Litecoin

What is Litecoin? 

• The cryptocurrency was created based on the Bitcoin (BTC) protocol, but it differs in terms of the hashing algorithm used, hard cap, block transaction times and a few other factors. Litecoin has a block time of just 2.5 minutes and extremely low transaction fees, making it suitable for micro-transactions and point-of-sale payments.
• Litecoin was released via an open-source client on GitHub on Oct. 7, 2011, and the Litecoin Network went live five days later on Oct. 13, 2011. Since then, it has exploded in both usage and acceptance among merchants and has counted among the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization for most of its existence.
• Like most proof-of-work (POW) cryptocurrencies, the amount of Litecoin in circulation gradually increases with each newly mined block.
• As a blockchain-based cryptocurrency, Litecoin is secured by incredibly strong cryptographic defenses — making it practically impossible to crack.

Key Metrics

Ticker	LTC
Token Name	Litecoin
Token Type/Protocol	LTC
Total Token Supply	66,752,415 LTC
Current Circulating Supply	See Coinmarketcap
Market Capitalisation	See Coinmarketcap
Token Creation Date	2011
Can it be mined?	Yes

Who is behind Litecoin?

Litecoin was created in 2011 by Charlie Lee who was a former Google employee and became an engineering director at Coinbase. Four years later, he decided to focus solely on Litecoin.

Charlie Lee, known as “Chocobo,” is an early Bitcoin miner and computer scientist, who was a former software engineer for Google. In addition, Charlie Lee held the role of director of engineering at Coinbase between 2015 and 2017 before moving on to other ventures.

What is the purpose of Litecoin?

Lee initially aimed to create a lighter token than Bitcoin. LTC is a peer-to-peer token using public ledgers on the blockchain and is also open-source that can be leveraged with other projects.

Insights:

• Litecoin can also be mined just like Bitcoin as it uses the same consensus mechanism which is proof-of-work (POW). The difference is that Bitcoin uses SHA-256 while Litecoin uses Scrypt in its proof-of-work algorithm which provides faster processing power making the mining power of these two tokens largely different. 
• Litecoin can handle more transaction volume as it requires a shorter lead time to process a block than Bitcoin, reducing the double spending issue.
• Litecoin adopted the Segregated Witness (SegWit) to increase the block size limit on blockchain and lightning networks. Also, the cost of the transaction is almost zero and the payment is very quick, therefore, many more stores started accepting Litecoin.
• Miners are rewarded 12.5 LTC per block and Litecoin is also halved every four years just like Bitcoin.
• Litecoin Foundation, the organization who developed Litecoin, has announced a joint venture with a South Korean startup called MeconCash enabling users to withdraw Litecoin in won at more than 13,000 ATMs across South Korea. Litecoin is also available on MeconCash through M.Pay.

Risks:

• Even though Litecoin is different from Bitcoin in terms of its fast transaction process, there are many new tokens these days which can efficiently support more transactions and provide more utilities than Litecoin. Therefore, Litecoin should continuously develop its system, innovation, and new features to maintain the investor’s interest.
• Charlie has now sold all his Litecoin due to conflict of interest and to avoid such issues in the future. However, some investors may see that this might affect the token’s credibility.

News and Updates:

• Litecoin will be listed on the Exchange-traded Product (ETP) of Switzerland, a financial product that is publicly traded like a bond in the stock market similar to the equity and bonds. The company currently supports Bitcoin and Ethereum, while Litecoin will soon be available for institutional and retail investors across Europe. Litecoin will be listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the “LITE” product in which each unit is backed up with 0.20 LTC.
• Litecoin has launched MimbleWimble Testnet which is an alternative protocol for those who want a highly private currency or asset. Moreover, this protocol can be adapted to other crypto projects as well.

Community & Whitepaper Links:

Official Website: https://litecoin.org/
WhitePaper: https://whitepaper.io/document/683/litecoin-whitepaper

Disclaimer: 

All investment is speculative and involves substantial risk and uncertainty. Investors should understand the nature of digital assets including the terms of return and the risk of assets. We encourage investors to fully understand the assets and the risk associated with them prior to making any investment.