The Blockchain Handbook - Chapter 5: Litecoin (LTC)

"Global decentralized currency based on blockchain technology." That's the promise offered by Litecoin, the silver to bitcoin's gold. While it bears many similarities to bitcoin and was the result of a fork from the bitcoin core ledger in 2011, Litecoin does have some substantive differences, differences that many cryptocurrency enthusiasts see as improvements to the system that bitcoin originated. In addition to faster transaction times, Litecoin is more plentiful. While there's a total of 21 million bitcoin to be mined, Litecoin's max supply is four times that amount: 84,000,000 LTC.

Rapid growth has seen Litecoin jump to the fourth most valuable cryptocurrency spot, with a market cap of $12,167,206,106, 24-hour volume of $879,295,000, and a current value around $220.14, or 0.02107850 BTC. Though its all-time high came around December 2017, when the price reached $360.93 (an 8,200 percent increase when compared with the year before), the newfound interest in Litecoin has propelled it into the spotlight and has many wondering what the next steps and future uses for this cryptocurrency will be.

Litecoin: Competition, Pros and Cons

Litecoin is the brainchild of former Google engineer Charlie Lee, and one of the first forks of the bitcoin core platform. The goal was simple -- to take bitcoin, mimic the many positive qualities it possesses, then improve upon it in a few key areas. The most notable of these is speed. Litecoin is mined, similar to bitcoin, using specialized hardware with high processing power. The difference, though, is that Litecoin generates blocks every 2.5 minutes as opposed to bitcoin's 10 minutes.

This, in turn, improves transaction speeds, according to the developers. This may be a tremendous asset or a negligible issue, depending on perspective, as, for real world transactions, many merchants might allow for zero-confirmation purchases, making the transaction instant and waiting for network confirmation as it propagates.

But that's not the only way in which the two cryptocurrencies differ. There's the fact that Litecoin keeps hash power for mining more decentralized, or spread out across a greater network pool. Litecoin also uses the Scrypt algorithm as opposed to the SHA-256 algorithm bitcoin employs, which lightens the workload. When combined with the greater number of Litecoins, this makes the mining process less competitive. As a result, transaction fees with Litecoin are lower, and it costs less to send varying denominations of Litecoin.

Litecoin is supposedly immune to the kind of "flood attacks" that hampered bitcoin in 2015 because Lee made note of the drawback and patched Litecoin in a way that would deter potential attackers by making the cost of such spam attacks more than what they would gain. More details on this can be gleaned from Lee's 2015 interview with Cointelegraph, which leads to another interesting point. While bitcoin's pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto is a figure shrouded in myth, Charlie Lee is an accessible public face, often available for comment on his views of the cryptocurrency landscape.

He's readily available through his Twitter handle, @SatoshiLite, has made headlines for selling off his Litecoin holdings, was profiled in Coindesk, and even gave his thoughts on the recent surge in cryptocurrency popularity. He drew special attention to the fact that his belief that the sharp rise in prices might be hobbling many cryptocurrencies' real-world applications:

"Lee noted that the frenetic growth in cryptocurrency prices was also impeding their wider adoption as most people were using them as a speculative asset rather than using them to make real-world transactions."

Still, he believes Litecoin will eventually make waves as a good investment asset and that Litecoin futures may be a possibility in the years to come.

The Uses of Litecoin

Litecoin's primary use is for transactions with merchants who accept it. A list of such merchants is provided by Litecoin and varies from clothing to food to flights, with some featured outlets including pet supply store CryptoPet and jeweler All Things Luxury. The list of merchants is growing rapidly as Litecoin makes the integration process for businesses simple by maintaining full compatibility with the bitcoin API and touts the benefits of its faster transaction confirmations. Litecoin can also be bought and sold over various exchanges, functioning as a store of value in a similar vein to bitcoin.

The Future for Litecoin

As Litecoin becomes more mainstream, users can expect it to make strides in the pursuit of its original goal: becoming a transactional currency for purchasing goods. Litecoin News continually features updates on new merchants who have incorporated Litecoin as a method of payment, new partners for helping Litecoin see more widespread adoption, for example, Litepay, and new ways in which Litecoin can continue to expand its influence, such as the Litecoin Foundation.

There are challenges ahead, though, as a new rival has appeared in the form of Litecoin Cash. The announcement of Litecoin Cash caused Litecoin's value to slip, and while Charlie Lee asserts that such forks are scams aimed at bilking Litecoin users, the Litecoin Cash founders maintain they're a genuine article, out to increase block speeds even further than Litecoin is capable of. The fallout from this is yet to be seen, but could have far-reaching implications for Litecoin's future.

The Blockchain Handbook - Chapter 5: Litecoin (LTC)

Litecoin: Competition, Pros and Cons

The Uses of Litecoin

The Future for Litecoin

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