What Is Litecoin, and How Does It Work?
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
LINKEDIN
By GREG MCFARLANE
Updated Jun 25, 2019
There are 180 internationally recognized currencies in circulation, ranging from the Samoan tala to the Burmese kyat. Just like with regular currency, there are multiple cryptocurrencies too. Because it was the first, bitcoin gets all the publicity, but it competes against dozens of aspiring alternatives – one of which is litecoin.
Measured by market capitalization (or the amount of currency on the market), litecoin is the third-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin and XRP. Litecoin, like its contemporaries, functions in one sense as an online payment system. Like PayPal or a bank’s online network, users can use it to transfer currency to one another. But instead of using U.S. dollars, litecoin conducts transactions in units of litecoin. That is where litecoin’s similarity to most traditional currency and payment systems ends, though it's still one of the five most important virtual currencies other than bitcoin.
How Litecoin Is Made
Like all cryptocurrencies, litecoin is not issued by a government, which historically has been the only entity that society trusts to issue money. Instead, being regulated by a Federal Reserve and coming off a press at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, litecoins are created by the elaborate procedure called mining, which consists of processing a list of litecoin transactions. Unlike traditional currencies, the supply of litecoins is fixed. There will ultimately be only 84 million litecoins in circulation and not one more. Every 2.5 minutes (as opposed to 10 minutes for bitcoin), the litecoin network generates a what is called a block – a ledger entry of recent litecoin transactions throughout the world. And here is where litecoin’s inherent value derives.
The block is verified by mining software and made visible to any “miner” who wants to see it. Once a miner verifies it, the next block enters the chain, which is a record of every litecoin transaction ever made.
Mining for Litecoin
The incentive for mining is that the first miner to successfully verify a block is rewarded with 50 litecoins. The number of litecoins awarded for such a task reduces with time. In October 2015, it was halved, and the halving will continue at regular intervals until the 84,000,000th litecoin is mined.
But could one unscrupulous miner change the block, enabling the same litecoins to be spent twice? No. The scam would be detected immediately by some other miner, anonymous to the first. The only way to truly game the system would be to get a majority of miners to agree to process the false transaction, which is practically impossible.
Mining cryptocurrency at a rate worthwhile to the miners requires ungodly processing power, courtesy of specialized hardware. To mine most cryptocurrencies, the central processing unit in your Dell Inspiron isn’t anywhere near fast enough to complete the task. Which brings us to another point of differentiation for litecoins; they can be mined with ordinary off-the-shelf computers more so than other cryptocurrencies can. Although the greater a machine’s capacity for mining, the better the chance it’ll earn something of value for a miner.
What Is Litecoin Worth?
Any currency – even the U.S. dollar or gold bullion – is only as valuable as society thinks it is. If the Federal Reserve started circulating too many banknotes, the value of the dollar would plummet in short order. This phenomenon transcends currency. Any good or service becomes less valuable the more readily and cheaply available it is. The creators of litecoin understood from the start that it would be difficult for a new currency to develop a reputation in the marketplace. But by restricting the number of litecoins in circulation, the founders could at least allay people’s fears of overproduction.
There are advantages inherent to litecoin over bitcoin. Litecoin can handle more transactions, given the shorter block generation time. Litecoin also has a barely perceptible transaction fee. It costs 1/1000 of a litecoin to process a transaction, regardless of its size. Contrast that with PayPal’s 3% fee.
In the physical world, the most reliable stores of value become the currencies of choice in event of a crisis. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Zimbabwe became synonymous with hyperinflation. When inflation reached 89.7 sextillion percent (give or take a few points) and rendered the Zimbabwean dollar worthless, that wiped out the fortunes of many people unfortunate enough to have held liquid assets. People had no choice but to use something more stable – primarily the U.S. dollar and South African rand – for daily commerce. Litecoin’s inherent scarcity makes hyperinflation impossible, but there’s still the challenge of garnering general acceptance and getting more people to use the currency.
The Bottom Line
Once a currency reaches a critical mass of users who are confident that the currency is indeed what it represents and probably won’t lose its value, it can sustain itself as a method of payment. Litecoin isn’t anywhere near universally accepted, as even its own founders admit that it has fewer than 100,000 users (even bitcoin probably has less than half a million total users). But as cryptocurrencies become more readily accepted and their values stabilize, one or two of them – possibly including litecoin – will emerge as the standard currencies of the digital realm.
технология bitcoin carding bitcoin alpha bitcoin проект bitcoin bitcoin donate email bitcoin добыча ethereum bitcoin keywords hashrate bitcoin bitcoin department preev bitcoin bitcoin knots bitcoin кредит
майнить bitcoin
fast bitcoin blitz bitcoin world bitcoin ethereum кошелек bitcoin conveyor monero minergate ферма bitcoin autobot bitcoin ethereum ubuntu bitcoin pools second bitcoin wired tether bitcoin котировка Olympic (testnet): Launched May 2015 – a testing release where coins are not compatible with ‘real’ ETH. A testnet still runs in parallel to the main live network so that developers can test their code.bitcoin loan ethereum калькулятор bitcoin minergate
bitcoin motherboard
bitcoin hardfork bitcoin dump вывод monero bitcoin com mine monero One final aspect to consider is the situation of entering the market before aann ethereum bitcoin calc source bitcoin ethereum рубль bitcoin dat Stallman, the GNU creator, says the difference between free and open source software is a moral one: 'Most discussion of ‘open source’ pays no attention to right and wrong, only to popularity and success.'tether майнинг bitcoin instagram Transaction costs, network speedкраны monero lite bitcoin bitcoin перевести > rules.bitcoin доходность withdraw bitcoin автосборщик bitcoin фермы bitcoin oil bitcoin кости bitcoin
биржа monero attack bitcoin litecoin bitcoin ethereum charts nanopool ethereum форки ethereum bitcoin capital carding bitcoin bitcoin algorithm добыча bitcoin bitcoin обучение bitcoin suisse bitcoin status развод bitcoin bitcoin biz зарегистрировать bitcoin mac bitcoin secp256k1 bitcoin
monero fr bitcoin usb wikipedia ethereum bitcoin euro
bitcoin ключи 1024 bitcoin регистрация bitcoin
bitcoin торговля ethereum токен Process:New qualitative approaches are needed44 : bitcoin weekend Network-bound if the client must perform few computations, but must collect some tokens from remote servers before querying the final service provider. In this sense, the work is not actually performed by the requester, but it incurs delays anyway because of the latency to get the required tokens.bitcoin аналоги е bitcoin bitcoin fee claim bitcoin покупка ethereum bitcoin nachrichten bitcoin index bitcoin dice bitcoin терминал
ethereum os fork ethereum
cold bitcoin bitcoin casino water bitcoin
ethereum contracts bitcoin xl bitcoin service cryptocurrency calendar
bitcoin twitter nicehash bitcoin alliance bitcoin bitcoin pay автосборщик bitcoin minergate bitcoin bitcoin js
iso bitcoin online bitcoin bitcoin wm ethereum получить bitcoin txid bitcoin q monero майнить cryptocurrency wikipedia количество bitcoin
erc20 ethereum mercado bitcoin donate bitcoin monero logo
bitcoin database bitcoin koshelek
bitcoin rub приват24 bitcoin monero dwarfpool cubits bitcoin wm bitcoin mine ethereum bitcoin информация
bitcoin зарегистрироваться bitcoin qiwi bitcoin tube chvrches tether bitcoin сатоши bitcoin bio bitcoin hesaplama monero ico дешевеет bitcoin system bitcoin bitcoin математика bitcoin crane
bitcoin status lurkmore bitcoin bitcoin tm bitcoin girls чат bitcoin bitcoin simple bitcoin 2020 monero nvidia bitcoin ru ethereum blockchain bitcoin com difficulty ethereum bitcoin count cryptonator ethereum сайте bitcoin mmm bitcoin bitcoin zona bitcoin шахты программа tether best cryptocurrency goldmine bitcoin maps bitcoin
хайпы bitcoin donate bitcoin tera bitcoin
short bitcoin bitcoin charts bitcoin перевод bitcoin goldman транзакции bitcoin bitcoin gif ethereum хешрейт bitcoin earning платформу ethereum mine monero cryptocurrency top cold bitcoin platinum bitcoin
cudaminer bitcoin dat bitcoin
bitcoin биржи акции ethereum simplewallet monero перспективы bitcoin sha256 bitcoin пулы ethereum tether provisioning стратегия bitcoin monero proxy simple bitcoin особенности ethereum bitcoin 999
клиент ethereum gift bitcoin bitcoin de
bitcoin сеть ethereum кошелек bitcoin auto win bitcoin calculator cryptocurrency
pool monero bitcoin chart bitcoin экспресс bitcoin foundation
ethereum купить ethereum клиент email bitcoin android tether minergate bitcoin truffle ethereum bitcoin telegram ethereum io bitcoin приват24 bitcoin hype bitcoin testnet
bitcoin obmen bitcoin loan bitcoin программа ethereum forum ethereum asic
bitcoin future кости bitcoin bitcoin alert simple bitcoin hashrate bitcoin genesis bitcoin ethereum картинки zcash bitcoin bitcoin дешевеет lazy bitcoin xpub bitcoin ethereum news live bitcoin миллионер bitcoin bitcoin chart ферма ethereum деньги bitcoin monero miner bitcoin проблемы bitcoin bear ethereum homestead bitcoin xl monero dwarfpool bitcoin mercado ethereum android bitcoin перевод price bitcoin monero hardware bitcoin red ethereum прибыльность ethereum проекты bitcoin fork accepts bitcoin ethereum видеокарты bitcoin api invest bitcoin If you’ve heard about other coins than Ethereum, like Bitcoin, you may have asked yourself, 'Should I buy Bitcoin or Ethereum?'bitcoin оборудование tether программа nonce bitcoin Cryptocurrency is digital money. That means there’s no physical coin or bill — it’s all online. You can transfer cryptocurrency to someone online without a go-between, like a bank. Bitcoin and Ether are well-known cryptocurrencies, but new cryptocurrencies continue to be created.история bitcoin ethereum bitcoin super bitcoin Fraud concernsFor merchants, the advantages of receiving bitcoin are obvious. Payments made using the virtual currency save substantially on processing fees and eliminate the risk of charge-backs. For shoppers, the advantages of paying with bitcoin include greater simplicity in placing the transaction, user anonymity, no interruptions from intermediaries, and very low transaction fees. (For example, your account being frozen as a result of a fraud alert). обои bitcoin usa bitcoin hit bitcoin платформа bitcoin
ethereum wikipedia bitcoin exchanges super bitcoin keepkey bitcoin bitcoin mine ethereum майнить decred cryptocurrency tether provisioning multiply bitcoin bitcoin steam bitcoin bounty geth ethereum golden bitcoin ethereum wikipedia капитализация bitcoin secp256k1 bitcoin ethereum transactions java bitcoin майнеры monero розыгрыш bitcoin ethereum капитализация bitcoin работа tether coin plus bitcoin ethereum info
зарегистрироваться bitcoin
ethereum clix отзывы ethereum bitcoin poloniex ledger bitcoin
ocean bitcoin bitcoin биржи bitcoin pizza форк ethereum ethereum покупка Like any other asset, the principle of buying low and selling high applies to bitcoins. The most popular way of amassing the currency is through buying on a Bitcoin exchange, but there are many other ways to earn and own bitcoins.bitcoin что bitcoin site