All You Need to Know About Litecoin

Over the past few years, cryptocurrencies have dramatically changed the way people invest. It all started in 2009 with the launch of Bitcoin, the first crypto. Ever since, even with all the volatility, investors have not just continued to get richer, but it has also enabled substantial economic growth around the world.

Since the launch of Bitcoin, several hundred other cryptocurrencies have been created across the globe, Litecoin (LTC) being one of them. It is often referred to as the ‘silver’ against the ‘gold’ of Bitcoin.

So, whether you are wondering what makes Litecoin popular or thinking if investing in it will be the right decision for your crypto portfolio, here’s a look at everything about this altcoin.

What is Litecoin?

Litecoin is the world’s first altcoin, is a decentralized currency that was created to enable faster and almost zero-cost payments exchange between people and businesses around the world.

It is based on the same Blockchain technology and verification methodology as Bitcoin, but with some minor changes and adjustments for it to be accepted worldwide as a medium of conducting transactions.

It was launched in 2011 by Charles Lee, a former Google engineer as a lighter version of Bitcoin.

What are the features of Litecoin?

Since it was created as a complementary altcoin to Bitcoin, Litecoin adopts many of its features. Besides these common features, other important and notable features that make it a lighter version of Bitcoin include:

• Litecoin uses scrypt in its Proof-of-Work instead of SHA-256 used in Bitcoin. These algorithms are used to add new blocks to the blockchain, not just generate more hashes, but are also less susceptible to cyber-attacks.

• It produces a block every 2.5 minutes. This is much faster when compared to Bitcoin’s block creation of once every 10 minutes. Due to this, the transactions get confirmed four times faster.

What is Litecoin used for?

As a currency, albeit digital, Litecoin can be used in a variety of ways. For instance, individuals and businesses both can use Litecoin to transfer funds between accounts. It can also be used to purchase goods and services from businesses that accept crypto. All these transactions can be easily done without using the services of an intermediary such as a bank, payment processing service, or credit card issuing company.

How can you invest?

Being a digital currency, Litecoin cannot be purchased from a traditional broker. Instead, it can only be purchased either from one of the existing cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, GDAX, Bitifinex, etc., or online brokerage firms that trade in crypto.

Before you buy Litecoin, you need to obtain a digital wallet known as Litecoin Core that will help you store the currency. It can be easily installed on your desktop or smartphone and used to carry out transactions.

What is Litecoin’s market capitalization?

As of today, Litecoin ranks amongst one of the top ten cryptocurrencies in the world. Its capitalization, or the total dollar value of all the Litecoins created, was over $10 billion last year only to increase since then. You should know more about the latest capitalization values and also the conversion rates. It’s always better to use a credible platform where data about Litecoin and for other coins like Bitcoin to INR is real-time.

How many Litecoins are left?

Litecoin supply is capped at 84 million coins. This means that there will never be more than these Litecoins in circulation. As of November’21, there were 69 million Litcoins in the market. It is quite impressive that LTC has managed to stay as one of the most dominant cryptocurrencies across the globe despite the risk and volatility associated with digital currencies. Thanks to its amazing features, Litecoin will continue to be valued as a currency that more and more investors would like to deal in.