LITECOIN (LTC) – A BRIEF INTRO FOR INVESTORS
Often referred to by its founder as the ‘silver to Bitcoin’s gold’, Litecoin has secured itself a seat at the table in the cryptocurrency industry. Litecoin was created from a hard fork of Bitcoin in 2011 and touts extremely fast block times and transaction confirmation.
KEY FEATURES
- Transaction speeds up to 4x faster compared to Bitcoin
- Operates using a Scrypt hashing algorithm
- 84 million coin supply is expected to allow for better liquidity on the market
- Block times of 2.5 minutes
- Transaction fees have stayed consistently low, under $1.00, even during times of increased transaction volume
OVERVIEW
COIN SUPPLY
Maximum supply is 84 million Litecoin, with the reward for block mining (currently 25 LTC per block) to halve every four years. This method of halving means Bitcoin will likely reach its maximum supply before Litecoin.
TECHNOLOGY
Litecoin operates similarly to Bitcoin since its creation from a hard fork of Bitcoin core, and continues to utilize upgrades from Bitcoin developers such as the Lightning Network. It has also activated SegWit to increase transaction speeds. Instead of SHA-256, Litecoin implemented Scrypt hashing algorithm for a more democratized mining solution.
PRIVACY
Litecoin operates on a distributed public ledger, where all transaction amounts and wallet information can be viewed, but personal information is kept secure and private with the use of public and private keys.
DEVELOPMENT TEAM
Former MIT graduate, Google engineer, and Coinbase employee, Charlie Lee founded Litecoin in 2011. Lee, who previously held a large stake of Litecoin, has sold all of his Litecoin holdings to display his commitment to the project long-term and that he is not just in it to pump up prices. To date there have been no full-time developers on the team, and the most well-known Litecoin developer, known through his alias as Shaolinfry, recently removed himself from the Litecoin project in pursuit of other interests.
VALUE PROPOSITION
Demand for cryptocurrency usage will be too high for one cryptocurrency to handle. As industry demand increases so will the need for an alternative to Bitcoin that is just as secure but can process transactions more quickly and efficiently, and that is where Litecoin expects to slot itself in the industry.
INVESTMENT SUMMARY
Litecoin has implemented the much anticipated Lightning Network upgrade and successfully tested global transactions that have settled in less than one second, making Litecoin a great alternative for fast and immutable digital transactions.
The biggest difference between Bitcoin and Litecoin is that Litecoin uses the Scrypt consensus algorithm instead of SHA-256 used by Bitcoin. Scrypt is implemented in an attempt to democratize the mining network and not allow it to centralize around parties who spent significant money investing in hardware equipment.
HOW TO BUY
Litecoin has become one of the most popular cryptocurrencies and can be bought on any major exchange listed below. It is most heavily bought with Bitcoin or USD, but can also be purchased with any major fiat or cryptocurrency.
EXCHANGES WHERE YOU CAN BUY LITECOIN (LTC)
| EXCHANGE | COIN PAIRS TRADED | |
| Binance | LTC/USDT, BTC, ETH, BNB | |
| HitBTC | LTC/USDT, BTC, ETH | |
| Bitsane | LTC/USD, EUR, BTC, ETH, ICN, BCH, XRP | |
| Bitstamp | LTC/USD, EUR, BTC | |
| Bittrex | LTC/USDT, BTC, ETH | |
| C-CEX | LTC/USD, USDT, BTC, ETH | |
| CoinExchange | LTC/BTC, DOGE | |
| Cryptopia | LTC/USDT, XRY | |
| GDAX | LTC/USD, EUR, BTC | |
| Huobi | LTC/USDT, BTC, ETH | |
| Kraken | LTC/USD, EUR, BTC | |
| Kucoin | LTC/USDT, BTC, ETH, NEO | |
| Mr. Exchange | LTC/XRP, JPY, BTC, ETH, XLM | |
| xBTCe | LTC/USDT, CNH, EUR, RUB, JPY, BTC, ETH | |
| WEX | LTC/USD, EUR, RUR, BTC, BCH, ETH, ZEC |
About Author
Users should be aware that if they click on a cryptocurrency link and sign up for a product or service, we will be paid a referral fee. This in no way affects our recommendations, which products we choose to review or our advice which is the sole opinion of the authors.
The opinions provided in this article are those of the author and do not constitute investment advice. Readers should assume that the author and/or employees of Grizzle hold positions in the company or companies mentioned in the article. For more information, please see our Content Disclaimer.