Litecoin is an early altcoin developed back in 2011. Like Bitcoin, it is an open-source global payment network that is decentralized. It was also called the silver to Bitcoin’s gold, as it ranked as the 3rd largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Since its structure is similar to Bitcoin, Litecoin was used as testing crypto for improvements that were later applied to BTC. It has a faster block generation rate and uses ‘Scrypt’ as a proof of work scheme. It also has lower transaction fees than Bitcoin and a completely different hashing algorithm.
The Rise of Litecoin
With over 350% rise last year, Bitcoin investors have been very enthusiastic about its position in the crypto market. Being the world’s largest cryptocurrency, BTC has always been at the top of the crypto market. This sentiment made crypto investors trade more on this crypto, allowing many other cryptocurrencies to reach a high growth potential under the radar. Litecoin was created as an alternate to Bitcoin, but it has shown significant growth potential in the market.
With the current market capitalization of US$11.05 billion according to Coinmarketcap.com, Litecoin is currently one of the top 10 most valuable cryptocurrencies in the market. It has an average daily trading volume of over 2 million coins. In the first few months of 2021, the crypto hit $236 but later slipped. Then, in March, Litecoin was accepted by PayPal, and in April, the crypto witnessed a massive hike of 63% in its profits in just fewer than three weeks.
Currently, it is one of the most widely accepted cryptocurrencies, with more than 2000 businesses and stores accepting LTC across the globe. Its main advantage lies in its speed and cost-effectiveness. The transactions are confirmed within minutes, and the transaction fees are nearly negligible. This has made Litecoin an attractive alternative to BTC in certain developing countries where the transaction fees might be the deciding factor on which cryptocurrency to support.
Litecoin Versus Bitcoin
Even though Litecoin was created as an alternative to Bitcoin, it has turned out to be one of its biggest rivals. Created to overcome the shortcomings of BTC, Litecoin enjoys several tactical advantages. It can be mined within 2.5 minutes, which is a very short period of time as compared to BTC, which takes approximately 10 minutes. Mining LTC is easier than Bitcoin, as it uses the ‘Scrypt’ algorithm as a proof of work scheme, whereas BTC uses SH-256, which requires higher processing power.
Liquidity is extremely crucial in the crypto market, given the extreme volatility of the market. Well, LTC investors are quite fortunate, as they will not have to worry about its liquidity. For reliability, Litecoin investors know that it is one of the oldest cryptocurrencies created as a ‘fork’ to Bitcoin, hence; it is also decentralized and open-sourced.
LTC has several other advantages, which makes it more appealing than Bitcoin. The current economic landscape has accelerated the growth of Litecoin over the years, but it still has a long way to go to beat BTC in terms of growth potential.
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