What Is Litecoin? 5 Reasons Litecoin Should Be Your Crypto Of Choice In 2024

While Litecoin (LTC) is not the most popular asset and does not have Bitcoin’s (BTC) level of adoption, it is one of the world’s oldest cryptocurrencies. Specifically, Litecoin is the world’s third decentralized cryptocurrency after BTC and Namecoin (NMC). And, interestingly, both LTC and NMC forked from Bitcoin’s codebase.

What is Litecoin (LTC)

Litecoin is a cryptocurrency created from the Bitcoin network in response to developers’ concerns about network control. Essentially, Litecoin sought to extend decentralization so that large mining farms could not easily gain control or exert undue mining influence. Although this did not pan out as well as intended because miners adapted their hardware to increase capacity, Litecoin maintains its integrity as a global open-source network designed to process transactions faster than the Bitcoin blockchain.

5 Reasons to Choose Litecoin in 2024

There are several advantages to using Litecoin over many of today’s cryptocurrencies. The following are a few reasons to consider:

• Medium of Exchange: Since it is one of the oldest cryptocurrencies, Litecoin functions as a trusted medium of exchange. Merchants are willing to accept Litecoin in exchange for goods and services because it has stood the test of time despite its relative unpopularity. Litecoin also serves entertainment purposes and has found extensive use in online casinos. Although players can find Litecoin alternatives reviewed here, there are many Litecoin casinos with hundreds of exciting games, large bonuses, and simple interfaces to give players a great user experience.
• Low Fees: Fees on the Litecoin blockchain are very affordable and do not significantly reduce transaction value. This is an attractive feature, especially for platforms with models that require multiple microtransactions.
• Regulatory Leeway: Unlike many other major cryptocurrencies, Litecoin does not face the kind of scrutiny others struggle through. Despite its heavy similarity to Bitcoin, LTC users can enjoy buying, selling, exchanging, or hodling the asset without much concern for interference from authorities.
• Scrypt Algorithm: The Scrypt algorithm Litecoin employs ensures that the network remains decentralized by making mining accessible. Litecoin miners do not need expensive hardware to participate in mining. This is one reason block production and verification are fast on the Litecoin network.
• Liquidity: Litecoin’s history, age, and market cap all directly translate to healthy liquidity on the network. With a 24-hour transaction volume of over $650 million, according to CoinMarketCap data, Litecoin is a trusted network unlikely to suffer drastic price changes, market manipulation, and operational risks caused by low liquidity.

History of Litecoin (LTC)

Litecoin is one of the very first altcoins in the crypto market. Created by former Google engineer Charlie Lee, Litecoin launched in October 2011 as a nimble and quicker Bitcoin alternative. Forked from Bitcoin, the blockchain’s genesis block went live on October 7, 2011, and separated itself from Bitcoin with a few differences, even though it was largely similar. For instance, Litecoin has a much faster block generation time, at 2.5 minutes. This is significantly quicker than the 10 minutes users endure when trading Bitcoin. This speed resulted in rapid adoption among payment processors, merchants, and service providers.

In addition to faster block generation, Litecoin introduced Scrypt, a hashing algorithm different from Bitcoin’s. The aim was to simplify the LTC mining process so that more miners could use regular hardware instead of expensive specialized ASIC miners typical of Bitcoin mining. This process democratized LTC mining, making it more accessible to the general public and enhancing the blockchain’s decentralization.

In 2017, LTC became one of the first assets to integrate Segregated Witness (SegWit), an upgrade aimed at improving network scalability. However, in the same year, creator Charlie Lee sold his entire holdings and left the project citing a potential conflict of interest.

How Does Litecoin (LTC) Work

Like Bitcoin, Litecoin mining uses ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits) miners to create blocks. Participants, known as miners, view and verify each block before adding the block to the chain and receiving Litecoin rewards.

The Litecoin network launched with 150 pre-mined coins and a total supply of 84 million coins. Litecoin undergoes a halving event every four years, which reduces the number of LTC miners receive for block production by 50%. So far, Litecoin has had three halving events in 2015, 2019, and 2023. The next halving is expected in 2027, and will cut miner block rewards from 6.25 LTC to 3.125 LTC.

How Can I Trade Litecoin?

Litecoin is available on most cryptocurrency exchanges. Anyone can visit platforms like Binance, Kraken, or Coinbase to create an account and buy LTC with fiat or other cryptocurrencies, depending on the exchange’s supported pairs. Users can also consider using decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to purchase or hold Litecoin. However, buyers should note that the fiat option may not be available on a DEX.

Key Takeaways

• Litecoin is the third oldest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin and Namecoin.
• The asset was forked from the Bitcoin blockchain to reduce the chance of large miners holding the majority influence on the network.
• Litecoin is four times faster than Bitcoin and uses the Scrypt algorithm, which considerably democratizes mining.
• Despite its similarity to Bitcoin, Litecoin is less popular.