Litecoin is a peer-to-peer internet currency that enables instant, near-zero cost payments to anyone in the world.
Started by Charlie Lee, a former Google employee as an alternative two years after Bitcoin was launched, Litecoin (LTC) was designed for cheaper transactions and to be more efficient in everyday use.
Though there are some similarities with Bitcoin in terms of technology and monetary policy, Litecoin features some core changes in block times that are four times longer. Its supply capacity is 84 million tokens, as compared with BTC with 21 million tokens and uses the proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm in order to secure their networks.
Some also called LTC as silver to Bitcoin’s gold or lite version of Bitcoin. It is an open-source, global payment network that uses mathematics to secure its network and empowers individuals to control their own finances.
Like Bitcoin, LTC uses blockchain technology to transfer funds directly between individuals or businesses. This ensures that a public ledger of all transactions is recorded, and allows the currency to operate a decentralized payment system free from government control or censorship.
Litecoin is a form of digital money, which individuals and institutions can use to purchase things and to transfer funds between accounts. Transactions done with Litecoin don't require verification from any intermediary like a bank, credit card company. Users don't even have to pay any payment processing service.
Blockchain technology
Litecoin blockchain is capable of handling a higher transaction volume than Bitcoin. Due to more frequent block generation, the network supports more transactions without a need to modify the software in the future. As a result, merchants get faster confirmation times, while still having the ability to wait for more confirmations when selling bigger ticket items.
Understanding Litecoin
Litecoin features faster transaction confirmation times and improved storage efficiency. With substantial industry support, trade volume and liquidity, Litecoin is a proven medium of commerce complementary to Bitcoin.
Like other decentralized cryptocurrencies, Litecoin is created by a cryptocurrency procedure called mining, which consists of processing a list of Litecoin transactions.
There will never be more than 84 million Litecoins in circulation. Every 2.5 minutes, the Litecoin network generates a new block – a ledger entry of recent Litecoin transactions throughout the world.
The block is verified by mining software and made visible to any system participant (called a miner) who wants to see it. Once a miner verifies it, the next block enters the chain, which is a record of every Litecoin transaction ever made.
Mining Litecoin
To mine Litecoin, miners must successfully solve hash functions in order to add new blocks of a cryptocurrency to the blockchain.
Bitcoin uses the SHA-256 algorithm, whereas Litecoin makes use of a newer algorithm, called Scrypt for mining new tokens.
Miners are currently awarded with 12.5 new Litecoins per block, an amount which gets halved roughly every 4 years (every 840,000 blocks).
How Is Litecoin different?
Even though there are commonalities, the most important distinction between Litecoin and Bitcoin is the different cryptographic algorithms that they employ.
When compared with Bitcoin, transactions take around 10 minutes, but transaction with Litecoin takes only 2.5 minutes. It can handle more transactions because of its shorter block generation time.
Litecoin halving aims to preserve Litecoin’s purchasing power. The last Litecoin halving took place on 5 August 2019. On this date, the mining reward was reduced from 25 Litecoins per block to 12.5 Litecoins per block.
According to the Litecoin Foundation estimates, it will be around 2142 when the maximum of 84 million Litecoins will be mined.
Buy Litecoin on Klever
Buy Litecoin on Klever App, which offers a secured crypto wallet ecosystem serving more than 150,000 daily active users and over 3 million users worldwide.
Klever App is a simple, powerful, and secure self-custody crypto wallet, supporting the world’s major blockchains, offering 300+ trading pairs in Klever Swap and access to ETH and TRX-based dapps in Klever Browser, thereby contributing to the decentralized world of financial services.
Litecoin adoption has to reach the masses and needs to witness the full potential of its global payment network. With cryptocurrencies becoming more readily accepted and their values stabilizing, possibly, Litecoin can emerge as one of the standard currencies of the digital world.
Kleverly use Litecoin to make global payments!
Jagdish Kumar
Klever Writer