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What is Litecoin? Litесoin is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and open-source software project licenced under the MIT/X11 licence. The creation and transfer of coins is based on an open source cryptographic protocol that is not managed by any central authority. While Litecoin was inspired by Bitcoin and is essentially identical in many ways, it is significantly faster and less expensive.
If you are wanting to explore and enhance your understanding of Litecoin and how it works. This is a good place to start as that is the purpose of this article. Find out the key differences between Bitcoin and Litecoin and the benefits of getting involved.
Litecoin is an open-sourced digital currency that operates on a peer-to-peer network. LTC consistently holds its position in ranking in the top ten cryptocurrencies. It was designed to be used as an everyday transaction solution.
Litecoin has a fixed amount of supply, which means that only 84 million Litecoins can ever be mined. Litecoin was aimed to replicate Bitcoin;LTC creator aimed to improve certain aspects. The coding was written differently and as a resultLTC offers faster transactions and lower fees than Bitcoin. Its vision is to be a lite version of Bitcoin.LTC technology reduces the amount of time it takes for new blocks of transactions to be added to its blockchain.
LTC was launched in October 2011 by a former Google engineer named Charlie Lee. After his employment at Google he had then went on to become Director of Engineering for the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. Charlie Lee aimed to create a more efficient version of Bitcoin. The vision being that it would be the silver to Bitcoins gold.
Lee was able to fcreated a fork of Bitcoin allowing him to modify Bitcoins DNA. Lee created a greater supply than bitcoin and improved the speed and cost of transactions by reducing the amount of time to verify new blocks.
Furthermore, he altered the system of the mining algorithm and implementing a new system called Scrypt. In 2017, Lee made the decision to withdraw from Coinbase and focus on the development ofLTC full time.
As with all decentralised cryptocurrencies,LTC does not operate under the control of any central banks or governments. Litecoin is another cryptocurrency to have adopted the blockchain technology. In order for transactions to complete, Litecoin uses a mining software that is made visible to all participants in the system. For new blocks to be added to the blockchain, miners need to verify them and the transaction is then recorded. Each miner gets rewarded with 12.5LTC once they have verified a new transaction.
Due toLTC adopting a different mining algorithm, this enables transactions to be added to the blockchain every 2.5 minutes. Being significantly faster than Bitcoins transactions. Bitcoins software requires 10 minutes for new blocks to be added to the blockchain.
Lack of Growth
Although LTC has proved to be here to stay and is consistent with its stability, it is not in the radar screen of investors, as it does not have the type of growth that interests investors.
Hesitant Investors
Although Litecoin has shown great potential for their partnership with the Lightning Network, investors still question whether the company will live up to its full potential.
Lower Market Cap
Litecoin’s market capitalisation is smaller than that of other cryptocurrencies.
Stabiity
The stability that Litecoin has shown over the last ten years is remarkable.
Unique
Litecoin stands out as a cryptocurrency because it has a one-of-a-kind market pricing.
Price Range
Investors like its price range because it continues to demonstrate that it can compete in the market, and there is still a lot of space for growth.
Speed
Transactions are quick, taking about 2.5 minutes on average, which is four times faster than Bitcoin, which takes about 10 minutes. Because of its speedier block processing rates, it is able to do this.
Cost
When compared to the fees of using Paypal, credit cards, or wire transfers, LTC is a low-cost option for transactions. Litecoin is extremely cost-effective, even when compared to Bitcoin, which has an average transaction fee of roughly $3 at the time of writing.
Decentralised
LTC transactions are confirmed by the community and recorded on the blockchain, making them decentralised. As a result, there is no single ruling authority.
If you would like to further your understanding of Blockchain Technology and how it all works then check out our article on “What is Blockchain”. By gaining a better understanding of how blockchain technology functions, this will also improve your understanding of all cryptocurrencies. I hope by the end of this article you have more clarity around what Litecoin is and how you can benefit.