Litecoin – LTC was originally developed as a competitor to Bitcoin. Litecoin was for a very long period the number two crypto but was overshadowed by Bitcoin’s popularity. Eventually the interest in Litecoin somewhat declined. However Litecoin is still commonly used to transact, for example cash withdrawals from ATMs, due to its low transaction fees.
Litecoin – LTC is a cryptocurrency, based on an open-source global payment network, not controlled by any bank or central authority. Litecoin is designed for speed and is perceived by investors as ‘digital silver’, whilst Bitcoin is known to be ‘digital gold’.
This review of Litecoin – LTC was created for informational purposes. This article is not intended for promotion.
Charlie Lee founded Litecoin – LTC in 2011, which was a succesful fork (split) of Bitcoin. Lee took the basic ideas behind Bitcoin and created Litecoin to fix several issues Bitcoin was dealing with.
Most importantly, to reduce the amount of time of creating a new block onto Bitcoin’s blockchain and transaction confirmation. Litecoin reduced this by 50% to 70% resulting in lower transaction fees.
Litecoin implemented the Segregated Witness (SegWit) protocol in 2017. This changed the format of transactions so that less storage capacity was required and a new technology -named Lightning Network- could be built on the network with SegWit. This technology accelerated Litecoin’s transaction speed by around 1 million times which would mean that Litecoin could be used for worldwide payments.
The founder, Charlie Lee, holds a master’s in computer science from MIT and was Director of Engineering at the American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
In the early days Charlie Lee was a passionate poker player. When in April 2011, regulatory authorities in the United States permanently shut down the largest online poker websites, Lee realized the importance of the freedom of money. This inspired him to get into Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Primarily to Litecoin, Lee released a currency in 2011 called Fairbrix but it knew to many technical problems. Litecoin was his second effort and that time he succeeded. Litecoin had a fair launched in October 2011. No LTC tokens were allocated to Lee or any of the other people working on Litecoin before its launch.
Litecoin’s ‘digital silver’ and Bitcoin’s ‘digital gold’ are both open-source cryptocurrencies that use the Lightning Network technology and a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorythm.
The proof-of-work model is a decentralized consensus mechanism used to confirm and record cryptocurrency transactions. Due to PoW, transactions can be processed peer-to-peer in a secure way without the need for a trusted third party.
Litecoins are generated faster due to its mining algorithm called Scrypt. A new block is added on the Litecoin blockchain in 2.5 minutes.
In comparison to the 10 minutes needed to be add a new block to the Bitcoin blockchain. Also the mining of Bitcoin is more expensive and consumes a lot more electricity through the use of high-powered computers. This is not the case with Litecoin’s blockchain, that was created in a way so that more individuals can become miners.
A transaction on the Bitcoin network takes around 9 minutes on average. Litecoin has a faster transaction speed, and supposedly takes about 2 to 8 minutes to complete a transaction. In practice you might notice it takes much longer than this, depending on the network congestion.
“ Transaction fees on the Bitcoin network tend to increase during heavy traffic whilst Litecoin transaction fees are mostly lower (around $0.05). This makes Litecoin more suitable for everyday transactions. “
Litecoin – LTC is suitable for micro and macro payments due to its low transaction fees. It is mainly used as a currency to pay for goods and services.
Over 2,500 stores and merchants accept Litecoin payments, according to Coinmarketcap.com, including Travala (travel booking service) and e-Gifter (gift cards). You can also use LTC to purchase other cryptocurrencies on some centralized exchanges.
Circulating Supply: 66,000,000+
Total Supply: 84,000,000
Max Supply: 84,000,000
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Due to its low transaction fees I personally enjoy using Litecoin for transferring funds to other wallets or making online purchases. In terms of investing long-term it is wise to keep track of the overall cryptomarket ups and downs.
Potentially more big companies could accept LTC as a payment method however, in september 2021 there was a fake Walmart announcement that went viral. Stating LTC would be accepted for online purchases, this made Litecoin pump up to 40%, retracing instantly, leaving a lot of traders in tears. I wonder if we will ever see a genuine announcement?
Litecoin’s lasting success, usage and usability shows that it can withstand the turbulence that the cryptocurrency market has seen over the years. Its low transaction cost and fast transaction time might be a reason to its relevance. On the other hand, Litecoin’s future will depend on new developments, overall cryptomarket and government regulations.
Disclaimer: Trading and investing in cryptocurrencies (also called digital or virtual currencies, altcoins) involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for every investor. You are solely responsible for the risk and financial resources you use to trade crypto. The content on this website is primarily for informational purposes and does not constitute financial advice.
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