Bitcoin is no doubt a more well-known cryptocurrency, but you might be surprised to learn that Litecoin was introduced more than six years ago.
What is Litecoin?
That’s because Litecoin is based on Bitcoin’s open source codebase, but with a few technological differences. Litecoin was never intended to replace Bitcoin but to complement it like the silver to Bitcoin’s gold. Litecoin’s encryption techniques are used for two critical features:
To regulate the generation of Litecoin units
To verify the transfer of funds and secure transactions
What’s the Difference Between Litecoin and Bitcoin?
Litecoin and bitcoin both have a specific coin limit and an amount awarded for discovering blocks during the mining process. The total limit for bitcoin is 21 million coins, and litecoin has a limit of 84 million coins. Once the cryptocurrencies reach these coin limits, no newer currency is released into the system.
Miners are currently awarded with 12.5 new litecoins per block, an amount which gets halved roughly every 4 years (every 840,000 blocks).
Bitcoin and litecoin use a “proof of work” algorithm during the mining process, which helps safeguard and deter attacks and abuses of the cryptocurrency networks. The algorithm rewards people when their mining hardware solves complicated puzzles that validate transactions and release new coins into the system.
Litecoin processes transactions much faster than those for bitcoin; however, this speed does have drawbacks — such as “orphaned blocks.” Orphaned blocks occur when two litecoin miners produce blocks at similar times.
What Is the Abbreviation for Litecoin?
The abreviation of Litecoin (LTC or Ł)
Who Invented Litecoin?
It is thought that Litecoin was released via an open-source client on GitHub on 7 October, 2011 by Charlie Lee, a former Google employee. It was a fork of the Bitcoin Core client, differing primarily by having a decreased block generation time (2.5 minutes), an increased maximum number of coins, a different hashing algorithm, and a slightly modified GUI.
Litecoin’s Blockchain
The Litecoin blockchain is capable of handling higher transaction volume than its counterpart – Bitcoin. Due to more frequent block generation, the network supports more transactions without a need to modify the software in the future.
As a result, merchants get faster confirmation times, while still having ability to wait for more confirmations when selling bigger ticket items.
Litecoin has so much scope for growth, potential uses, and wide adoption. Right now, we must observe which companies begin adopting it and accepting transactions for their products and services. Other than that, the future of Litecoin is anyone’s guess.
How to Buy Litecoin
Litecoin is purchased through cryptocurrency exchanges the way any other crypto would be bought. However, even though there’s a larger circulating supply of LTC than BTC, you’re not guaranteed that most exchanges will have Litecoins available for purchase or trade like you may be with Bitcoin.
Litecoin can be bought directly through an exchange marketplace, or converted from digital currencies in cryptocurrency conversion services.
Create your account at your chosen exchange. You’ll need to provide a valid email address for verification and create a strong password. Put in the payment information you plan on using. This can be a checking account or your credit/debit card information.
Specify Litecoin (LTC) as the crypto you wish to buy, and then the amount of money you want to spend on it.
When you buy your LTC it’s good to store it in a wallet like Jeton.
