Today we are talking about another crypto widespread in the world, we are talking about LITECOIN. After talking about Bitcoin and Ethereum, I leave you the link if you want to read the articles, let's see what it is, how it works and everything related to this crypto.
https://www.publish0x.com/cryptoearnings/discovering-the-crypto-bitcoin-xpjnoyv
https://www.publish0x.com/cryptoearnings/discovering-the-crypto-ethereum-xxowqmr
What is Litecoin and how does it work?
Litecoin (LTC) is a virtual currency released with MIT / X11 code, which is based on a decentralized network and open source software.
Litecoin derives directly from Bitcoin. This means that no intermediary or central control body is needed to operate this cryptocurrency. Today Litecoin is considered to be one of the oldest alternative cryptocurrencies.
This crypto was launched in 2011 as a Bitcoin fork. Litecoin has a lot in common with Satoshi Nakamoto's coin, including most of its technical details. However, the biggest difference between the two is dictated by the block creation time, which turns out to be much shorter for Litecoin.
Litecoin: history
Litecoin's story dates back to 2011, when Charlie Lee, a former Google employee, decides to create a cryptocurrency that is lighter and faster than Bitcoin, a still extremely heavy cryptocurrency.
From the genius of Charlie Lee, Litecoin sees the light on the shared software development platform GitHub. Compared to the original Bitcoin, LTC differs mainly in having reduced the processing time of a block, for increasing the number of coins available, for the slightly different graphical interface and for having a different hash algorithm.
As early as 2013, Litecoin was worth several dollars. In 2017, it is one of the very first large-cap cryptocurrencies to adopt SegWit (Segregated Witness) technology that allows transaction blocks to be smaller and therefore extremely faster.
A world record was set in May 2017, as a transaction from Zurich to San Francisco on the decentralized platform took less than 1 second to obtain confirmation.
Charles Lee is working on a debit card that promises something extraordinary and innovative. With a debit card based on a cryptocurrency (it would be the first of its kind) it will be possible to reduce the cost of transactions.
Differences between Litecoin and Bitcoin
But what are the main differences between Litecoin and Bitcoin?
Let's see them together:
- Algorithm: Bitcoin uses the traditional SHA-256 algorithm while Litecoin uses a different technology: the "Scrypt" algorithm. These two algorithms decisively influence the speed with which it is possible to mine the blocks of the two cryptocurrencies. With Litecoin it is possible to mine a block in about 2.5 minutes, while with Bitcoin it takes 10 minutes. The SHA-256 algorithm used by Bitcoin is famous for being extremely complex; for this reason the Miners have in the years passed to specific machines (ASIC) to mine the blocks of the most important cryptocurrency in the world. Scrypt, the algorithm used by Litecoin, turns out to be extremely more efficient thanks to its design, which does not allow you to use specific hardware as happens with Bitcoin instead.
- Capitalization: the size of the Bitcoin market is extremely larger than Litecoin.
- Confirmation time: Bitcoin transactions are confirmed in about 10 minutes. Litecoin technology manages to bring this limit to just 2.5 minutes.
- Number of Tokens: Bitcoin and Lite-coin can only produce a certain amount of tokens. Bitcoin can produce a total of 21 million coins in its network. Litecoin, however, can produce up to 84 million coins.
