwit) soft fork has started signalling!

Ask your pool to support segwit if it isn't already doing so.

Litecoin creator Charlie Lee said in Jan. 2017:

“So you may wonder why I’m pushing for Segwit,” Litecoin does not have a block size problem. — But with Segwit and Bitcoin’s current block scaling deadlock, I see a potential for Litecoin to help Bitcoin break through this deadlock.

Litecoin can take a lead and be a positive force in the cryptocurrency space. We have been drafting behind the Bitcoin race car for many years. It’s about time to take a turn out front.”

Excerpt from here: https://segwit.org/my-vision-for-segwit-and-lightning-networks-on-litecoin-and-bitcoin-cf95a7ab656b#.5ej4tp40e

Charlie in mid. Feb. 2017 here gives a more detailed overview just below in Bitcoin.com of what this SegWit talk is all about, since some honestly, just don't know -- and that is why I started this series, truth be told - weeks ago. To better inform people and keep the template the same every week, for the new people finding my posts and learning!

https://news.bitcoin.com/crypto-enthusiasts-segwit-understanding/

Charlie Lee on Twitter (very active there, I like him for that too) - https://twitter.com/SatoshiLite

More basics about Litecoin 101:

• Widely regarded by many to be the strongest blockchain, second only to Bitcoin’s security and hashrate.

• Litecoin coding which is nearly identical to Bitcoin was released on Github by Charlie Lee in October 2011.

• Since that point, the network has increased considerably in terms of hashrate which is ~2,973 GH/s this week and Lee sees the experiment of using Litecoin’s fairly large network as an excellent proving/testing ground for Bitcoin as such.

• Recently and of note- many of us on this past Feb. 3, 2017, either had problems or knew people that did when 3, 896,000 Bitcoin worth of transactions were mired in the BTC mempool and the crypto currency's transaction queue was bogged right down for over 24 hours.

That is why many are watching Litecoin deployment of Segwit as it could bring great hope for the future of Bitcoin etc. - That currency as we know, is currently divided (in a big way) as to how to handle the currency's future and forks and decisions, the arguments have been ongoing and legendary for some time now.

I am hoping this network vote goes well and "signals" great improvements across the board for everyone and every currency, especially addressing the Bitcoin concerns!!

Check this chart out comparing the 2 Crypto's head to head and a personal note..... when you are looking on Coin Exchanges, when was the last time you saw Litecoin NOT in the top 5 coins traded.... and the worst --- top 10?????

I hope you have a nice weekend and good week upcoming.

If you feel my posts are undervalued or you want to donate to tip me - I would appreciate it very much.

Bitcoin (BTC) - 18J6RRuzX4V7b2CDbx7tWZYNBLkkGWsvWX

DASH - XgZvsvSZgPkNbmGbRhc3S1Pt2JAc7QHwiS

Monero (XMR) - d8ecb02c09f70ec10504b59b96bc1f488af28b05933893dfd1f55b113e23fbff

Ethereum (ETH) - 0x3Ad69Ff057C9533ca667B2d7E3E557F5eeFd4477

Ethereum Classic (ETC) - 0x5ab2b08d4ce8d454eb9d1ecc65c6d8b0c5f9784c

LiteCoin (LTC) - LKdsnvSXk9JW99EiNicFMGKc1FXiBo9tUE

Stratis (STRAT) - SNsJp6v1jXvKWy4XcXSXfNQ9zhSJJppJgv

Synereo (AMP) - 1KnrL6wFHaT4gjJ2YJ5f6WmKTDJNsaBS8s

Expanse (EXP) - 0x819b9cce8630ab638198eabfd7496786c20d629a

ZCash (ZEC) - t1aCPEYELkGaf3GtgGTiCEDo7XfPm4QEwmL

Please note -- I will have limited internet access for awhile -- so PLEASE do not be upset that I cannot reply right away, or to everyone. I am dealing with some changes, and will have limited time online and will be happy if I get a few blog posts up a week.