Litecoin (LTC) is a digital currency designed to enable fast, secure, and inexpensive transactions using blockchain technology.
After Bitcoin, Litecoin is the most talked about and commented coin on the internet.
The cryptocurrency was developed based on the Bitcoin (BTC) system, but differs in terms of the hashing algorithm, block transaction times, and fixed cap, among others. Litecoin is perfect for microtransactions and point-of-sale payments due to its block time of under 2.5 minutes and extremely low transaction fees.
Litecoin was released as an open source client on GitHub on October 7, 2011, and the Litecoin network went live on October 13, 2011. Within a short time of its launch, it was among the top 5 coins. Subsequently, its market capitalization placed it among the top 10 cryptocurrencies.
Charlie Lee, a former Google employee, envisioned Litecoin as a “lightweight version of Bitcoin” as it had many of the same features as Bitcoin but with a lighter weight.
Who founded Litecoin?
As previously reported, Charlie Lee, an early Bitcoin supporter and a highly respected figure in the cryptocurrency field, founded Litecoin.
Charlie Lee, also known as “Chocobo,” is a former Bitcoin miner, computer scientist, and Google software developer who uses the pseudonym “Chocobo.” He worked at Coinbase as Director of Engineering from 2015 to 2017 before moving on to other ventures.
Today, Charlie Lee is a passionate advocate of cryptocurrencies. He is also the Executive Director of the Litecoin Foundation, a non-profit organization that works with the Litecoin Core Development Team to advance Litecoin.
In addition to Lee, the Litecoin Foundation has three other accomplished individuals on its board, Xinxi Wang, Alan Austin and Zing Yang.
What are the curious features of Litecoin?
Litecoin is the second most popular pure cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. This success is primarily due to its simplicity and obvious usage benefits.
Litecoin is one of the most widely accepted cryptocurrencies, with more than 2,000 stores and retailers worldwide accepting LTC (as of January 2021).
Its main advantages are its speed and low cost. Litecoin transactions are usually completed within minutes and there are almost no transaction fees. This makes Litecoin an interesting alternative to Bitcoin in underdeveloped countries, where transaction costs can be a deciding factor in choosing which cryptocurrency to support.
In late 2020, Litecoin also released the MimbleWimble (MW) testnet, which will be used to test Litecoin’s Mimblewimble-based confidential transactions. Once this functionality is implemented on the mainnet, Litecoin users will also enjoy greatly enhanced privacy and tradability.
What is the Litecoin upgrade to Mimblewimble? Was it necessary?
On January 31, 2022, the Litecoin Foundation announced the long-awaited Mimblewimble Extension Block (MWEB) update as part of the Litecoin Core 0.21.2 Release Candidate. “It increases Litecoin’s scalability while improving tradability for all.” The MWEB onboarding functionality will allow Litecoin to become “the most convenient cash-like cryptocurrency in the space.” The Taproot upgrade, which improves security and privacy, will also be included in the base version.
What is the number of Litecoins in circulation?
As with most proof-of-work (POW) cryptocurrencies, the number of Litecoins in circulation is gradually increasing with each new mined block.
As of January 2021, 66.245 million LTC have been mined out of a maximum supply of 84 million. The Litecoin Foundation recently calculated that, given that the block reward halving scheme halves the amount of LTC mined in each block every four years, Litecoin will take more than 100 years (approximately 2140) to reach complete dilution.
On the first day after the LTC block was created, about 500,000 LTC were mined, and Charlie Lee and perhaps other early Litecoin developers were among the first miners.
However, because Litecoin is a massively distributed asset, neither Litecoin developers nor Charlie Lee derive any direct benefit from running Litecoin beyond what they can earn through the normal mining process.
In 2011, when Litecoin was traded on various marketplaces, its price reached $0.30. After a massive bull market in November and December 2013, Litecoin’s price reached $44.73. However, the bear market and the Mt. Gox hack caused Litecoin’s value to plummet in 2014 and remain between $2 and $4 for several years. In November and December 2017, the Litecoin price increased by almost 500% to $358.34 due to the bull market in the crypto market. Litecoin price reached an all-time high in May 2021 and last reached $386.45 on May 9, 2021 during the crypto bull market.
Curiosities about Litecoin’s security.
As a cryptocurrency built on the blockchain, Litecoin is protected by extremely robust cryptographic safeguards that make it nearly impossible to break into the system.
Like Bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies, Litecoin uses the PoW consensus mechanism to ensure fast and accurate confirmation of transactions. The collective power of the Litecoin mining network guarantees 100% network availability and prevents double donations and various other attacks.
How to buy Litecoin (LTC)?
Litecoin is one of the few cryptocurrencies that supports a wide range of fiat trading pairs. When you buy Litecoin, you can exchange it for US dollars (USD), Korean won (KRW), euros (EUR), and other currencies. Notable companies include Huobi Global, Binance, Coinbase Pro, OKEx, and Kraken.
Litecoin is one of the few cryptocurrencies that can be exchanged for various fiat currencies, including the US dollar (USD), Korean won (KRW), euro (EUR), and more.
If you want to keep reading: Discovering the Benefits of Tron (TRX) in the World of Crypto
