What Is Litecoin?
Litecoin is one of the oldest cryptocurrencies. It was launched in 2011. Litecoin became one of the first altcoins created using the Bitcoin source code. The founder of the project was a former Google employee Charles Lee, who was already aware of the great potential of Bitcoin but also noticed the limitations inherent in this digital asset, namely slow transactions, and high fees. The developer designed Litecoin so that it produces more blocks compared to BTC, has near-zero transaction fees and also allows instant transactions. These characteristics make Litecoin cryptocurrency a perfect peer-to-peer payment system that is successfully used to pay for goods and services and remittances and is also one of the few digital assets supported by PayPal.
Litecoin Benefits
Litecoin is one of the pioneers of the crypto market, which allows us to judge its reliability and importance. LTC has become the coin of choice for thousands of users and business owners, thanks to instant and cost-effective transactions. The coin is widely used for payment, international transfers, and investment.
Limited issue. The maximum supply of LTC is 84 million, which is four times more than BTC. Due to this, the coin is much cheaper, which makes it convenient for payments. On the other hand, the limited supply allows coins to resist inflation.
Scrypt hashing algorithm. Litecoin cryptocurrency is the first digital project to use Scrypt for the Proof of Work blockchain. Scrypt allows Litecoin to reduce the complexity of mining and, therefore, energy consumption and also enables low transaction fees.
Scalability. The block generation time is 2.5 minutes. As a result, the time allotted for confirming payments is reduced, and throughput increases. Litecoin’s bandwidth is about 56 transactions per second, which is several times higher than Bitcoin. In addition, Litecoin has implemented the Lightning Network solution, which allows even more TPS.
Support for smart contracts. While Bitcoin has not developed much during its existence, the developers of Litecoin are trying to keep up with the times. Thanks to the OmniLite L2 solution, users can now build decentralized applications and issue custom tokens.
Private transactions. The introduction of the MimbleWimble protocol via the MimbleWimble Extension Block has taken LTC to a new level. Thanks to WMEB, users can now make instant transactions while maintaining their privacy.
LTC Token
LTC is the native currency of Litecoin. The token operates on a deflationary model with a limited maximum supply of 84 million. Miners are responsible for the supply of LTC and receive a reward of 12.5 LTC per block. The mining reward is halved every four years. The next halving is scheduled for 2023, resulting in the reward being reduced to 6.25 LTC.
In addition to paying transaction fees, LTC has the following use cases:
Payment for goods and services. LTC has become one of the most popular digital assets accepted as a payment method. For example, companies such as Travala, eGifter, Snel, RE/MAX, and others allow their customers to use the LTC payment option. In addition, in August 2020, the first Visa debit card with LTC support was issued in the United States.
Crypto donations. More and more nonprofits are accepting digital assets as donations. Such well-known charities as AfricaAid, All Hands and Hearts, and others accept LTC donations.
Issue of custom tokens. Thanks to the launch of OmniLite, users can quickly and cost-effectively create custom tokens, NFTs, and even stablecoins on top of the Litecoin blockchain.
Private transactions. With MimbleWimble, users can now use LTC to send and receive anonymous transactions.
How to Use $LTC?
As you have already understood, LTC is a multifunctional currency that can be spent on goods and services for fast and low-fee transactions, issuing custom tokens, and storing value. Naturally, to gain access to Litecoin transactions, the user will first need to select a reliable wallet and generate a Litecoin wallet address.
The wallet address is a public key with which you and other users can send transactions to your wallet. In addition to the public key, there is also a private key, which is secret and is used to create a digital signature. When choosing a wallet, you should familiarize yourself with the terms of a particular service. It is recommended to choose those that store keys on the user’s side, that is, non-custodial ones. A good example of a non-custodial wallet is SimpleHold, which uses AES-encrypted backups to guarantee the safety of your private keys. SimpleHold provides two wallet versions, a mobile app and a browser extension, with which you can easily send, receive, and swap between 200 currencies.
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