Litecoin. Is it the most successful Bitcoin fork?
Litecoin is an online currency that is a branch of Bitcoin. It differs by actual payments without commissions that are carried out around the world. Litecoin is also a payment network with the same cryptocurrency. It is completely decentralized and it is not controlled by any financial or public authorities.Main featuresLitecoin is a popular cryptocurrency, which became the first branch from Bitcoin. It was established in 2011. It is reduced as LTC on the exchange, and some miners call it “Light”. The creators present their development as “crypto-silver”.
In the first few years after the release on the market, the coin maintained a leading position. It was in one of the top three in terms of market capitalization. After ETH and Ripple appeared, the cryptocurrency fell to several positions, although it enters the TOP-10 rating by capitalization constantly. Due to the fact that Litecoin is the Bitcoin fork, this initially influenced the course of the first cryptocurrency. But every year the relationship between them is significantly reduced.In any case, while Bitcoin has not lost its positions and has not risen even more in price, you can buy it with a 10% discount.
A bit of history …
Charlie Lee created Litecoin in 2011. He is an ex-employee of Google Corp. He had set for himself the goal — to improve Bitcoin. Litecoin gained popularity very quickly, getting one of the top spots for capitalization.
Litecoin vs Bitcoin: differences
Let’s talk about the main features of Litecoin. The currency is distinguished by the high speed of the completed transactions in blockchain and the minimum commission fees. And of course the key difference between Litecoin and Bitcoin is the used algorithm. Although it is worth noting that the effectiveness of mining depends more on RAM in Litecoin, and not on the power, like the ВТС. Blocks with higher speed are generated in Litecoin. One block need about 2.5 minutes. In Bitcoin network this actually takes about 10 minutes. Part of the reason is that LTC has a simpler “verification”, since only two users confirmations sufficient for the transaction. Emission is also higher in contrast to Bitcoin. Users can mining 84 million coins.According to Charlie Lee estimates, about 60 million coins will be mined by 2020.
Benefits
Litecoin constantly introduces innovative developments. In addition to the speed of the conducted operations, the main advantages of this cryptocurrency are: less volatility due to not too much interest from the public, which allows LTC to remain stable. This is also affected by the lack of a tight binding to Bitcoin. We know who is a creator of Litecoin. And it is important for the cryptocurrency.
What awaits Litecoin in the future?
Litecoin was a testing ground in its own way, where introduction of new technologies were regularly conducted, which for a long time could not be applied in the Bitcoin network. For this reason, Litecoin uses the most advanced technologies like Segvit, Cross-platform atomic swaps, the Lightning network (micropayments / microtransactions).Charlie Lee’s thrown himself into his work. Therefore, we can confidently say that “cryptocurrency-silver” is waiting for a bright future.