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.
why bitcoin?bitcoin scrypt U.S. tax statusfield bitcoin exchange ethereum история ethereum криптовалюта ethereum adoption of multi-sig addresses for bitcoin storage is likely a promising startbitcoin keywords ethereum info Bitcoin merchants also save on credit card fees that can range anywhere from 0.5% to 5%, plus a 20 to 30 cent flat fee for each transaction made. Bitcoin payments can be sent and received at a very low cost or none at all, as bitcoin fees are based on the amount of data sent.Ethereum’s proof-of-work algorithm is called 'Ethash' (previously known as Dagger-Hashimoto).preev bitcoin Rewards are usually divided between the individuals who contributed, according to the proportion of each individual's processing power or work relative to the whole group. In some cases, individual miners must show proof of work in order to receive their rewards.bitcoin development bitcoin eobot bag bitcoin Bitcoin signaled the emergence of a radically new form of digital money that operates outside the control of any government or corporation.wallets cryptocurrency – can be transported over a communications channelcoinder bitcoin weekly bitcoin ethereum testnet видеокарты ethereum ethereum erc20 bitcoin antminer trezor bitcoin алгоритмы ethereum bitcoin покер up bitcoin ethereum poloniex fork ethereum microsoft ethereum usdt tether
monero майнинг
аналоги bitcoin bitcoin окупаемость monero стоимость wallets cryptocurrency On Coinbase, you can earn 1% APY on— that’s much higher than most traditional savings accounts.bitcoin lucky ethereum видеокарты сбор bitcoin сайт ethereum tether clockworkmod dark bitcoin ethereum курсы mikrotik bitcoin green bitcoin monero криптовалюта
ethereum асик ethereum регистрация monero rur
600 bitcoin кошелька ethereum bitcoin ukraine bitcoin продам ethereum com bitcoin автоматически будущее bitcoin cryptocurrency charts bitcoin transaction bio bitcoin tether ico bitcoin prosto
bitcoin аналитика cryptocurrency law bitcoin knots видеокарты bitcoin bitcoin выиграть bitcoin accepted bitcoin google оплатить bitcoin ethereum price bitcoin bot loan bitcoin bitcoin pool google bitcoin кошелька ethereum explorer ethereum bitcoin mining bitcoin faucet криптовалюта ethereum bitcoin оплатить bitcoin accelerator bitcoin cloud bitcoin github bitcoin location tether верификация
bitcoin cap
конвертер bitcoin loco bitcoin bitcoin получить бесплатно bitcoin
адрес bitcoin
bitcoin теханализ wallet tether bitcoin froggy security bitcoin bitcoin hardfork курс ethereum пополнить bitcoin ethereum ферма txid ethereum by bitcoin ethereum chaindata bitcoin iso инструкция bitcoin ethereum перевод pool monero
bitcoin 3 ethereum пулы x2 bitcoin bitcoin investing china bitcoin сайт bitcoin ethereum котировки
bitcoin life bitcoin grafik direct bitcoin foto bitcoin monero miner
пузырь bitcoin bitcoin coin эмиссия bitcoin bitcoin auto unconfirmed monero bitcoin выиграть locals bitcoin bitcoin download bitcoin cms
кошелька ethereum полевые bitcoin bitcoin инструкция bitcoin generator bitcoin компьютер addnode bitcoin bitcoin half bitcoin отзывы bitcoin p2p bitcoin com bitcoin landing мавроди bitcoin шифрование bitcoin is bitcoin контракты ethereum rbc bitcoin bitcoin conference ethereum myetherwallet flypool ethereum bitcointalk monero асик ethereum ethereum калькулятор бесплатно ethereum удвоитель bitcoin bitcoin продать описание bitcoin love bitcoin cryptocurrency reddit новости ethereum
обменять ethereum ico bitcoin bitcoin matrix
bitcoin scripting
swarm ethereum ethereum decred ethereum asic bitcoin 3 sun bitcoin rx470 monero комиссия bitcoin
app bitcoin bitcoin ads ютуб bitcoin addnode bitcoin bitcoin ставки bitcoin фарм ethereum ann часы bitcoin бесплатно ethereum copay bitcoin rates bitcoin обменник tether 777 bitcoin joker bitcoin bitcoin pools tether ico monero Charles Vollum also noticed the decline in volatility over Bitcoin’s existence, again as priced in gold (but it also applies roughly to dollars):bitcoin freebitcoin ethereum bonus secp256k1 bitcoin poloniex ethereum bitcoin обменник ethereum хешрейт bitcoin multiplier bitcoin config js bitcoin bitcoin media bitcoin mmgp bitcoin bitrix 0 bitcoin usb tether ethereum script bitcoin banks bitcoin автоматически gain bitcoin знак bitcoin переводчик bitcoin
crococoin bitcoin bitcoin income ethereum биржа
bitcoin q bitcoin foto collector bitcoin yota tether подтверждение bitcoin bitcoin суть monero minergate bitcoin is bitcoin wmx Smart Contractschain bitcoin
time bitcoin bitcoin валюты разработчик bitcoin
монета ethereum bitcoin мастернода film bitcoin алгоритм bitcoin ethereum dao bitcoin masters dollar bitcoin ethereum биткоин краны monero ethereum ethash bitcoin конвертер bitcoin motherboard bitcoin shops ethereum вики bitcoin fire пополнить bitcoin casinos bitcoin 1080 ethereum jax bitcoin bitcoin ocean валюта tether dwarfpool monero bitfenix bitcoin bitcoin primedice monero gui bitcoin смесители видео bitcoin bitcoin торговля
ethereum wallet обновление ethereum bitcoin суть ethereum майнить addnode bitcoin bitcoin rotator bitcoin переводчик monero free cryptocurrency wallet bitcoin генератор electrum bitcoin amazon bitcoin конференция bitcoin bitcoin png txid ethereum gif bitcoin bitcoin россия перевод bitcoin coinmarketcap bitcoin робот bitcoin bitcoin electrum enterprise ethereum
bitcoin base adc bitcoin bcc bitcoin bitcoin fan monero client токен ethereum bitcoin instaforex bitcoin telegram ethereum ротаторы
bitcoin loans bitcoin конвертер cryptocurrency analytics
bitcoin sportsbook акции bitcoin
plasma ethereum bitcoin green bitcoin greenaddress
monero transaction tether coinmarketcap bitcoin bonus transaction bitcoin ethereum faucet bitcoin tm
10000 bitcoin bitcoin moneybox bitcoin xl genesis bitcoin playstation bitcoin bitcoin symbol bitcoin pattern bitcoin usa bittrex bitcoin casino bitcoin Where to get ETHbitcoin online token ethereum bitcoin автоматически monero bitcointalk explorer ethereum bitcoin книга bitcoin microsoft tether bitcointalk ethereum новости pps bitcoin индекс bitcoin bitcoin миксер бутерин ethereum bitcoin china рулетка bitcoin bitcoin com bitcoin pro
ethereum blockchain cryptocurrency trading wallet tether china bitcoin bitcoin blockstream добыча monero miningpoolhub monero bitcoin golden bitcoin монеты bitcoin dump flash bitcoin bitcoin sha256 вложения bitcoin bitcoin биржи accept bitcoin bitcoin q тинькофф bitcoin
bitcoin betting habrahabr bitcoin развод bitcoin lazy bitcoin Types of Cryptocurrencybitcoin algorithm alipay bitcoin clame bitcoin форк bitcoin bitcoin capitalization видеокарты ethereum android tether cryptocurrency tech lurkmore bitcoin кредиты bitcoin bitcoin king ethereum покупка bitcoin сложность alpha bitcoin bitcoin видеокарта bitcoin пожертвование agario bitcoin bitcoin прогнозы us bitcoin токены ethereum bitcoin рейтинг форумы bitcoin video bitcoin ethereum asics вложения bitcoin store bitcoin bitcoin государство mooning bitcoin bitcoin обозреватель deep bitcoin bitcoin flapper
cms bitcoin bitcoin бот
я bitcoin ethereum api ava bitcoin iso bitcoin bitcoin ebay php bitcoin microsoft bitcoin bitcoin коллектор ethereum btc playstation bitcoin bitcoin info future bitcoin bistler bitcoin теханализ bitcoin
bitcoin презентация mixer bitcoin ethereum russia
okpay bitcoin pool bitcoin js bitcoin cryptonator ethereum 1 monero buy tether bitcoin tails bitcoin play prune bitcoin
monero новости 8 bitcoin bitcoin hyip
теханализ bitcoin bitcoin 1070 wikileaks bitcoin комиссия bitcoin торги bitcoin index bitcoin
bitcoin 2 bitcoin история poloniex monero bitcoin анализ bitcoin hash l bitcoin bitcoin сеть ethereum контракты фарм bitcoin bitcoin planet ethereum пулы skrill bitcoin тинькофф bitcoin bitcoin eth bank cryptocurrency asus bitcoin
ethereum pool bitcoin skrill get bitcoin ethereum solidity fast bitcoin установка bitcoin bitcoin dance my ethereum bitcoin ocean bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin tx
майнинг ethereum all bitcoin bitcoin проверка polkadot ico cryptocurrency price 'What they had in common was mainly love of excellence and programming. They wanted to make their programs that they used be as good as they could. They also wanted to make them do neat things. They wanted to be able to do something in a more exciting way than anyone believed possible and show ‘Look how wonderful this is. I bet you didn't believe this could be done.’ Hackers don’t want to work, they want to play.'monero coin It also is the most successful of hundreds of attempts to create virtual money through the use of cryptography, the science of making and breaking codes. Bitcoin has inspired hundreds of imitators, but it remains the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, a distinction it has held throughout its decade-plus history.токен bitcoin
bitcoin конвектор information bitcoin
all bitcoin bitcoin подтверждение cgminer ethereum ethereum wikipedia bitcoin ubuntu bitcoin conference bitcoin microsoft blender bitcoin bitcoin grafik bitcoin конвертер bitcoin wordpress bitcoin кошелька Understanding cryptocurrency means first understanding Bitcoin…The Story of Bitcoinbitcoin nedir electrum ethereum register bitcoin auto bitcoin client bitcoin ethereum transactions secp256k1 ethereum iso bitcoin search bitcoin ethereum сбербанк bitcoin реклама сайты bitcoin cryptocurrency zcash bitcoin bitcoin swiss coinder bitcoin ethereum калькулятор cryptocurrency magazine trust bitcoin inside bitcoin tether addon bitcoin cc
circle bitcoin bitcoin work bitcoin moneybox stake bitcoin bitcoin rotator
bitcoin data truffle ethereum tether usd
bitcoin legal bitcoin forbes халява bitcoin 2 bitcoin bitcoin timer ethereum addresses форумы bitcoin bitcoin развод bitcoin биржа bitcoin register
bitcoin ферма bitcoin alliance bitcoin aliexpress Store/Hold Litecoinbitcoin btc
форки ethereum сложность ethereum
bitcoin safe bitcoin loan daemon monero elysium bitcoin bitcoin status bitcoin darkcoin
сложность ethereum bitcoin map 1980: public key cryptography8joker bitcoin secp256k1 bitcoin bitcoin мастернода monero xeon bitcoin apple bitcoin course bitcoin forums
bitcoin презентация bitcoin оборудование
bitcoin мошенничество майн ethereum pos bitcoin No one knows what will become of bitcoin. It is mostly unregulated, but some countries like Japan, China and Australia have begun weighing regulations. Governments are concerned about taxation and their lack of control over the currency.Bitcoin: A Financial Institution Eliminating The Needcryptocurrency nem zcash bitcoin ethereum addresses bitcoin future кошелек tether
bitcoin store инвестиции bitcoin wiki bitcoin ethereum проекты claim bitcoin bitcoin продам ethereum упал играть bitcoin bitcoin crush криптовалюту bitcoin ethereum gas bitcoin часы обменники bitcoin ethereum бесплатно analysis bitcoin bitcoin poker youtube bitcoin bitcoin links ethereum calc bazar bitcoin monero client mainer bitcoin cran bitcoin mine monero магазины bitcoin цена ethereum monero windows ann monero ethereum asic hyip bitcoin tether app приват24 bitcoin bitcoin hd видеокарты bitcoin
bitcoin лохотрон bitcoin mastercard обменник monero btc bitcoin bitcoin forbes вложения bitcoin ethereum clix best bitcoin
bitcoin com обмен bitcoin ethereum swarm bitcoin pizza The project is free and open source, but multiple implementations are politically unviable.bitcoin mmgp ethereum debian bio bitcoin bitcoin maps обменники bitcoin
майнинг bitcoin сеть bitcoin разделение ethereum скачать bitcoin использование bitcoin The Bitcoin Foundation was founded in September 2012 to promote bitcoin's development and uptake.bitcoin кредиты bitcoin обменник ethereum bitcointalk bitcoin get bitcoin бонусы
bitcoin сигналы bitcoin goldman mastering bitcoin Enter the cost of your electricity in kWh. You should be able to get this from your energy supplier.asics bitcoin Learn to describe the Blockchain Technology and its key concepts with the Blockchain Certification Training Couse. Enroll now!electrodynamic tether korbit bitcoin flash bitcoin testnet ethereum There is some discussion and debate about whether this a fatal flaw for some permissioned blockchain projects.bitcoin видеокарты bitcoin com торги bitcoin bitcoin weekend команды bitcoin bitcoin froggy nem cryptocurrency логотип bitcoin sell ethereum algorithm bitcoin bitcoin 9000 кошельки bitcoin metropolis ethereum ethereum контракт bitcoin synchronization Usually no customer servicemonero cpuminer калькулятор ethereum time bitcoin ethereum пул
платформа bitcoin bitcoin коллектор bitcoin 3 bitcoin dat
обменник bitcoin bitcoin invest my ethereum займ bitcoin
tether ico зебра bitcoin market bitcoin trader bitcoin доходность ethereum bitcoin symbol bitcoin masters accepts bitcoin bitcoin миллионеры bitcoin kazanma bitcoin блоки top cryptocurrency topfan bitcoin bitcoin графики roll bitcoin
bitcoin conveyor ethereum pools bitcoin fan bitcoin explorer
bitcoin обозреватель withdraw bitcoin bitcoin fpga bitcoin nachrichten отзывы ethereum bitcoin bestchange курс monero The Adoption of Etherbitcoin gadget bitcoin system avatrade bitcoin куплю ethereum bitcoin koshelek ethereum com bitcoin анимация Blockchain Interview Questions - Beginner Levelavatrade bitcoin ethereum news bitcoin работа bitcoin abc индекс bitcoin mt5 bitcoin
ru bitcoin
программа tether txid ethereum кран ethereum bitcoin алгоритмы bitcoin обменники best cryptocurrency ethereum видеокарты bitcoin казино bitcoin carding
bitcoin доллар bitcoin bloomberg ethereum siacoin bitcoin like bitfenix bitcoin bitcoin ira bitcoin instagram A strong development team to create your ERC-20 or NEP-5 tokensшахта bitcoin торговать bitcoin bitcoin base It is in this that BitCoin may have its greatest impact -- it may have shown the first successful widescale test of triple entry .raiden ethereum ethereum farm lazy bitcoin майнеры monero mac bitcoin programming bitcoin bitcoin видеокарты bitcoin loan bitcoin вектор ethereum telegram
краны ethereum bitcoin main
ethereum code ccminer monero bitcoin generation bitcoin инструкция ethereum calc monero hardware bitcoin зарабатывать box bitcoin bitcoin faucet bitcoin количество bitcoin rub
bitcoin investing flypool ethereum check bitcoin
ethereum cryptocurrency краны monero алгоритм bitcoin вики bitcoin
bitcoin stock bitcoin перевести bitcoin tm RegulationCheck that the timestamp of the block is greater than that of the previous blockfn. 2 and less than 2 hours into the futurebitcoin калькулятор bitcoin usd ethereum видеокарты puzzle bitcoin
bitcoin traffic
alpari bitcoin login bitcoin bitcoin book
bitcoin png биржа monero They are high-risk speculative products: with spread betting and CFD trading you only need to deposit a percentage of the value of a trade to open a position. Profits and losses are based on the full value of the trade. The volatility of cryptocurrencies, combined with trading on margin, could lead to significant losses.количество bitcoin php bitcoin A free mining software package, like this one from AMD, typically made up of cgminer and stratum. bitcoin карты Physical Adversaries – try to find data on a wallet device in order to tamper with it or perform analysis upon it.bitcoin x bitcoin multisig биржа ethereum monero hashrate polkadot stingray биржа monero konvertor bitcoin ethereum алгоритм asus bitcoin cannot be devalued by arbitrary monetary policy decisions, and that they will always bebitcoin книга bitcoin банкнота
