With Bitcoin being the center of cryptocurrency, not many people take the time to learn about other options available in the industry that could be as good as it or even better when it comes to general standards and more accessible opportunities.
Suppose you were making this mistake and decided to get a bit more information about other currencies. In that case, we applaud that effort, and we promise this article won’t disappoint when trying to learn about Litecoin out of all the cryptos out there.
We know it can be hard to understand the cryptocurrency industry in the first place and that you might be a bit overwhelmed with prices, volatiles, and how you have to deal with knowing when to invest or not.
But before you get there, it is better to know where and why you should invest.
Therefore, here we will go over all Litecoin (LTC) details and help you understand why it might be the best alternative to Bitcoin.
What Is Litecoin?
Litecoin is just like most cryptocurrencies you have heard about and was created in 2011 by Charlie Lee (an ex-Google engineer).
So far and to the date of this post, Litecoin ranks ninth in market capitalization.
It was initially a strong competitor for Bitcoin. However, Litecoin’s popularity declined as the cryptocurrency market became more saturated with new offerings in recent years.
To make it simple and ensure you understand our explanation, let’s just mentioned that Litecoin is another decentralized digital currency, which means it works without relying upon any centralized financial institution.
Instead, it uses blockchain technology to process and record transactions, with batches of transactions continually adding more blocks of information to the specific chain of the currency.
In the case of Litecoin, it can be purchased, traded, and used to make purchases with certain merchants.
Most Litecoin holders use one of these cryptocurrency apps or exchanges to purchase or sell the cryptocurrency:
- Coinbase.
- Gemini.
- PayPal Holdings.
Behind Litecoin – Its Founder & Background
When you research a cryptocurrency, you will usually come across a specific founder or creator, and it isn’t different from Litecoin, considering that it has one in specific. In this case, Charles Lee takes the cake.
Charles Lee is a computer scientist, and besides being the founder of the currency, he is also the managing director.
Lee was born in Ivory Coast but moved to the USA at the age of 13.
After graduating from high school in 1995, he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and got his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science in 2000.
Unlike what many believe, Lee has a history with cryptocurrency having his brother, Bobby C. Lee, as the founder of cryptocurrency exchange BTC China.
Besides being a genius in cryptocurrencies, Lee first worked for Google to write code for Chrome OS.
While at Google, he also wrote the blockchain technology that was based on Bitcoin. After mining 150 coins, he released Litecoin to the public.
Lee quit Google in July 2013 and started working at Coinbase. This was before the cryptocurrency exchange adopted his coin.
In December 2017, Lee announced on Reddit that he sold almost all of his Litecoin holdings due to a perceived conflict of interest.
Lee currently works full-time for the Litecoin Foundation, focusing on Litecoin adoption.
How Does Litecoin (LTC) Work?
If you want to understand how Litecoin works or even a cryptocurrency that isn’t necessarily it, it is good to first have a base knowledge of blockchain technology.
Making it simple, information is stored in blocks, and each block creates a chain. The chain of information is Litecoin’s transaction record.
The information in those blocks and chains is completely coded to make sure the system is completely safe for transactions.
Basically, blockchain is an open, distributed ledger that, as described by the Harvard Business Review:
“It can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way.”
This ledger itself can also be programmed to trigger transactions automatically.
Encryption techniques are used to protect the information contained in a blockchain system.
When it comes to the coin in specific, users can mine Litecoin, as with other cryptocurrencies, in exchange for currency.
Litecoin is part of the math-based currency group because miners verify transactions and create new blocks using complex mathematical equations.
Miners receive 25 new Litecoin for every block they mine. This amount is roughly halved approximately every four years.
Litecoin’s total cap is 84 million coins, which is four times the amount of Bitcoin.
Lee designed Litecoin to have the majority of coins mined in the first two decades. At the time of writing, there were more than 60 million Litecoin.
For What Do People Use Litecoin?
Essentially, Litecoin is another cryptocurrency for payments, and its primary goal is to transact payments without the involvement of a bank or any other intermediary.
When you compare Litecoin with Bitcoin, you will notice it uses similar technology as the latter but can perform transactions much faster.
The difference isn’t that obvious for those who don’t know about cryptocurrencies, so here are the details.
According to official sources of Litecoin, it takes only two-and-a-half minutes to “process a single block” compared with Bitcoin’s ten minutes.
This makes the currency four times quicker than Bitcoin. However, transactions in Litecoin might not be as secure as those in Bitcoins.
Moving on with uses and why people consider it, LTC is being sought by many as a long-term investment and not as a way to make transactions. The hope is that the new currency will have a higher value than the base one, even when the creator has mentioned several times that it was created to complement the original cryptocurrency and not be a substitute or competitor.
It is often called “Bitcoin’s little brother” because Lee stated that he wanted to make Litecoin the “silver” of Bitcoin’s “gold.”
However, many speculators are looking at Litecoin as a top currency because they believe it will create relative wealth.
Finally, you can buy some articles and products with the currency as long as you find merchants and businesses that accept it as payment.
What Is Better: Investing or Not?
You probably know from cryptocurrency news that Litecoin prices fluctuate wildly all the time, just like other coins.
It is only natural considering that the cryptocurrency market and industry are quite volatile and tricky to predict. One day you could be earning hundreds or thousands in investment while you could lose everything in one second.
What does this mean for cryptocurrency investors? They are taking the risk they are well aware of, and if you are up for the challenge, we don’t see why you wouldn’t invest in cryptos.
Now, if you are considering Litecoin in specific, we have our doubts due to how volatile it has been over the last few months. Although the coin stands at $171.73 while writing this, the price has changed quite a lot over the last four months.
If you decide to take the plunge and invest, we suggest you focus on Litecoin but mostly on diversifying your cryptocurrency portfolio.
However, if you are not willing to bet on it, try to search and invest time on options that look as profitable despite having to put more effort.
We believe that local lead generation is more cost-effective and profitable than trying your luck with cryptocurrencies.
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Although local lead generation takes longer than cryptos, it is safer.
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