What is Litecoin – an overview of the cryptocurrency and its features
Litecoin is included in the top 10 cryptocurrencies in terms of capitalization. This coin has a rich history – as it has been on the market for a long time, so users trust it. In this article, we will look at what LTC is, where this cryptocurrency came from, what it is and what prospects await it.
What is LTC and the history of its appearance
Litecoin is a fork of Bitcoin that took place on October 12, 2011. Charles Lee, the creator of LTC, conceived of creating an alternative to Bitcoin. He used the Bitcoin blockchain as a basis and made minor changes to speed up block creation and preserve block memory size. As a result, this made the new coin a little faster, which was subsequently called «digital silver».
In simple terms, Litecoin is an improved version of Bitcoin. Despite its technological edge on paper, this cryptocurrency has failed to dominate the market.
Timeline of major events
- October 2011 – an open source client appeared on GitHub;
- November 2013 — Litecoin’s capitalization exceeded $ 1 billion, and in the United States, due to being mentioned in the news, the rate increased by 100% within 24 hours;
- in April 2017, Litecoin developers announced support for SegWit;
- since the beginning of 2017, the cost has increased by 2000%, and quotations on exchanges exceeded $ 92.07 at the beginning of September;
- the ban on ICOs in China collapsed the price, as a result, already in October 2017, LTC was sold at 52.47 USD;
- in October 2017, the Waves platform announced the opening of a gateway for Litecoin;
- On December 12, 2017, LTC set a record – the price of an electronic coin exceeded $ 400;
- in December 2017, Charles Lee announced the sale of all litecoins from his wallet – his deal should not appear on the cryptocurrency rate, since it will take place outside of exchange trading.
Parameters
To get an idea of what litecoin looks like in the digital world, you should understand the parameters on September 14, 2020:
- maximum number of coins: 84,000,000;
- coins mined: 65 454 995;
- course: $ 49.31;
- average commission: 0.00076 LTC / $ 0.0374756;
- capitalization: $ 3,227,686,046;
- blockchain size: 28 GB;
- average time between blocks: 2 min 25 sec;
- trading volume: $ 2,293,990,774;
- position in the rating by capitalization level: 10.
Differences from Bitcoin
Charles Lee endowed the LTC currency with enough differences from Bitcoin to make it look more advantageous on the market. Let’s compare 2 cryptocurrency networks with each other.
Blocks
The chain of blocks in both networks is built according to the same principle – each new block contains information about the previous one. The difference lies in the way the hash is found in the chain. The Bitcoin network uses the SHA-256 algorithm, while Litecoin uses scrypt.
This made it possible to speed up the generation of blocks. In LTC, the speed of creating a new block is on average 2 minutes 30 seconds, while BTC takes 10 minutes to complete the same task.
Number of coins
The maximum number of coins in the Litecoin network is 84,000,000. Bitcoin has a maximum emission of 21,000,000. Charles Lee borrowed a mining reward system when he pays 50 LTC for a new block, but after 840,000 blocks, the amount of reward is halved. Despite the decrease in remuneration, miners can still earn by gradually increasing the rate. As is the case with Bitcoin, in 2020 more than 3/4 of all coins were generated using farms.
Address Difference
Addresses are generated in the same way as in the Bitcoin network. The difference lies in the first characters. In the Litecoin network, all wallets start with an «L» and the version number of the blockchain on which they were created.
What is 1 Litecoin in rubles or another currency
The rate of Litecoin against the ruble is constantly changing. You can follow the movement of quotes on popular exchanges:
The main disadvantage of exchanges is the need for verification. In addition, the trading platform may request mandatory verification – without identity confirmation, you will not be able to withdraw money.
To quickly buy Litecoin for rubles or another currency, it is better to use an exchanger. Exchange services are guided by the average market rate and offer profitable quotes. Exchangers have a higher level of confidentiality, as users usually do not need to register and verify their identity.
The future of Litecoin
For 9 years of its existence, Litecoin was unable to get to the first line in the CoinMarketCap rating, but this does not mean that the coin has lost its appeal. It still has good growth potential, and forecasts for LTC turn out to be much brighter than most other coins:
- As the popularity of Bitcoin grows, the load on the system will increase. This will lead to delays in transactions and an increase in the average commission. In such a situation, users will again start looking for an alternative – Litecoin will turn out to be one of the most attractive options.
- The network continues to develop actively. So in 2017, they introduced SegWit, which had a positive effect on the value of the coin. In the future, it is planned to fully support the Lightning Network technology, which will allow making payments without commission.
- Unlike Bitcoin, the founder of Litecoin is a public person. Charles Lee regularly gives interviews and shares further development plans.
- Litecoin is supported by other developers. This coin is often integrated into other systems, allowing you to use it for storing funds, transfers or earnings.