About Litecoin (LTC)

As the name suggests, Litecoin (LTC) was developed to meet up Bitcoin’s shortcomings, like slow transaction speed, which in one way or another, frustrate merchants. The coin is a decentralized peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and an open-sourced software project released in October 2011 with a license from MIT/X11. Charlie Lee, a former Google engineer, created this cryptocurrency. Charlie, in an interview, pointed out that Bitcoin inspired him to develop Litecoin to meet Bitcoin’s shortcomings.

In Technical analysis, Litecoin runs in a slightly modified Bitcoin codebase. Why was the codebase modified to achieve lower transaction fees, faster transaction confirmation and faster mining difficulty retargeting? Because of Litecoin’s similarities with Bitcoin, it has been referred to as silver, while Bitcoin is referred to as Gold.

LTC offers privacy features such as MWEB (MimbleWimble extension block) through a soft fork. After Bitcoin, Litecoin is the oldest “altcoin” altcoins are names used to refer to any other cryptocurrency that is not Bitcoin. The coin can be mined using ASIC miners. The mining process follows the same route as Bitcoin mining, whereby a block within the blockchain stores transaction information; this block will be verified by the ASIC software and made visible to any miner who requests to see it.

Litecoin is created mainly for transaction purposes; merchants and individuals can use it to send and receive payment without involving any third party, like a bank. The Litecoin chain is designed for cheaper yet faster transaction processing and is highly trusted for daily uses. The coin can also be used to purchase or pay for services online in any store that accepts the coin; recently, several gaming sites added Litecoin as their acceptable cryptocurrency for deposit and withdrawal. Cryptocurrency investors can also invest and trade the coin for profit. Official Website: Litecoin.net.

How Does Litecoin Work?

Have you wondered how Litecoin works? Worry no more, as we will look at how it works. Like Bitcoin, Litecoin operates on an open-source, decentralized blockchain, meaning that any government authority does not control it. To differentiate the old and new transaction history, each coin node operator has a copy of every blockchain transaction. Miners are also employed to assist in processing new blockchain transactions by including them in newly mined blocks.

Litecoin supply

As of December 2022, Litecoin has recorded a hard cap of about eighty-four million Litecoin on its supply; this is about 4× that of Bitcoin supply during the same period.

Litecoin Orphaned Blocks

Orphaned blocks are created when two miners complete a node block simultaneously, and the Litecoin blockchain accepts both of the blocks but later rejects one. In Litecoin mining, orphaned Blocks are usually formed because the incident is not rare; it occurs almost daily. Also, another factor that can lead to this orphaned block creation is low block confirmation; when the chain delays in confirming the blocks, it will result in a large number of orphaned blocks. To tackle this ugly problem, Litecoin developers have to employ the Segregated witness (SegWit) protocol to tackle and reduce orphaned block production.

Scrypt Hashing Algorithm

One of the hashing algorithms that Litecoin runs on is known as the Scrypt hashing Algorithm. The reason why Litecoin developers adopt it is to stop ASIC miners from taking control of the mining system. ASIC mining is unsuitable compared to mining algorithms’ higher memory requirements, which now provide an opportunity for other miners, especially those that mine with CPU and GPU Technology.

With advances in technology, ASIC-based mining has been improved over the years. Recently, CPU and GPU-based miners no longer mine LTC because of the technology’s inferior computational abilities, and also, Asics produces more hashes per second.

Litecoin Atomic Swaps

The function of this protocol is to facilitate the exchange of LTC on different blockchains or even take care of cross-chain trading. Atomic swaps also add interoperability to the LTC blockchain.

Transaction speeds

LTC protocol operates at a higher speed than that of Bitcoin, the transaction speed of Litecoin is measured to be 54 TPS, a whitelist that of BTC is 5 TPS

Litecoin Scalability

The total mining time for each block is approximately two and a half minutes, which is faster than the ten minutes of generating a BTC block. LTC network achieves higher and higher blocking output.

Decentralization

LTC PoW consensus mechanism is powered with the help of Hashing Algorithm, which gives the network a less Barrier to entry, allowing more individuals or traders to participate in both the trading and mining process of LTC.

This contributes greatly to Litecoin network decentralization because mining power is no longer concentrated among the big fish in the industry who can afford the sophisticated and highly expensive mining equipment such as the Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miners.

Litecoin Price Today

In this section, we will look at the price of the coin and how to check the price at any given time. You don’t need an expert or consultant to check the Litecoin price USD or buy Litecoin any day, any time, as all the information you are looking for is scattered over the internet. Briefly, we will look at those factors that influence the price of Litecoin at a given interval.

Demand

Just like any other business, cryptocurrency trading also follows those fundamental Business laws, which means that if the demand for Litecoin is higher than the price of Litecoin, now this is just in the simplest form you should understand. If traders buy more Litecoin, they will notice that the price will increase drastically during that period. If you are holding this LTC, it is advisable you sell when the demand is higher because you will make more profit. And only buy when the demand is high.

Supply

Another factor that influences the value of Litecoin’s price today is the supply. If you take a close look at the Litecoin trading graph, you will notice that any time the supply of Litecoin is greater than that of demand, the Litecoin price falls below expectations. This means that when the supply is higher, investors don’t sell; rather, they buy off the excessive coin. Selling at this period will incur a loss for you, so be patient to hold.

Mass adoption

However, this factor doesn’t affect the price of the coin, but partially it does, even though so many crypto traders and investors have adopted LTC; this can be seen if you take a look at the all time high stock chart of this coin, you will notice that so many investors are holding the coin. If anything should happen and those investors decide to abandon the coin, it can also lead to the fluctuation of the price.

Where is Litecoin Used Now?

Nowadays, LTC is gaining more popularity than ever, and several vendors have decided to add it as their central tenders. Countries have also opted to adopt Litecoin as their legal cryptocurrency, including England, South Korea, Finland, Canada, and Australia. Some other countries like Iceland, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Thailand are still negative about adopting Litecoin. You can convert Litecoin to USD and use it to purchase the following gift cards: Amazon, DoorDash, Google Play, Sony PlayStation, Xbox, Uber Eats, and Uber. You will have to do this by using a third-party payment service. Some of the Enterprise that fully accepts the coin as a payment tender include:

• Travala: This company is an online travel and hotel booking agency that allows people to search and pay for hotel accommodations, flights, and other vacation services using a wide range of virtual currencies. Travala.com doesn’t only accept LTC but also other ranges of digital assets.
• Online Casinos: One of the new trends that hit online casinos is the use of another cryptocurrency aside from Bitcoin by players to fund their betting accounts. Litecoin is among the favorable virtual currencies used in online casinos.
• Remax: Remax is a well-known real estate management company; they also accept the coin as long as the total worth of the LTC is equivalent to the cost price of the item(s) to be purchased.

Who Created Litecoin?

Charlie Lee created Litecoin. Charlie Lee was born in Ivory Coast, and he relocated to the united states with his parents when he was 13 years old; he graduated from high school in 1995, and he continued his higher education at Massachusetts institute of technology, where he graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science in the year 2000.

Charlie Lee is best known as a Litecoin creator among cryptocurrency investors and traders. Currently, Charlie Lee acts as the managing director of the LTC Foundation. You might be surprised that Chalie Lee’s brother, Bobby C. Lee, is the founder and the owner of the popular cryptocurrency exchange BTC China. Charlie’s coin remains the oldest altcoin, and he is regarded as the most successful entrepreneur in the cryptocurrency Industry.

LTC has remained one of the top cryptocurrencies in this highly volatile crypto market, unlike other altcoins whose prices keep dangling daily. Under Chalie Lee’s leadership, he has maintained stability with his coin because many of the altcoins launched in late 2010 and early 2011 have disappeared. The coin was created and launched in October 2011, exactly two years after Bitcoin was launched.

How to Buy Litecoin (LTC)?

There are different ways traders or investors can buy or get LTC; those methods are what we will look at in this section. Here’s how to buy Litecoin on a crypto trading platform, and this direction applies to most, if not all, the crypto trading platforms.

1. Create an account: if you don’t have an account with any crypto trading platforms, it’s time you create one. It’s free to create and will not consume much of your time. Before choosing the trading platform to use, ensure that you have made the necessary inquiry about their services and also to know if they are functional in your region.
2. Do your KYC verification: For you to be able to buy the coin from any trading platform, you will be required to verify your identity by providing your official means of identification; it could be your passport, i.d cards, or any other means.
3. Choose how to buy your Litecoin: you will have to choose the method you want to use and buy the coin; some of those crypto trading platforms offer about three methods of buying. It could be through your visa or MasterCard payment, peer-to-peer trading, or even direct deposit from an external wallet.
4. Store your Litecoin: After buying the coin, you don’t need to open any other wallet to store it because that cryptocurrency trading account you open also serves as a wallet to store your cryptocurrency.

Mining

If you don’t want to buy the coin through the method, we explained above, you can get it by participating in their mining using ASIC software. However, it will take you some time to accumulate LTC through mining.

Crypto Swapping

Can you get LTC through swapping? This is how it is done. Some crypto exchange platforms offer software that you can use to convert another cryptocurrency to LTC and maintain the value of your initial cryptocurrency with little or no charge.

Is Litecoin Using Mining?

In a nutshell, mining is a process of creating new coins, as simple as it sounds. It is a process by which miners generate and release new cryptocurrency while verifying new transactions. Bitcoin and Altcoins use mining to generate new coins and verify new transactions. Mining also involves several decentralized groups of computers worldwide that do both the verification of new transactions and creating or securing of the blockchain, which stands as the virtual ledgers that record cryptocurrency transactions.

Those miners are rewarded with some new coins for contributing their processing power. This is another way crypto traders can get LTC or any other cryptocurrency. The mining process is a virtual circle where the miners maintain the blockchain, and the system rewards them with coins. The coin acts as an incentive for the miners to keep maintaining the blockchain.

How Litecoin mining works

Litecoin mining works in three different ways of obtaining Litecoin or other cryptocurrencies. There are some cryptocurrency trading platforms that can offer you a chance to mine BTC or any other Altcoins using their already established system and resources; they will also give you some new coins for allowing them to use your resources to maintain the blockchain chain.

The second method is to consider starting cryptocurrency mining yourself. However, it is virtually only possible to mine Bitcoin or Altcoins with a home base computer these days if you follow the number one procedure. The third method is to combine resources with other cryptocurrency investors to set up a mining farm.

Why Litecoin mining is very important

The following reason is why Litecoin mining is very important.

• LTC mining is necessary to maintain the blockchain.
• It is necessary to ensure the creation of new coins.
• Mining ensures that new Litecoin transactions are properly documented.
• Crypto traders can get a new coin or other altcoins when they participate in mining.
• Mining ensures the supply of Litecoin since new Litecoin can only be created through mining.

How to Safely Store Litecoin

Cryptocurrency is a very sensitive vault, and securing it Should be our biggest priority. Nowadays, cryptocurrency scams are all over the internet, and those fraud Syndicates are constantly looking for innocent crypto holders to prey on. So in this section, we will look at how you can safely store your coin.

Use a trusted cryptocurrency trading platform

Do your research; there are more than 20 cryptocurrency trading platforms that are secured and trusted that you can use to store your crypto. Before trading or buying the coin on any platform, those companies have caveated their name in the stone of time; check their review online to get a clue if you should go ahead or not. With this platform, you don’t need to create any other wallet, as your profile covers your wallet and trading account.

Use a secured crypto wallet

Crypto wallet is primarily developed for storing cryptocurrency, though some vendors can also offer buy and sell options; you will usually only see buy options. Don’t store your coin in a fraudulent e-wallet or wallet that is not secured. Most cryptocurrency wallets offer 2FA security with 12 special digits for account recovery. They don’t allow anyone to get access to your cryptocurrency wallet password or the 12 special-digit PIN.