The 21st century seems to be the transforming face of currency, where a new era of Cryptocurrency came into the picture and here I will tell you what is Litecoin?
Litecoin (LTC) is among top 10 cryptocurrency, currently traded in the market. It was originated in the year 2011 to overcome the drawback of Bitcoin.
It was built on blockchain technology and widely accepted because of low transaction clearance time of around 2.5 minute per blocks which is 4 times better than Bitcoin 10 minute each block.
It has the capacity to clear 56 transactions per seconds.
This is not the end of Litecoin, there is lot many things you have to learn, here in this article I will tell you all about Litecoin.
Such as :
What is Litecoin, the technology behind litecoin, how to mine Litecoin, the wallet of Litecoin and how to buy and brief about security and future of Litecoin?
I am sure after reading this article, you will be an expert to know all about Litecoin.
So let’s begin.
Table of Contents
What is Litecoin
Litecoin is a blockchain-based digital cryptocurrency, which was introduced in the year 2011 by Charlie Lee.
The main Idea behind the development of any cryptocurrency is to overcome problems of the existing system and Litecoin was born with the same vision to reduce the transaction time of Bitcoin.
Litecoin has each block transaction clearance time of 2.5 minutes, which is 4 times faster than the 10 minutes of bitcoin.
As we all know the scalability of Bitcoin, means the potential of any cryptocurrency to clear the number of transactions per second.
In the case of Bitcoin, it is just 7 max and second, most cryptocurrency Ethereum(ETH) has 15, however, Litecoin has more than both of them around 56 transactions per second.
Litecoin lower, transaction speed and minimum block time made this most popular among the top 10 cryptocurrency choices.
From the official stats of Litecoin, it has a max supply of 84 million coins, and currently, around 71% of coins are already mined which equals 60 million coins and only 24 million coins are left to mine.
So now the question is definitely in your mind, is it worth to mine Litecoin?
Wait, I will answer you later in the guide.
Decentralized currency helps people to overcome mediator and give you full control over your currency and Litecoin is built to fulfill that vision. It made people independent by building great technology.
Bitcoin Vs Litecoin
Do you know, how Litecoin works?
Here is my finding for the same:
How Does Litecoin work?
Litecoin is built on similar blockchain technology, which is decentralized. But in your banking system, where the bank verifies your transactions and does the complete overall transfer of payment.
Here in the Cryptocurrency world, we do not have any such authoritative third party like the bank to clear or authenticate transactions.
In every cryptocurrency transaction Miners come into the picture, do you know who is a miner?
Will explain you in the Litecoin mining section.
To hold any cryptocurrency you should have a wallet which is having one incoming and outgoing address.
So if you want to send Litecoin to anyone, then you must have the recipient wallet’s incoming address and vice versa.
Simply send the transaction to that address.
Let me go through the steps on how Litecoin works.
- Login to your Litecoin wallet.
- Click to send the Litecoin option
- Provide Recipient address
- Provide the total amount you want to send
- The wallet will display an overall amount deducted from your account including the transaction fee.
- Simply hit send now
Now once you have initiated your transaction, it will go in a loop of the block, the block of Litecoin is around 2.5 minutes each.
So all transactions initiated in that block will be cleared by miners and the transfer will not be complete unless it is verified by miners.
It depends on how many verifications it takes and it varied from merchant to merchant usually it takes a minimum of 2 level verification for security reasons which mean your transaction will take around 5 minute to be fully confirmed and will be available in recipient’s wallet.
Even for two-level confirmation, it has a 5-minute transaction which is far better than Bitcoin 10 minute transaction for only 1 verification.
Let’s now understand how to mine Litecoin.
How to mine Litecoin?
We have learned about how Litecoin works and it seems like miners play a vital role in completing those transactions. So who are they and how do they mine them?
Whenever a Litecoin transaction is initiated from any point of the world it originated with a complex mathematical problem.
All around the world people like you are having high-power computers and mining devices that are capable to solve those complex mathematical problems.
Whoever is able to solve those problems quickly, will get Litecoin in a reward.
So this process of solving mathematical problems associated with the transaction is called mining and people who use such computers to do mining are called Miners.
It seems pretty good that using mining you can earn free Litecoin, but for that what do you have to do?
Bitcoin and Litecoin both runs on Proof of Work (POW) but Bitcoin uses the SHA256 algorithm to mine coin however Litecoin use the script algorithm.
The script algorithm makes it easier to mine Litecoin because it could be easily possible using GPU or your usual RAM, yet it will use your RAM power too much but to purchase GPU is cheaper than ASIC which is required for Bitcoin Mining
Yes, Bitcoin required ASIC to mine, which uses the raw power of your processor and a huge investment in it and is quite expensive.
But in the future if Litecoin is probable to mine using ASIC then it would create a monopoly for large investors.
But you know, we can get free Litecoin but how to find in detail guide.
To learn more about Mining Proof of Stack and Proof of work mechanism check our ultimate guide.
I hope you enjoyed reading and in halfway through learning. Now, will talk about the wallet.
Litecoin Wallet
As I said earlier, every cryptocurrency required space to store it such as the bank to store Dollars or pounds. In a similar way, there is a micro wallet in the crypto world to store your coins in it.
Basically, wallet provider companies are a third-party company that is well known for security and maintaining the privacy of your assets.
There are a few types of wallets that you could opt for.
- Desktop wallet
- Mobile wallet
- Paper wallet
- Hardware wallet
If you are a daily trader then you can hold your currency with trading Platforms like Bittrex, Binance, Crypopia, etc.
But it is not recommended to hold all currency with any trading platform.
If you are really concerned about privacy and want to stack coins for a long time then I would suggest you prefer for Paper or Hardware wallet.
I am not sure about a paper wallet with Litecoin, as it is available for Ethereum using MyEtherWallet.
But the most secure way to hide your currency away from the digital world is to use a hardware wallet such as Trezor Nano s is most famous for holding cryptocurrency.
It will look like as a pen drive and there you can hold your currency without any risk and it will be with you as a hardware device.
In case you lost or broken this, then even using a recovery password you could access your coin by a desktop.
Basically, every wallet has an address that is associated with your identity, and transactions will be carried out by sending coins to those addresses and all will be anonymous in the blockchain network.
Mining was one way to earn Litecoin but what if you are an investor then you question probably how to buy Litecoin.
The answer is below.
How to Buy Litecoin?
Buying Litecoin is always easier to gain coins, but what we need is money to invest. But, if you have that then let me guide you on how to Buy Litecoin.
There are two possibilities to buy Litecoin
- Go to a trading exchange and buy Litecoin
- Buy from wallets like Coinbase
In both cases, you need fiat currency like Dollars, Pound, or any centralized currency.
- Log in to any wallet like Coinbase.
- Add your currency like a dollar or pound.
- Place a buy bid for Litecoin
Now your wallet amount will auto deducted if you win the bid an equal amount of Litecoin will be credited to your wallet.
If you want to buy from the trading platform then you can repeat the same process by adding currency to the trading platform’s USD wallet.
Just to let you know, if you already have a Bitcoin then even you can exchange Bitcoin for Litecoin using the trading platform.
In that case, instead of placing the bid in USD, you should do this by Bitcoin(BTC).
To learn more about buying guide do refer to Buying Guide
Good going, now we are almost close to finishing our guide.
What Is The Future of Litecoin
It is always concerned about the future of any cryptocurrency as we know that all over the world none of the central authorities have accepted cryptocurrency as legal tender.
Except for NEO, which has a positive sign from the government initiative of china. Do you know what is NEO and what is Future of NEO is, then you should go for our detailed guide.
Read – Learn more about NEO: Ultimate guide
But it also surprises you that in the year 2017 Litecoin was among the top 10 cryptocurrencies whose price increased from 4$ to 360$ and it was a crazy moment for all investors.
It proves that people have a belief in it.
Till the third quarter of 2018, Litecoin is worth a capitalization of 3.8 Billion US dollars and it is hoping to grow overall Crypto industry is worth around 130 Billion USD which was 800 Billion dollars in the year 2017.
So I must say, Litecoin has a future to explore, and because of its less transaction time and easy mining can make the best choice for small businesses, and for big businesses still Bitcoin will overrule the market.
In terms of security, Litecoin offers two-level verification for coins, and even two-level verification as I said earlier will not take more than 5 minutes which is half of bitcoin 1 level 10-minute confirmation.
Rest choice is your’s whether you want to invest or not but for me in this competitive market somewhere it is growing and can have a good future for Litecoin.
Final Thought
Litecoin’s advanced technology is far superior to Bitcoin and its minimum transaction time makes it better than Ethereum and Bitcoin.
As it reached, a new hike in price to around 366$ in past. It seems, it has the potential to grow in the market but the cryptocurrency future is yet not certain how can we imagine Litecoin?
Litecoin can clear 56 transactions per second but Ripple has the capability to clear 10,000 transactions per second which are more away than Litecoin.
So Litecoin is in the competitive market and if you are willing to invest in Litecoin then do proper research and divide your investment among Top 10 cryptocurrencies.
Read – Which Cryptocurrency you should Invest in 2019
If you have decided to mine Litecoin then take a decision wisely based on the future growth of Cryptocurrency.
Read – Which cryptocurrency you should Mine in 2019
Give me your comment on how you feel about the future of Litecoin and click to share on social media.
