Litecoin (LTC) - the world's second cryptocurrency

If Bitcoin is considered "new gold" or "digital gold," then Litecoin we can choose silver without undue exaggeration. Cryptocurrency is a modification Bitcoin, created by the living legend of the cryptocurrency market, Charlie Lee, who - like the altcoin he created - has not yet said the last word.

We continue our cycle of cryptocurrency descriptions. This time we will take care of the younger brother Bitcoinwhich was the first modified version of the king of cryptocurrencies. How was it created, who created it, what has changed in relation to BTC? And what is it better at than the most famous and most important cryptocurrency in the world? We invite you to read.

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Who is Charlie Lee, twórca Litecoin?

Charlie Lee. Source: Wikipedia

Charlie Lee already as a graduate of the prestigious American university MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), where he successfully studied computer science, he started mining Bitcoin. He also worked for Google, handling the biggest projects of the technological giant: the Chrome browser and YouTube. However, he decided to create his own cryptocurrency, better and more functional than Bitcoin. In 2011, he managed to finish the Litecoin source code, although he tried with another project before, but it failed due to the low security level. So he decided to put more emphasis on this issue. He did not hide the fact that LTC is based on Bitcoin. However, it differs in the encryption algorithm. It is also more "slimmed", which was supposed to make the new cryptocurrency more tradable and cheaper to mine.

Today, Charlie Lee is chairman of the Litecoin Foundation and commentator on the cryptocurrency market followed by everyone involved in digital payments. In 2017, he announced that he had sold all the Litecoins he had to not be talked about manipulating the course. He did integrate cryptocurrencies with payment cards supported by banks.

How is Litecoin better than Bitcoin?

LTC has - like Bitcoin - public blockchainwhich is completely open to the public. Initially, it allowed for faster transactions than Bitcoin. However, thanks to the work of programmers and the implementation of the SegWit protocol, BTC quickly caught up with its younger brother in this respect. The still refined technology is a breakthrough Lightning Network, which will radically change the possibility of concluding a large number of transactions simultaneously outside the blockchain network while maintaining the current level of security, which must remain crucial if cryptocurrencies are to replace, at least in part, traditional currencies.

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Undoubtedly, LTC has a more modern hashing algorithm than BTC, which has a direct impact on halving, i.e. reducing the reward by half for digging subsequent blocks. At LTC, it takes place every 840 thousand. blocks, while in BTC already every 210 thousand. blocks.

The most important difference, however, are the transaction fees, which in Litecoin are up to 20 times lower compared to Bitcoin. In this case, the "thinning" of the code was the most reliable.

Ultimately, LTC will have 84 million units (BTC will eventually be 21 million). Almost 80 percent is already dug up, but the rate of extraction is not crazy. In 2019, the reward for the excavated block once again dropped, which is now 12,5 LTC.

Litecoin widely available

LTC can be traded on virtually anyone Cryptocurrency exchanges. For a long time it was also the second largest cryptocurrency in the world. However, it was overtaken by Ripple, then Ethereum and a few more news. As of December 06.12.2019, 2,8, Litecoin's capitalization still exceeds $ 1,7 billion, and the daily turnover is over $ 1 billion. Currently, the price of 44,97 LTC is $ 18. The record from December 2017, 375, however, will be difficult to break. Then you would have to pay almost $ XNUMX for one Litecoin.