Litecoin: Everything You Need to Know
If bitcoin is considered gold, then litecoin is the silver of cryptocurrencies. Litecoin builds on the same foundations as bitcoin and applies many of the same processes bitcoin applies. Despite the similarities, litecoin varies from bitcoin in several essential aspects. What is the difference between litecoin and bitcoin? In our article, you will learn everything you ever wanted to know about litecoin!
- What Is Litecoin?
- Bitcoin vs. Litecoin - What Are the Differences?
- Litecoin Mining - How to Extract Litecoin?
- How and Where to Buy Litecoin?
- How to Choose the Best Litecoin Wallet?
- What is the Future of Litecoin According to Karel Fillner?
- LTC and CZK – What Is the Rate and Price of Litecoin?
- Litecoin Future and News
What Is Litecoin?
Litecoin is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies today based on a peer-to-peer payment network designed for ultra-secure transactions. Like other cryptocurrencies, litecoin is a completely transparent tool based on a unique, decentralised database that can store and protect records of all financial transactions. In IT, this is often referred to as blockchain. The litecoin creator is a former Google employee, Charlie Lee, whose primary goal was to improve bitcoin. Hence litecoin was born as a slightly modified version of bitcoin. The litecoin unit is 1 LTC (Ł).
Bitcoin vs Litecoin – What Are the Differences?
Litecoin is essentially an improved bitcoin. Probably the biggest difference between these two currencies lies in the speed of transaction processing. This problem is closely related to the speed of new coin mining - while the mining of a new block containing all transaction information (which is necessary to confirm and thus execute the transaction) occurs every 10 minutes in the bitcoin network, in the Litecoin network it is on average every 2.5 minutes. It is for this reason that Litecoin transactions are up to 4 times faster, and therefore more suitable for regular payments.
Another advantage of litecoin is the lower transaction fees. In February 2019, the average transaction fee for Litecoin was 0.5 CZK, while Bitcoin's was 3.66 CZK. However, it is questionable how much transaction fees will bother us in the future, given the coming technological innovations such as the Lightning Network, which allow for fast and cheap payments.
Litecoin Mining – How to Extract Litecoin?
Mining litecoin without special hardware in the form of ASIC chips is almost certainly unprofitable for individuals today. Although Litecoin uses a different, simpler Scrypt algorithm for mining, it suffered the same fate as bitcoin - ASIC chips eventually managed to "dominate" Scrypt, which also lost its great advantage. Mining litecoins with GPUs stacked into a mining rig is still possible, but at the same time very disadvantageous.
If you are considering investing in ASIC chips, keep in mind that these devices are costly and because of the ever-increasing demand for mining, their purchase may be a great risk. If you are still determined to start LTC mining, focus on an ASIC device that calculates the Scrypt algorithm. A suitable choice is, for example, Bitmain's Antminers L3+ with 504 MH/s performance.
How and Where to Buy Litecoin?
You can buy litecoin in three different ways:
- On a stock exchange or in a currency exchange - Bitfinex, Kraken, Coinbase, BitPanda.
- In LTC automats - in the vending machine in our Alza.cz showroom you can buy LTC for CZK.
- Acquire a purchase in person - a Facebook group or internet discussion forums.
Various exchange offices and exchanges provide an online platform for exchanging LTC for most traditional (fiat) currencies (EUR, USD, GBP), but also for bitcoins and other virtual currencies. The prerequisite for purchase is an active litecoin wallet and registration requiring identity verification, where you usually need to provide a copy of your ID and any document with your address (such as an account statement).
How to buy litecoin on Coinbase - INSTRUCTIONS
The simplest and safest way to buy litecoin is to transact with bitcoin stock exchanges that support litecoin.
Here's how to buy litecoin through Coinbase exchange in a few steps:
- Sign up to create an account on Coinbase.
- Add your preferred form of payment (credit card, debit card, bank account).
- After verifying your payment method, you can start buying litecoin in the "Buy/Sell" category immediately.
- Select the required amount in LTC (litecoin).
- Confirm your purchase by clicking "Buy Litecoin."
Now your litecoins are safely stored and linked to your Coinbase account. If needed, you can also download the Coinbase e-wallet for Android or iOS to keep your litecoins available at all times.
How to Choose the Best Litecoin Wallet?
Like most alternative cryptocurrencies, litecoin is typically stored in a digital wallet environment (litecoin wallet). In the early days of development, their selection was very limited, but today litecoin is supported by most desktop, mobile and online wallets that you can easily install on your computer, phone or even browser. For an overview of the best litecoin wallets, visit coinsutra. If you don't want to bother too much with the selection, links to direct wallet downloads for every common operating system can be found on litecoin.com.
Do you always want to keep your litecoins in the most secure environment possible? Get a special hardware wallet. It is the most trusted and secure way to store cryptocurrencies. You always connect the hardware device that holds your private keys to your computer with a USB cable, which keeps your litecoins or other cryptocurrencies safe and immune to computer viruses and hacker attacks.
Litecoin is criticised by some for not really bringing anything more than bitcoin in terms of speed. But it is the similarity to bitcoin that I think is the advantage that will help both currencies to create a "strategic partnership", in the future, as Charlie Lee mentions in his vision from last January. The good timing of Segwit's implementation (Litecoin introduced it before Bitcoin), together with the intensive development and testing of other technological improvements (Lightning Network, Atomic Swap, Confidential Transaction) is certainly a sign, not only for me, that Litecoin is on the right track to establish and maintain its privileged position among payment coins in the long term. And this will soon be reflected in its price, which I still consider very undervalued despite the recent increase.
LTC and CZK – What Is the Rate and Price of Litecoin?
After the big cryptocurrency boom at the end of 2017, when the litecoin exchange rate climbed to $360, litecoin is in a correction. In February 2019, its price is in the $30-38 range. The market capitalization of litecoin is