What is Litecoin? 6 Things To Know, Especially If You Have Bitcoin: A blog about litecoin and what it does for the crypto industry.
Litecoin is an open source software project released under the MIT/X11 license which gives you the power to run, modify, and copy the software and to distribute, at your option, modified copies of the software. The software is released in a transparent process that allows for independent verification of binaries and their corresponding source code.
Litecoin which was created by Charlie Lee is based on an open source global payment network that is not controlled by any central authority. Litecoin differs from Bitcoins in aspects like faster block generation rate and use of scrypt as a proof of work scheme.
Bitcoin miners are neither able to cheat by increasing their own reward nor process fraudulent transactions that could corrupt the Bitcoin network because all Bitcoin nodes would reject any block that contains invalid data as per the rules of the Bitcoin protocol. Consequently, the network remains secure even if not all Bitcoin miners can be trusted.
Advantages over traditional payment systems
Payments are borderless and global
Merchants get faster confirmation times, while still having ability to wait for more confirmations when selling bigger ticket items
Ability to handle high transaction
Litecoin is a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, though it uses some fundamentally different algorithms to process, called “Scrypt.” Initially this made it easier for people with home computers to mine, but dedicated mining machines called ASICs can now process Scrypt at a much faster rate, making it harder for individuals to compete.
Litecoin was developed by Charlie Lee, an engineer who later helped build Coinbase, one of the most popular cryptocurrency apps.
Like Bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies, Litecoin is not issued by any central authority. Instead, the currency is created by networked computers that must complete increasingly-difficult computational tasks in order to produce coins. But while Bitcoin has a limit of 21 million coins, Litecoin will max out at 84 million coins.
Since the currency’s launch in 2011, there have been a number of competing cryptocurrencies hoping to usurp some of Bitcoin’s market cap–and Litecoin has emerged as one of the top contenders.
Here are six things you need to know about the digital currency you may be hearing more about soon:
Litecoin is one of the few cryptocurrencies that have secured a spot in the top 10 by market cap, currently sitting at number 7 with a market cap of $2.5 billion. Litecoin has been around for quite some time and its one of the few coins that have stood the test of time. But what is litecoin?
This article explains all you need to know about litecoin, including how it works and why you should invest in it.
What is Litecoin?
Litecoin is an open source peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that was launched on GitHub on October 7th, 2011 by Charlie Lee. Its codebase is based on Bitcoin’s core but with small changes to its code to make it faster than bitcoin. For instance, while bitcoin processes a block every 10 minutes, litecoin processes one every 2.5 minutes.
Litecoin also has a higher limit of total coins that can be mined – 84 million compared to 21 million for bitcoin. This means Litecoins are more divisible than bitcoins meaning they can be broken into smaller units of value. The tiny units can be used for transactions that require smaller denominations.
Litecoin mining uses scrypt as proof-of-work algorithm meaning it cannot be mined
What Is Litecoin?
Litecoin (LTC) is a decentralized, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that is an open source software project released under the MIT/X11 license.
Litecoin was created in October 2011 by former Google engineer Charles Lee as an alternative to bitcoin. The main difference between litecoin and bitcoin is that while bitcoin has a hard limit of 21 million coins (which will be reached around 2140), litecoin has a limit of 84 million coins.
As of this writing, there are more than 54 million litecoins in circulation and it can process a block every 2.5 minutes (compared with 10 minutes for bitcoin). This makes it possible to confirm transactions more quickly. As of October 10, 2017, the market capitalization of litecoin stands at $3 billion.
Unlike gold or dollar bills, digital currencies like litecoin do not have any physical form and exist only in digital form, on a computer or smartphone. Another similarity between litecoin and bitcoin is that they both exist on the internet as data and are not controlled or regulated by any country, bank or organization.
If you are still wondering how does cryptocurrency work, here is the explanation: people make transactions using software called wallets
Litecoin is a cryptocurrency that was introduced in 2011 as an alternative to bitcoin. Litecoin was created by a former Google engineer named Charlie Lee and has faster transaction times than bitcoin.
Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, but other coins like Ethereum and Ripple have grown in popularity due to their utility.
Here are six things you should know about litecoin:
1. There are 84 million litecoins. The total number of bitcoin that can be mined is 21 million.
2. Litecoin transactions are confirmed faster than other cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin. Litecoin’s block time is 2.5 minutes, compared to Bitcoin’s 10-minute block time. That means litecoin can handle higher transaction volume than bitcoin because it confirms transactions faster.
3. Litecoin was created with an open-source codebase on GitHub, which means anyone can copy it and create their own version of the coin if they wish. There are already several clones of Litecoin in existence, including DogeCoin and FeatherCoin (there’s a theme here…).
4. Litecoin creator Charlie Lee has said he sold or donated all his litecoins in December 2017 to avoid accusations of trying to influence its price on social media after he made comments about
Litecoin is a cryptocurrency that has evolved from Bitcoin. It shares many of the same characteristics but aims to be “the silver” to Bitcoin’s “gold”. Like Bitcoin, it is open-source and operates using blockchain technology. While there are similarities, there are some key differences between the two.
Litecoin is based on an open-source global payment network that isn’t controlled by any central authority and uses “scrypt” as a proof of work, which can be decoded with the help of CPUs of consumer-grade. Although Litecoin is like Bitcoin in many ways, it has a faster block generation rate and hence offers a faster transaction confirmation time. Other than developers, there are a growing number of merchants who accept Litecoin.
As of Nov. 2013, Litecoin had received extended coverage by mainstream media with agencies such as the Wall Street Journal, CNBC and The New York Times citing it as an alternative (or possibly even successor) to Bitcoin.
Due to its similarity to bitcoin, merged mining works for scrypt based cryptocurrencies that use the same proof of work algorithm (for example DogeCoin).
Litecoin was created by the former Google engineer Charles Lee, who launched it in 2011. It is one of the earliest digital currencies, and it is one of the first to use a decentralized network. Litecoin was designed to be complementary to Bitcoin rather than competitive with it.
Bitcoin and Litecoin are both open source, so no one owns or controls either cryptocurrency. But there are enough differences between them that they don’t compete with each other as well as some people think.
Bitcoin Transactions Take Longer
The main difference between Litecoin and Bitcoin is that Litecoin transactions take twoand-a-half minutes, compared to 10 minutes for Bitcoin. While this may not seem like much of a difference, it is actually quite significant when you consider the scale of transactions we are talking about here. The faster transaction time makes Litecoin more desirable for merchants who have to wait for confirmation of Bitcoin payments.
Litecoin Rewards Miners With More Coins
The other big difference between the two is that where Bitcoin uses SHA-256 hashing algorithm, Litecoin uses Scrypt hashing algorithm which makes it easier for miners with less powerful computers to mine them. This allows many more people to get involved in mining cryptocurrencies and actually earn some money while doing so.
Another advantage