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.
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 transaction time of Bitcoin.
Litecoin has each block transaction clearance time of 2.5 minute, which is 4 times faster than 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 seconds.
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 is around 56 transactions per seconds.
Because of Litecoin lower, transaction speed and minimum block time made this most popular among top 10 cryptocurrency choice.
From the official stats of Litecoin, it has the max supply of 84 million coins and currently around 71% coins are already mined which equals to 60 million coins and only 24 million coins are left to mine.
Image Credit – Llitecoin Official
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 help people to overcome mediator and give you full control over your currency and Litecoin is build to fulfill that vision. It made people independent by building great technology.
Bitcoin Vs Litecoin
Image Credit – CoinDesk
Do you know, how Litecoin works?
Here is my finding for same:
How Litecoin Works?
Litecoin is built on similar blockchain technology, which is decentralized. But in your banking system, where bank verifies your transactions and do the complete overall transfer of payment.
Here in Cryptocurrency world, we do not have any such authoritative third party like the bank to clear or authenticate transactions.
In every cryptocurrency transactions Miners come into the picture, do you know who is a miner?
Will explain you in 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 recipient wallet 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 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 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 transfer will not complete unless it verified by miners.
It depends how many verifications it takes and it varied from the merchant to merchant usually it takes minimum 2 level verification for security reasons that mean your transaction will take around 5 minute to fully confirmed and will be available in recipient 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 they mine them?
Whenever a Litecoin transaction 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 computer and mining devices which are capable to solve those complex mathematical problems.
Whoever is able to solve those problems quickly, will get Litecoin in reward.
So this process of solving mathematical problems associated with the transaction is call mining and people who use such computers to do mining is call Miners.
It seems pretty good that using mining you can earn free Litecoin, but for that what you have to do?
Bitcoin and Litecoin both runs on Proof of Work (POW) but Bitcoin uses SHA256 algorithm to mine coin however Litecoin uses the script algorithm.
The script algorithm makes 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 huge investment in it and quite expensive.
But in future if, Litecoin is probable to mine using ASIC than 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 of 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 Dollar or pound. In a similar way, there is a micro wallet in the crypto world to store your coins in it.
Basically, wallet provider companies are the third-party company which is well known for security and maintain the privacy of your assets.
There are a few types of wallet which you could opt for.
- Desktop wallet
- Mobile wallet
- Paper wallet
- Hardware wallet
If you are a daily trader than you can hold your currency with trading Platform 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 coin for a long time than I would suggest you to 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 is 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 a 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 recovery password you could access your coin by a desktop.
Basically, every wallet has an address which is associated with your identity and transaction 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 of Litecoin is always easier to gain coin, 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 trading exchange and buy Litecoin
- Buy from a wallet like Coinbase
In both cases, you need fiat currency like Dollar, Pound or any centralized currency.
- Log in to any wallet like Coinbase.
- Add your currency like 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 in trading platform USD wallet.
Just to let you know, if you already have a Bitcoin then even you can exchange Bitcoin for Litecoin using 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 Buying Guide
Good going, now we are almost close to finishing our guide.
What is Future of Litecoin
It is always concerned about the future of any cryptocurrency as we know that in all over the world none of the central authority has 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 how is Future of NEO, then you should go for our detail guide.
Read – Learn more about NEO: Ultimate guide
But it also surprises you that in the year 2017 Litecoin was among the top 10 cryptocurrency which price increased from 4$ to 360$ and it was the crazy moment for all the investors.
It proves that people have a belief in it.
Image Credit – CoinMarketCap
Till the third quarter of 2018, Litecoin worth capitalization of 3.8 Billion US Dollar and it is hoping to grow and overall Crypto industry worth around 130 Billion USD which was 800 Billion dollars in the year 2017.
So I must say, Litecoin has future to explore and because of it’s less transaction time and easy mining can make this best choice for small business and for big business still Bitcoin will overrule the market.
In terms of security, Litecoin offers two-level verification for coin and even two-level verification as I said earlier will not take more than 5 minute which is half than bitcoin 1 level 10 minute confirmation.
Rest choice is your’s whether you want to invest in or not but for me in this competitive market somewhere it is growing and can have a good future of Litecoin.
Final Thought
Litecoin advanced technology is far superior to Bitcoin and it’s minimum transaction time make it better than Ethereum and Bitcoin.
As it reached, a new hike in price to around 366$ in past. It seems, it has potential to grow in the market but cryptocurrency future is yet not certain than how can we imagine for Litecoin.
Litecoin can clear 56 transactions per seconds 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 than do proper research and divide your investment among Top 10 Cryptocurrency.
Read – Which Cryptocurrency you should Invest in 2019
If you have decided to mine Litecoin than take 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.
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