LitePay will launch tonight at 9pm - but with only some of what was promised.  The following message went out this morning to those who subscribed to their e-mail list for updates:

"Thanks for your interest in LitePay! Registration for Merchant Payment Processing accounts will open today.

Due to recent hostile actions by card issuers towards crypto companies, we have decided that offering LitePay card registrations at this time is imprudent.

We will continue to monitor the situation with regards to card services and will open registration as soon as a reliable product can be supported.

If you are a merchant and you are ready to begin registration for a LitePay Merchant Payment Processing account, please follow the link below after 9:00 PM Pacific Time and click Sign up.

Thank you all for your support as we work to give merchants all over the world the ability to accept Litecoin."

LitePay was supposed to be two things that in conjunction would bring using Litecoin in the real-world a reality.  One was merchant services so businesses could accept Litecoin, the other, a debit card to work anywhere Visa works, that would allow you to spend Litecoin by instantly converting the correct amount to to USD, and authorizing the transaction when swiping the card.

Now we're wondering - was there ever any agreement ever in place that allowed them to implement a debit card?

Other 'spend your crypto with a debit card' themed projects such as Bitwala, Cryptopay, Wirex and TenX - all had their cards canceled and rendered invalid.

At that time (early Jan of this year) Visa issued the statement: "Our actions were not specific to cryptocurrency but rather reflect the issuer's failure to comply with Visa's policies that ensure the safety and integrity of our payment system."

The question that must be asked of LitePay now is - why did you ever say it would include a card? When Visa terminated other cryptocurrency cards nearly two months ago, why did (until today) your plans still include a card for your users?

While pretty much everything took a dip over the last 48hrs, Litecoin was hit harder than most - dropping nearly 20%.

One big reason it lost more than others - it had recently gained more than others! 

There seems to be a psychological factor here, when investors are looking to pull back it's easier to justify taking some profits from something that just had big gains - and lately, the coin with big gains has been Litecoin.

Now the question is - will the release of LitePay, set to happen in just 3 days pull it out of trenches?

Well, wish I could give a solid answer on this - but best I can say is - that depends on how LitePay performs. (Read about LitePay in our previous article here) 

If it meets the hype, some pretty large gains could be expected.  If it doesn't function as promised, experiences any major downtime, or still has some bugs to be worked out - the disappointment could cause some who've held on steady to their LTC to sell.

There's no debate - next 5 days will be crucial for the coin, and it's investors are watching closely.

The project has been in the works for awhile, and is set to launch any day now.

It's called LitePay and the goal is simple: real world use of cryptocurrency as currency - and make it so easy, merchants will feel like giving it a shot.

So, why does this actually have a chance to succeed? Ease of use - for both the buyer and the merchant.

From a merchants perspective - they're currently giving anywhere from 3% to 7% of their transactions to whatever company processes their credit card payments.  With LitePay, that drops to 1%.  Imagine a small business doing $100,000 a year in transactions - if they can get their customers to use LitePay, they'll see an increase of up to $7,000 in profits per year - which is extremely appealing to a small retailer.

Embedding the ability to accept Litecoin as a payment on their websites will be as simple as adding just one more option to their current list of payment options such as credit cards, paypal, etc.

From the buyers point of view - none of the hassle of dealing with wallet addresses and private keys, how about just a card and pin instead?  “Litecoin users will be able to convert Litecoins to dollars and vice versa through their Visa-compatible LitePay cards, which will be usable at all ATMs or businesses that support Visa payments.” Palwasha Saaim, a Research Analyst at Lombardi Financial recently told the Nasdaq stock exchange.

The release date has been a vague 'Feburary 2018' - with the last update being given about a month ago from the LitePay team stating "we are on schedule for Feburary".

*UPDATE* - A release date of Feb 26th has been announced!