Coins & Tokens

Litecoin (LTC) is a cryptocurrency founded by Charles "Charlie" Lee, a former Google developer, in October 2011. Litecoin was based on the open-source code of Bitcoin, but with a few tweaks.

What is Litecoin?

Litecoin, like Bitcoin, is based on an open-source global payment network that is independent of any central authority. Litecoin varies from Bitcoin in several ways, including its higher block creation rate and its usage of the Scrypt proof-of-work algorithm. It is considered to be among the first altcoins, derived from Bitcoin's original open-source code.

How does Litecoin work?

The proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm is used by Bitcoin, Litecoin, and many other cryptocurrencies to protect their networks. Essentially, PoW requires one party to demonstrate to all other network participants that a certain amount of computing effort has been done. Unlike Bitcoin, which employs the SHA-256 PoW hashing method, Litecoin uses the Scrypt PoW technique, which is less resource-intensive.

Lee created Scrypt with the goal of making large-scale, custom-built hardware attacks on the currency more difficult. The SHA-256 algorithm, unlike Scrypt, does not require a lot of random access memory (RAM) as an impediment to parallel processing.

What are the differences between Litecoin and Bitcoin?

Although Litecoin mining requires more advanced hardware than bitcoin, blocks are generated up to four times faster. Litecoin also conducts financial transactions much faster and can handle a larger number of them in the same amount of time. There are a limited amount of bitcoin and Litecoin coins in circulation. There are 21 million bitcoins available, while 84 million Litecoin coins are available - four times as many as bitcoin. Litecoin's market capitalization is substantially lower than Bitcoin's, yet it is still one of the most actively traded cryptocurrencies.

To add fresh blocks of a cryptocurrency to the blockchain, miners must solve hash functions successfully. Litecoin and bitcoin both use distinct mining algorithms, with Scrypt being used for Litecoin and SHA-256 for bitcoin. The Litecoin development team first picked Scrypt to avoid mining being dominated by ASIC-based miners. This would make it possible for CPU and GPU miners to compete. Because the Scrypt mining method requires more memory, it was initially less suited to ASIC miners, giving other miners a leg up. Scrypt-capable ASIC-based miners, on the other hand, have evolved over time. Because of their lower computing capacity, CPU and GPU-based miners are no longer viable mining tools, while ASICs can create significantly more hashes per second.

Website

Visit the official cryptocurrency website. It contains detailed valuable information about the coin and the project. You'll also find answers to frequently asked questions, various support and training tools, or interesting coin news and articles.

WhitePaper

WhitePaper is a basic informative document that contains a detailed description of a crypto project, its purpose, the idea of its creation, technical specifications, statistics, diagrams, roadmap, and other important facts, including information about the coin and its use and future potential. It is usually created by the founders or developers of a crypto project.