It’s faster than a speeding Bitcoin! More powerful than a smart contract! Able to leap exchanges in a single bound!
Look! Up on your computer monitor!
It’s a blockchain!
It’s a program!
It’s Litecoin!
Now I am done being silly let’s get to business. Should YOU invest in Litecoin? I have no idea. I don’t know your financial situation. I don’t know how old you are. I don’t know what your financial goals are… and I am not a financial adviser!
Instead of telling you whether YOU should buy Litecoin I will just go over some of it’s pros, cons and function then let the reader decide for themselves.
Functionality
This is not a smart contract system like Ethereum, a utility token like BAT, a residual income system like Divi, or a token for an exchange OKB; this is a payment system very similar to Bitcoin. In fact, it is one of Bitcoin’s first hardforks. Like all hardforks it has it’s own unique twist compared to Bitcoin and is unique compared to the other Bitcoin copy cats. For one thing, the founder of Litecoin, Charlie Lee was smart enough not to call it Bitcoin unlike Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Cash Satoshis Vision, etc etc etc.
Litecoin’s Technical Differences Compared to Bitcoin
- Litecoin uses the Scrypt algorithm instead SHA-256 for mining. This means that a Bitcoin miner can not just start mining Litecoin at the drop of a hat (unlike Bitcoin Cash). This makes Litecoin more secure against 51% attacks than it’s other hardfork cousins. It’s also easier for people to mine Litecoin if they don’t own a supercomputer.
- A block every 2.5 minutes instead of every ten minutes.
- It will produce 4x the coins that Bitcoin will produce or 84 Million
- It tends to rely on Bitcoin’s code otherwise…
- BUT it does tend to implement newer technologies before Bitcoin does. For instance, Litecoin implemented Segwit years before Bitcoin finally did it. They are also working on implementing a smart contract system and Mimblewimble (a privacy protocol) into their system.
Pros
- A well established cryptocurrency it has been around since 2011
- It is faster than Bitcoin and more scalable.
- Newer technology being implemented like Mimblewimble is exciting.
- Lower fees than Bitcoin
- Development of their own Lightning Network
- Highly decentralized and never started with “premined” coins.
- Has atomic swap features which makes it easy to trade for other cryptocurrencies
- Never been hacked
Cons
- Not as many developers are Bitcoin
- Not as secure as Bitcoin (more Bitcoin miners)
- Does not have as many users or household recognition
- Reliant on Bitcoin Core’s updates
- A founder that the government or other institutions could target
Pro or Con? Depends How You Look at it
- Charlie Lee the founder sold his coins in 2017 and it looked bad for Litecoin at the time. However, the blockchain seems to be trucking along just fine.
- More coins. Some people speculate that more coins make a project more adoptable because common people don’t like decimal points. Others feel smaller numbers of coins make a project more valuable.
My Thoughts
I like Litecoin. I like the fact it moves fast and I am excited about Mimblewimble and more improvements to their Lightning Network. It’s deflationary like Bitcoin so has a store of value but seems to be more scalable and may work better for smaller purchases.
If you want to learn more about cryptocurrency follow my Quora Space: The Crypto Cave.
