Litecoin is an open source decentralized payment network that anyone can access to send and receive Litecoin.

Litecoin, just like Bitcoin, uses a distributed proof of work consensus model to validate transactions. In simpler terms, this just means that rather than relying on a trusted third party like PayPal or a bank to verify transactions there is a distributed network of computers all over the world that verify transactions by solving computational algorithms.

This distributed network of computers are known as miners, and are rewarded in the form of newly minted Litecoin in exchange for their computational power.

Litecoin is very similar to Bitcoin in most regards, the most notable difference being that Litecoin uses a different validation algorithm that requires more processing power from miners in exchange for faster transaction times.