What is Litecoin ?

Litecoin was launched on October 9, 2011. Litecoin created by Charlie Lee, he was a former software engineer at Google. He wanted to create Litecoin because he wanted to learn about Bitcoin source code. Charlie Lee wanted Litecoin to be a digital silver. Whereas, Bitcoin is perceived as a digital gold.

Litecoin is a fork of Bitcoin with a few modifications. It has 4 times a greater number of coins than Bitcoin. Litecoin has a maximum supply of 84 million LTC. Litecoin has block confirmation time or time to finality of 2.5 minutes and it can process 56 transactions per second.

Litecoin uses Scrypt hashing algorithm proof-of-work to mine Litecoin. There are ASIC miners designed specifically to mine Litcoin. Dogecoin also use Scrypt for mining. This means people can mine both Litecoin and Dogecoin using the same equipment.

Litecoin and Bitcoin Comparison

Litecoin is an improvement version of Bitcoin.

Genesis Block

Bitcoin genesis block: January 9, 2009.

Litecoin genesis block: October 9, 2011.

Similarities

-Both coins have a max supply and scarcity. (Bitcoin 21 million and Litecoin 84 million).

-Both coins use proof-of-work for minting new coins.

-Both Bitcoin and Litecoin focus on decentralization.

-Both Bitcoin and Litecoin support the Lightning Network, a layer 2 solution to process transactions off chain.

Differences

Time to finality

Bitcoin: 10 minutes

Litecoin: 2.5 minutes.

Transactions per second.

Bitcoin: 7 TPS

Litecoin: 56 TPS

Bitcoin has a lot more developers than Litecoin

Bitcoin has a lot more developers than Litecoin. There are Bitcoin NFTs. There is Stacks blockchain, it enables smart contracts, DeFi, NFTs, and dApps for Bitcoins.

One of the factors that can increase Litecoin’s value is the number of developers and quality projects around Litecoin. This is something Litecoin lacks when compare to Bitcoin.

First Generation Blockchains By Fully Diluted Market Cap.

Bitcoin $609 billion.

XRP $61.26 billion.

Litecoin $6.928 billion.

Bitcoin Cash $4.84 billion.

Monero $2.91 billion.

Dash $617 million.

Zcash $617 million.

As of August 7, 2023.

Note: Smart Contract blockchains such as Ethereum and Solana are second generation blockchains.

Charlie Lee sold off his Litecoin.

Charlie Lee never reveals how many Litecoin he holds. But he revealed that he sold all of his Litecoin in 2017.

Charlie Lee sold all of his Litecoin holding on December 2017 during the 2017 bull market when the price of Litecoin was nearly $300. His estimate net worth is $300 million.  Most of his wealth comes from his Litecoin that he sold in 2017.

Litecoin is the third most valuable first generation blockchain after Bitcoin and XRP. It focuses on decentralization, uses for payment, and it has limited supply.