While people tend to think about Bitcoin when speaking about cryptocurrencies, I decided to draw your attention to Litecoin. The digital token was created in 2011 by Charles Lee, an employee of Google. The main purpose was to establish an electronic money, which would solve the issues Bitcoin faced.

what is ltc

Litecoin allows you to send the e-cash to your friends over the internet, or buy something from online retailers accepting this payment method. Unlike fiat currencies, and like numerous other crypto tokens, LTC doesn’t have any central body.

It means no one manages it, while it cuts out the middleman. This makes it possible to make faster transactions, face lower fees, be totally anonymous. Besides, the blockchain used by Litecoin is publicly disclosed, which signifies that each transfer is recorded.

Litecoin vs Bitcoin

This is the most common question, I guess. At the first sign, all the crypto tokens are alike. In order to understand the main differences, it won’t be enough to read only one review, to tell the truth. So, I am here.

Below, I will reveal several ground diversities for you. Check the detailed description and make your own research. This article shows the main points of the differences between BTC and LTC only. Though, perhaps, you will find better conditions for you with another electronic coin.

Specifics of LTC

Though Litecoin is a clone of Bitcoin, it still has multiple differences with its original owner. The coin limit of LTC is 84 million, which is 4 times more than BTC. Yet, the second alternative is still the most popular and widely used variant. That is why, its market cap of $10 billion exceeds the opponent 19 times.

Using various algorithms (Litecoin alternative is Scrypt), the mean block time also reduces and shows 2.5 minutes. The father of digital currencies is only 2 years older than its container. Still, the younger generation moves firmly forward and takes the leading positions in the industry. Let us observe more differences in detail.

Mining

The action of mining is pretty wasteful. This causes a huge number of power wastage, which is not so good, in fact. Besides, the centralization of the fiat money is another major item, which must be considered. In order to overcome these issues, LTC uses Scrypt. I have already mentioned that algorithm above.

The calculations of this tool are much more serialized than the one used by Bitcoin. As a result, it is not possible to parallelize the calculations. To put it simple, BTC allows you to make two processes at the same time, which may lead to some errors. Here, you are to complete one action and then turn to another one.

Transaction Speed

I have already mentioned that in comparison with Bitcoin (10 minutes), the speed of LTC transactions (2.5 mins) is much higher. And in case this distinction is not so important for regular users who make several transfers, merchants will feel the privilege for sure. They usually transfer the coins a lot of times per day.

Along with this advantage, there is one more – miner rewards variance. As the time between operations is very small, more miners have a chance get miner rewards and mine their blocks. Though, some users say that there is also a downside in the form of orphaned blocks, which occur in the result of low time of block creation.

Atomic Swaps

A feature that makes Litecoin stand out for me is an atomic swap. This thing makes a possibility to exchange coins in cross-chain wit no involving a third party. Let us observe it as an example. Let us say you own 1 BTC and want to get 100 LTC instead. Before this innovation, you had to turn to the exchange house and pay some fees for the operation.

For this moment, the things are different. You simply find a person with the coins you want to obtain and swap your tokens with each other. That is how everything passes faster and simpler, without any unnecessary taxes and moves.

Litcoin’s Safety From Flood Attack

Spam transactions. That is what all users try to avoid. The system gets flooded, the blocks are filled up and the chain of blocks is clogged up. The founder of Litecoin explains its success in the following way. The token was attacked in a similar manner several years ago. Having analyzed the flaw in BTC, Lee patched it in its project.