Litecoin (LTC) was launched in 2011 by Charles Lee, a former Google engineer. Litecoin is one of the original altcoins, having been adapted from Bitcoin's open source code with famously few changes.
Though Litecoin has always been seen as a reaction to Bitcoin, the former has outperformed the latter in some aspects, such as block generation rate and consensus protocol. Litecoin had a vigorous start, although its popularity has tailed off in the last couple of years as new offerings saturate the crypto market.
Learn more about the project and how you can invest in its token with Finty.
What is Litecoin?
Litecoin is a peer-to-peer digital currency that facilitates transactions on an open-source decentralized platform. Litecoin’s network facilitates instant, low-cost transactions that can be conducted all over the world.
Like Bitcoin, Litecoin uses a proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm as a consensus mechanism to validate transactions conducted on the network. While Bitcoin uses a SHA-256 PoW hashing algorithm, Litecoin uses a Scrypt PoW algorithm which is less resource-intensive.
The mining hardware purchased for Litecoin (LTC) is costlier than Bitcoin because of the consensus algorithm it uses. However, Litecoin can produce four times as many blocks as Bitcoin. Litecoin’s algorithm allows for 4x the coin limit of Bitcoin. Compared to Bitcoin, the Litecoin network offers greater speed and ease of acquisition.
There is no clear use case for Litecoin. It is simply used as a digital currency. You can use it as a form of payment on a few online stores, although it may not be suitable as a store of value.
You can trade Litecoin on most crypto exchanges.
