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Coin Specs
All Currencies
LTC
LTC
Litecoin
$
102.82
Market Cap
$ 7.74B
Circ. Supply
LTC 75.33M
Volume (24h)
$ 706.57M
Daily Change
+18.53%
Weekly Change
-14.99%
Monthly Change
+15.16%
LTC/USD Chart
Type
COIN
Algorithm
Scrypt
Protocol
POW
Start Date
08/10/2011
Max Supply
84,000,000
Circ. Supply
75,330,414
Intro
Litecoin is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that was released by Charlie Lee, a former Google employee, on the 7th October 2011. As a fork of Bitcoin Core, Litecoin featured several improvements upon the original Bitcoin protocol including reduced blocktimes, decreased to 2.5 minutes instead of 10 minutes, increased total supply and a different proof of work algorithm (scrypt vs SHA-256). The Litecoin network is scheduled to produce 84 million currency units with a halving in reward every four years just like bitcoin.
The adoption of a faster blocktime meant that transactions were quicker to settle and be written into the blockchain, whilst the adoption of the memory intensive scrypt algorithm was intended to defeat the ASIC dominance of mining. However, due to the popularity of Litecoin, ASICs have been already developed and deployed that are able to mine the scrypt algorithm.
Often considered to be the silver to Bitcoinu2019s gold status, improvements and upgrades are often rolled out to the Litecoin network before they reach the Bitcoin network (such as the SegWit and Lightning Network upgrades). This practice has also led to some people derisively calling Litecoin the test-network for Bitcoin.
The adoption of a faster blocktime meant that transactions were quicker to settle and be written into the blockchain, whilst the adoption of the memory intensive scrypt algorithm was intended to defeat the ASIC dominance of mining. However, due to the popularity of Litecoin, ASICs have been already developed and deployed that are able to mine the scrypt algorithm.
Often considered to be the silver to Bitcoinu2019s gold status, improvements and upgrades are often rolled out to the Litecoin network before they reach the Bitcoin network (such as the SegWit and Lightning Network upgrades). This practice has also led to some people derisively calling Litecoin the test-network for Bitcoin.
Features
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Scrypt algorithm
The scrypt algorithm that Litecoin is using happens to be safer than the other hashing algorithms. In this case, the Scrypt provides for more efficient processing power unlike in the SHA-256 algorithm.
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Fast
The Litecoin blockchain is capable of handling higher transaction volume than its counterpart - Bitcoin. Due to more frequent block generation, the network supports more transactions without a need to modify the software in the future. As a result, merchants get faster confirmation times, while still having ability to wait for more confirmations when selling bigger ticket items.
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Decentralized access
Decentralized access allowing any party with the open-source software and internet access to send and receive Bitcoin irreversibly without third party interference or trust.
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No inflation
Litecoin is not subjected to inflation because there is a fixed maximum supply of 84 million litecoin.
*The indicators above, do not represent an investment advice and should not be treated as such. Please make your own research and risk assessment before exchanging your assets.