I had heard that Litecoin is the Silver to the Gold status enjoyed by Bitcoin, but to be honest, I wasn't never interested in acquiring it. Two things changed my mind recently.

Firstly, I decided to invest some time in this facuet called Cointiply to see if it would be a good fit with my schedule and evolve to be one of my crypto income streams. 30,000 coins was the bare minimum I needed to accumulate before I could withdraw them, and Litecoin was one of the choices available. So, I thought, why not? I wanted to redeem 30,000 coins and stake the equivalent Litecoin in my Gemini account, thus letting it accrue interest while I gathered more points. 

Secondly, I learnt that Litecoin was founded in Singapore. What are the odds that a popular altcoin would be created in my small island state? That sealed the deal. I would collect some Litecoin and learn more about it, for I'm just patriotic that way.

There are the things that I found out:

1) Litecoin was created in 2011, which was a tad two years after Bitcoin. Given the similarity in their names, you might assume that Litecoin was created as a response to Bitcoin - in which case, you are right. Litecoin was designed to be a "lite version of Bitcoin". 

2) Litecoin has a finite supply of 84 million coins, which is 4 times the total supply of Bitcoin. It is also designed to boast a possessing speed that is four times faster that of Bitcoin. Hence, its strength is the completion of peer-to-peer cryptocurrency transactions in a swift and cost-effective manner.

3) Litecoin was conceptualized and brought to life by Charlie Lee. Charlie Lee has an impressive work resume as he not only worked in Google, but also as an engineer at Coindesk. In fact, Coindesk acknowledges Charlie Lee's accomplishment on its product page here. Charlie harnessed the Bitcoin codebase to increase both the supply and processing speed to 4 times those of Bitcoin, thus showcasing his intelligence and dexterity with code. His example is encouraging for me, for he was quick to capitalize on the opportunity presented by Bitcoin a mere two years after its launch and build on Bitcoin's laurels to create something that was truly his own.

4) Finally, the link to Singapore. Charlie Lee is the Managing Director of Litecoin Foundation, which was registered in Singapore! Initially a non-profit organization, it was incorporated as a public company limited by guarantee by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) of Singapore. This means that its liability is limited to the amount that members contribute to the assets of the company.

5) At the time of writing (2021), Litecoin is celebrating its 10th anniversary. It has amassed a significant user base in its decade of operations as it is now focusing on expanding the capabilities of Litewallet, which is a wallet dedicated solely to the storing and spending of Litecoin for beginner investors with little technological know-how. It is great that the Litecoin Foundation aims to empower individuals to be their own bank. In fact, Litecoin Foundation is now accepting applications for volunteer Android developers.   

6) Before Dogecoin became the world-renowned altcoin it is today, it went through a period in which imminent failure was a possibility. Then, Charlie proposed the idea of merged mining to Dogecoin stakeholders, explaining that since both coins employed the same mining algorithm, merged mining would enable Litecoin miners to mine Dogecoin concurrently, thus protecting the Dogecoin network from vicious 51% attacks. After months of discussion, Dogecoin stakeholders agreed to Charlie's proposal, which paved the way for a rigorous Proof of Work network to be established.

7) Lest I get too attached to Litecoin, its current CoinMarketCap is #12. For an altcoin who has regularly made it to the Top 10 list since its release, I think it's safe to say that Litecoin has lost some of its silver luster in recent years. 

8) In a move that shows how Litecoin Foundation stays abreast of the latest trends, it announced that it has created a channel on Odysee (https://odysee.com/$/invite/@LitecoinFoundation:c), which is an up-and-coming decentralized social media platform that has ambitions to take on YouTube. Yes, upon reading the announcement, I promptly signed up for an account with Odysee, for it seems that new subscribers will receive an LBC (LBRY Credit) incentive upon account verification. I'm curious to see how it will turn out.

Do you have Litecoin in your portfolio? If not, why not try my Cointiply referral link and accumulate some Litecoin for yourself?