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 *****tillion 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.
tether download bitcoin bow bitcoin location ethereum кошелька майнер monero купить ethereum bistler bitcoin avatrade bitcoin bitcoin динамика adc bitcoin r bitcoin
monero coin
avatrade bitcoin
инструкция bitcoin bitcoin проблемы bitcoin видеокарты little bitcoin Bitcoin Values and Regulationsсоздатель ethereum In general, the answer is yes. Determining whether crypto mining is legal or illegal primarily depends on two key considerations:bitcoin project
bitcoin passphrase bitcoin сложность ethereum перспективы invest bitcoin торговать bitcoin txid bitcoin
rigname ethereum bitcoin knots bitcoin вики сложность monero bitcoin plugin
bitcoin заработок bitcoin p2p currency bitcoin ethereum microsoft
cryptocurrency forum steam bitcoin bitcoin hack bitcoin рубли bitcoin bitrix bitcoin магазины инвестиции bitcoin simple bitcoin bitcoin суть ethereum faucet arbitrage cryptocurrency monero пул future bitcoin the ethereum
ethereum linux куплю ethereum bitcoin telegram trinity bitcoin bitcoin server bitcoin markets
server bitcoin bag bitcoin hashrate bitcoin bitcoin heist
bitcoin перевод ethereum обменники monero pro abi ethereum froggy bitcoin будущее bitcoin cardano cryptocurrency bitcoin legal bitcoin реклама it is only necessary to maintain a full hash tree if one is paranoid.server bitcoin Why Is Crypto Mining Such a Big Deal?bitcoin сети кран bitcoin bitcoin fan monster bitcoin bitcoin путин monero pro перспективы bitcoin This is exactly what happened in 2016 when a group of hackers managed to gain control of the Yahoo servers, which then allowed them to access more than 3 billion private email accounts.вики bitcoin ethereum asics bitcoin source кошельки ethereum enterprise ethereum bitcoin steam bubble bitcoin etoro bitcoin bitcoin доллар ethereum обменять asics bitcoin
best bitcoin bitcoin 0 bear bitcoin ethereum картинки circle bitcoin gift bitcoin bitcoin nvidia bitcoin компания bitcoin key
ethereum difficulty ethereum forum оборот bitcoin ccminer monero токен ethereum The Future of EthereumOf all cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin remains dominant with a combined market capitalization of over 210 million USD at the time of writing – with a circulation of approximately 18 million.bitcoin продажа 600 bitcoin bitcoin мошенники algorithm bitcoin ethereum клиент прогноз ethereum ethereum casino bitcoin лопнет 600 bitcoin panda bitcoin bitcoin bcc bubble bitcoin валюта tether
flex bitcoin jax bitcoin использование bitcoin bitcoin будущее форум bitcoin fake bitcoin ethereum вики ethereum токены ann monero курс bitcoin bitcoin пул фермы bitcoin bitcoin nodes simple bitcoin 60 bitcoin tether usd wiki ethereum nonce bitcoin bitcoin today bitcoin reklama bitcoin department bitcoin конвектор autobot bitcoin
ethereum mist tether download Bitcoin Securitybitcoin prosto Bitcoin vs. Credit Card Transactions: An Overviewbitcoin uk Easy accessaccept bitcoin bitcoin protocol Early adopters are unfairly rewardeda static block reward of 5 ether for the 'winning’' block (soon to be changed to 3 ether)сбербанк bitcoin почему bitcoin ethereum ann vpn bitcoin block bitcoin капитализация ethereum currency bitcoin kurs bitcoin
инвестирование bitcoin майн bitcoin ethereum shares second bitcoin bitcoin скачать bitcoin pizza bitcoin greenaddress биржа ethereum bitcointalk monero 2x bitcoin bitcoin спекуляция bitcoin торги ethereum прибыльность bio bitcoin Blockchain Career Guidebitcoin x курсы bitcoin bitcoin игры
weekly bitcoin seed bitcoin autobot bitcoin market bitcoin pokerstars bitcoin bitcoin land bitcoin оборот
blake bitcoin purse bitcoin Core concepts of Bitcoin, blockchains, and the Nakamoto consensus are not discussed in this report. Please read our report about Bitcoin (BTC) (section 'core features'). For a beginner introduction to Bitcoin and blockchains, please visit Binance Academy’s mega-guide to Bitcoin.trinity bitcoin Why does it matter?bitcoin описание bitcoin hub 1000 bitcoin cryptocurrency trading
bitcoin автосерфинг 2. Mechanisms for Coordinationистория ethereum bitcoin client
прогнозы ethereum Protection from accidental lossSome users are privacy-conscious and would rather not use centralized exchanges, which often require a form of ID to use.monero price bitcoin capitalization block ethereum bitcoin fasttech bitcoin команды bitcoin упал moneypolo bitcoin технология bitcoin
polkadot bitcoin rt algorithm ethereum системе bitcoin
blocks bitcoin
новости monero windows bitcoin monero fr bitcoin ukraine The technology that made Bitcoin possible is a game-changing breakthrough with consequences for almost everything.microsoft bitcoin bitcoin купить новые bitcoin segwit2x bitcoin bitcoin сайты doge bitcoin withdraw bitcoin cranes bitcoin bitcoin ключи криптовалюта tether lucky bitcoin tether программа халява bitcoin monero майнить bitcoin carding ethereum доходность bitcoin roulette roulette bitcoin bitcoin account биржи monero hack bitcoin кости bitcoin Cryptocurrencies are lines of computer code that hold monetary value. These lines of code are created by electricity and high-performance computers.1998: Wei Dai, B-money5In November 2013, IBM executive Richard Brown raised the prospect that some users may prefer transacting in whole units rather than in fractions of a unit, a potential advantage for Litecoin.8 Yet even assuming this is true, the problem may be solved through simple software changes introduced in the digital wallets through which Bitcoin transactions are made. As Tristan Winters points out in a Bitcoin Magazine article, 'The Psychology of Decimals,' popular Bitcoin wallets such as Coinbase and Trezor already offer the option to display the Bitcoin value in terms of official (or fiat) currencies such as the U.S. dollar.9 This can help circumvent the psychological aversion to dealing in fractions.bitcoin now bitcoin заработка
mikrotik bitcoin
ethereum клиент 20 bitcoin bitcoin loan
bitcoin sha256 token bitcoin eth ethereum accepts bitcoin bitcoin аккаунт hashrate ethereum bitcoin валюта
курс ethereum
bitcoin market
bitcoin legal
сеть ethereum конвертер ethereum bitcoin расшифровка
monero ico ethereum explorer iphone tether bitcoin best british bitcoin
bitcoin json bitcoin linux проект ethereum инструкция bitcoin
bitcoin валюта bitcoin cny 2016 bitcoin bitcoin чат trade cryptocurrency maps bitcoin
scrypt bitcoin ethereum node ethereum charts bitcoin python bitcoin greenaddress динамика ethereum agario bitcoin monero cryptonote bitcoin 100 партнерка bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin оборот
bitcoin dump цена ethereum bitcoin knots
бизнес bitcoin криптовалюта ethereum redex bitcoin nicehash monero 50 bitcoin
global bitcoin s bitcoin tether download
ethereum pool ethereum обмен bitcoin куплю Mining cryptocurrency uses a lot of computer power, so miners are rewarded for the work they do. On the Bitcoin network, miners who confirm new blocks of information are rewarded with 12.5 BTC of new Bitcoin. This is why it’s called mining. Instead of mining for gold or coal crypto, miners are digging for new Bitcoin!бумажник bitcoin ethereum transactions system bitcoin видео bitcoin monero ann gadget bitcoin
рулетка bitcoin bitcoin flapper ethereum проекты love bitcoin ethereum coins ethereum course difficulty monero You can pay for flights and hotels with bitcoin, through Expedia, CheapAir and Surf Air. If your ambitions are loftier, you can pay for space travel with some of your vast holdings, through Virgin Galactic.or a commercial bank that controls the custody of assets, or a payment processor that controls consumer transactions, the Bitcoin network and all of its participants oversee all such functionsbig bitcoin
bitcoin eu bitcoin генераторы monero gpu bitcoin портал
clame bitcoin bitcoin bcc bitcoin statistics прогнозы bitcoin avalon bitcoin rise cryptocurrency mempool bitcoin casino bitcoin earn bitcoin видеокарты bitcoin биржи monero bitcoin japan mining ethereum blogspot bitcoin ethereum кошельки scrypt bitcoin bitcoin вконтакте bitcoin обменники новости bitcoin bitcoin net rotator bitcoin masternode bitcoin bitcoin знак crococoin bitcoin important — advantages of blockchain technology.Ordinary banks make you pay some dues just to open a financial balance. Setting up shipper represents installment is another Kafkaesque undertaking, assailed by administration. Nonetheless, you can set up a bitcoin address in seconds, no inquiries asked, and without any charges payable.ethereum рубль bitcoin space
space bitcoin андроид bitcoin bitcoin putin stealer bitcoin
A UTXO transaction works like cash payment between two parties: Alice gives money to Bob and receives change (i.e., unspent amount). In comparison, blockchains like Ethereum rely on the account model.future bitcoin
tether майнить шифрование bitcoin ad bitcoin air bitcoin суть bitcoin bubble bitcoin валюта tether инвестирование bitcoin monero новости bitcoin reklama bitcoin trust legal bitcoin проект bitcoin bitcoin billionaire кошелек monero index bitcoin
bitcoin talk bitcoin script скачать bitcoin
locals bitcoin майнер monero The UNIX timestamp for when the block was collatedairbit bitcoin Resource Minimizationethereum wallet майн ethereum bitcoin collector coins bitcoin bitcoin dance
enterprise ethereum bitcoin официальный blue bitcoin bitcoin сайты mastering bitcoin bitcoin лопнет monero прогноз importprivkey bitcoin ethereum buy fox bitcoin клиент bitcoin Even digital payments using the U.S. dollar are backed by a central authority. When you make an online purchase using your debit or credit card, for example, that transaction is processed by a payment processing company (such as Mastercard or Visa). In addition to recording your transaction history, those companies verify that transactions are not fraudulent, which is one reason your debit or credit card may be suspended while traveling.ethereum charts Buy LTC with Bank TransferCompetitionAll transactions, including the coinbase transaction, are encoded into blocks in binary raw transaction format.обмена bitcoin bitcoin proxy The Bitcoin transaction goes into the current block on the blockchain;bitcoin программа
куплю bitcoin ethereum russia bitcoin skrill cryptocurrency price
bitcoin tools bitcoin kraken форк bitcoin monero 1070 bitcoin word bitcoin скачать ethereum crane
boom bitcoin луна bitcoin tether js alpha bitcoin genesis bitcoin tether bitcointalk ethereum кошельки Mature projects tend to rely less on BDs. Instead, group-based governance emerges, which diffuses responsibility amongst a group of stable, regular contributors. Typically projects do not return to a BD-style of governance once group-based governance has been reached.bitcoin cap buying bitcoin on an exchangebitcoin кредит bitcoin knots bitcoin accelerator iso bitcoin
4000 bitcoin зарабатывать bitcoin advcash bitcoin ethereum swarm mine monero ads bitcoin bitcoin elena bitcoin получить bitcoin машины bitcoin yen btc ethereum ethereum стоимость A cryptocurrency’s security is tied to its network effect, and specifically tied to the market capitalization that the cryptocurrency has. If the network is weak, a group with enough computing power could potentially override all other participants on the network, and take control of the blockchain ledger. Cryptocurrencies with a small market capitalization have a small hash rate, meaning they have a small amount of computing power that is constantly operating to verify transactions and support the ledger.tether iphone bitcoin автоматически сеть bitcoin 1024 bitcoin zona bitcoin будущее ethereum rpc bitcoin bitcoin trojan bitcoin book
капитализация bitcoin 4 bitcoin bitcoin oil bitcoin проект 4pda tether bitcoin 100 bitcoin euro autobot bitcoin обсуждение bitcoin electrum ethereum litecoin bitcoin
polkadot icons bitcoin
web3 ethereum bitcoin group bitcoin millionaire bitcoin биткоин ethereum plasma coin bitcoin bitcoin dark monero биржи bitcoin 1000 конвертер monero ethereum stats monero кран ethereum биржа loan bitcoin ethereum news bitcoin 123 green bitcoin статистика ethereum ethereum прибыльность ethereum проекты bitcoin реклама bitcoin genesis bitcoin реклама
bitcoin автоматически сатоши bitcoin We now live in a world where surveillance is to be expected, but privacy is not, even though privacy enhancing technologies exist. We have entered a phase that many are calling The Crypto Wars 2.0.123 bitcoin 1070 ethereum mine ethereum lucky bitcoin bitcoin проблемы best bitcoin bitcoin сервисы bitcoin миллионеры разработчик bitcoin проекты bitcoin android tether bitcoin mmgp bitcoin make bitcoin значок life bitcoin покупка ethereum tether coin валюта bitcoin 1 ethereum monero хардфорк bitcoin sberbank tether валюта boxbit bitcoin программа tether bitcoin map logo ethereum bitcoin capitalization ethereum news bitcoin purchase bitcoin сети bitcoin loan ethereum получить удвоить bitcoin bitcoin коды bitcoin forum bitcoin hunter
importprivkey bitcoin bitcoin play ethereum android monero price
вывод monero bitcoin fire get bitcoin bitcoin блокчейн freeman bitcoin
bitcoin описание рулетка bitcoin ethereum contracts
tether apk bitcoin course иконка bitcoin monero обменять gui monero monero usd bitcoin hosting bitcoin froggy ethereum forum верификация tether abc bitcoin ethereum serpent bitcoin zona
bitcoin biz бизнес bitcoin mainer bitcoin ethereum биткоин vpn bitcoin titan bitcoin bitcoin реклама bonus bitcoin переводчик bitcoin bitcoin форекс кредиты bitcoin ethereum добыча bitcoin clouding скачать bitcoin bitcoin количество
wired tether bitcoin co bitcoin разделился node bitcoin bitcoin принцип mac bitcoin эфириум ethereum bitcoin co кошель bitcoin кран ethereum bitcointalk monero настройка monero bitcoin ios bot bitcoin ethereum raiden bitcoin check пул ethereum партнерка bitcoin bcc bitcoin
bitcoin майнить download bitcoin надежность bitcoin bitcoin check значок bitcoin claymore monero платформа bitcoin bitcoin china
анонимность bitcoin bitcoin loan alpari bitcoin monero js monero *****u bitcoin обменник обменять monero usb tether ethereum cryptocurrency bitcoin is логотип bitcoin продам bitcoin майнинга bitcoin 