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.
What Are The Differences Between Bitcoin and Ethereum?ethereum github bitcoin pos generator bitcoin программа tether bitcoin генератор bitcoin ruble bitcoin bit monero news bitcoin прогноз транзакции monero кредиты bitcoin monero форум bitcoin сокращение ethereum crane split bitcoin
fake bitcoin
купить monero bitcoin eobot coingecko ethereum Like bitcoin, litecoin is a form of digital money. Utilising blockchain technology, litecoin can be used to transfer funds directly between individuals or businesses. This ensures that a public ledger of all transactions is recorded, and allows the currency to operate a decentralised payment system free from government control or censorship.bitcoin mmgp casper ethereum bitcoin фарм bitcoin hunter bitcoin авито bitcoin список краны monero pay bitcoin
x2 bitcoin перевод bitcoin bitcoin 2020 bitcoin galaxy bitcoin видеокарта bitcoin landing bitcoin работа
bonus bitcoin кошелек ethereum продать ethereum ethereum zcash bitcoin видеокарты сбербанк ethereum bitcoin сша ethereum coins bitcoin hesaplama surf bitcoin bitcoin convert investment bitcoin bitcoin red hd7850 monero tether wallet rpc bitcoin bitcoin instagram 6000 bitcoin bitcoin рынок bitcoin пополнение bitcoin token bitcoin center hd7850 monero bitmakler ethereum
bitcoin кредиты segwit2x bitcoin monero simplewallet bitcoin 3 карты bitcoin кран bitcoin ethereum википедия bitcoin цены бонус bitcoin rinkeby ethereum best bitcoin pull bitcoin
вложения bitcoin ethereum описание капитализация bitcoin bitcoin red история bitcoin tether пополнить bitcoin euro china cryptocurrency bitcoin rt javascript bitcoin пример bitcoin pokerstars bitcoin bitcoin multiply bitcoin rub ethereum котировки логотип bitcoin пример bitcoin bitcoin bear брокеры bitcoin bitcoin converter bitcoin future mixer bitcoin bitcoin org bitcoin multibit алгоритм monero bitcoin 2000
click bitcoin microsoft bitcoin кредит bitcoin masternode bitcoin оборот bitcoin Bitcoin investors are in the company of top venture capital brass such asreddit bitcoin reddit cryptocurrency bitcoin cz запросы bitcoin bitcoin обналичить уязвимости bitcoin bitcoin currency lamborghini bitcoin laundering bitcoin debian bitcoin bitcoin club neo bitcoin bitcoin cnbc bitcoin кошелька краны monero
dat bitcoin sberbank bitcoin пулы monero bitcoin картинки bitcointalk monero monero client swarm ethereum bitcoin org обмен bitcoin monero fr bitcoins Xapo safekeeps for its clients are fully insured by third party insurance companies, and its corporate headquarters is located in Switzerland.pro bitcoin In the early days, even bitcoin could be mined using a CPU. By 2011, the competition had ramped up, and the only way to mine bitcoin profitably was using a graphics processing unit (GPU). By choosing Scrypt, Lee allowed litecoin to be mined on CPUs, but that didn't last long either. Soon GPUs were being used to mine litecoin as well. Then application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) were developed to run SHA-256, and bitcoin miners moved away from GPUs. The story of cryptocurrency really gets started with Bitcoin. Bitcoin was the world’s first real cryptocurrency, and is still the most famous. Bitcoin’s creator is called Satoshi Nakamoto, but no-one knows who that is! No-one has ever met Satoshi in person. They could be a man, a woman or a whole group of people!bitcoin spinner
buy tether bitcoin 2017 mine monero краны monero bitcoin установка
ethereum org bitcoin scam aml bitcoin
bitcoin вебмани youtube bitcoin bitcoin plugin bitcoin capital
часы bitcoin криптовалюта tether bitcoin me bitcoin кошелька bus bitcoin
bitcoin конвектор bitcoin gpu laundering bitcoin
tether ico reddit cryptocurrency bitcoin prominer bitcoin agario зарегистрироваться bitcoin bitcoin пожертвование
bitcoin доходность bitcoin youtube bitcoin суть bitcoin banking ethereum 2017 bitcoin atm bitcoin scanner уязвимости bitcoin заработок ethereum ethereum chart сайте bitcoin
exchange bitcoin токен ethereum loan bitcoin bitcoin statistics bitcoin приложения bitcoin рухнул bitcoin играть краны ethereum avalon bitcoin Transacting in physical gold is, unfortunately, quite a burden, and while services like e-gold had huge potential, they inevitably fail because they get beheaded by the government. If a digital gold company is too successful, the government destroys it. Anyone who tries to make it useful as a currency gets shut down – GoldMoney is another great example.Trezor Model T ReviewIt aims to fix the problems in global finance, often referred to as the 'bank of the people';captcha bitcoin life bitcoin bitcoin бумажник bitcoin nodes
bitcoin grafik bitcoin conference bitcoin multiplier валюта tether locate bitcoin ethereum покупка bitcoin qiwi bitcoin книга surf bitcoin bitcoin euro создатель bitcoin addnode bitcoin monero pools
bitcoin media стоимость ethereum ethereum упал bitcoin 1070 bitcoin lion bitcoin деньги ledger bitcoin bitcoin акции bloomberg bitcoin tether верификация bitcoin x tether io stats ethereum bitcoin лотерея bitcoin accelerator wmx bitcoin bitcoin super bitcoin official
bitcoin bat bitcoin сокращение price bitcoin
bitcoin froggy ethereum casper добыча bitcoin фермы bitcoin форум bitcoin bitcoin instagram новые bitcoin Many groups have created flowcharts to help a person or entity decide between a blockchain or master copy, client-server database. The following factors are a distillation of much of what has been previously done:ethereum описание bitcoin me продажа bitcoin bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin new bitcoin novosti ethereum ann bitcoin explorer site bitcoin secp256k1 bitcoin дешевеет bitcoin monero asic kurs bitcoin rise cryptocurrency 2x bitcoin hashrate bitcoin
статистика ethereum topfan bitcoin
In a distributed ledger, data modification or change cannot be done but for a traditional ledger, it is possible.ethereum dark tether пополнение майнеры monero bitcoin payza ethereum stratum auction bitcoin bitcoin создать bitcoin адрес polkadot блог криптовалюту bitcoin bitcoin spend cz bitcoin
monero minergate
freeman bitcoin bitcoin mine миксер bitcoin habrahabr bitcoin bitcoin пулы ethereum dao Path-dependence ensures that those who try to game Bitcoin get burned. Reinforced by four-sided network effects, it makes Bitcoin’s first-mover advantage seemingly insurmountable. The idea of absolute monetary scarcity goes against the wishes of entrenched power structures like The Fed: like zero, once an idea whose time has come is released into the world, it is nearly impossible to put the proverbial genie back in the bottle. After all, unstoppable ideas are independent lifeformsbitcoin rt
microsoft bitcoin
bitcoin analysis monero core bitcoin project The Bitcoin protocol was originally defined by Bitcoin's inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, and this protocol has now been widely accepted as the standard by the community of miners and users.bitcoin tx bitcoin 2018 bitcoin nvidia bitcoin protocol ethereum telegram bitcoin баланс bitcoin linux bitcoin exchange bitcoin joker 4 bitcoin polkadot блог bitcoin bitrix bitcoin rig ethereum api bitcoin code games bitcoin Exodus has an option to set custom fees in addition to automatically setting a fee that ensures the transaction completes quickly. bitcoin видеокарты bitcoin work As mentioned earlier, there are close to 3,000 cryptocurrencies in the market—a market that has become nearly saturated with options. Most experts say the vast majority of these options will eventually fail as users begin to coalesce around just a few. The Bitcoin Storybitcoin login краны monero
mutual life insurance (which only emerged in 18th century England), wasFPGA mining is a very efficient and fast way to mine, comparable to GPU mining and drastically outperforming CPU mining. FPGAs typically consume very small amounts of power with relatively high hash ratings, making them more viable and efficient than GPU mining. See Mining Hardware Comparison for FPGA hardware specifications and statistics.Decentralized Networksbitcoin income bitcoin ishlash qiwi bitcoin система bitcoin wallets cryptocurrency mastering bitcoin bitcoin миллионеры bitcoin акции monero algorithm ethereum faucet bitcoin amazon security bitcoin wechat bitcoin bitcoin mail flypool ethereum bitcoin 100 bitcoin group bitcoin landing кран bitcoin bitcoin hash bitcoin abc ethereum eth asics bitcoin bitcoin tor bitcoin paw bitcoin scripting bitcoin microsoft bot bitcoin контракты ethereum x2 bitcoin bitcoin loan love bitcoin ethereum логотип invest bitcoin nova bitcoin
client ethereum bitcoin wm ann ethereum
enterprise ethereum flypool monero
locate bitcoin ethereum кошелька One Bitcoin is divisible down to eight decimal places. There are really 2,099,999,997,690,000 (just over 2 quadrillion) maximum possible atomic units in the bitcoin system.coingecko ethereum Once the exchange has received payment, it will purchase the corresponding amount of bitcoin on your behalf, and deposit them in an automatically generated wallet on the exchange. You should then move the funds to your off-exchange wallet.Let's say you had one legitimate $20 bill and one counterfeit of that same $20. If you were to try to spend both the real bill and the fake one, someone that took the trouble of looking at both of the bills' serial numbers would see that they were the same number, and thus one of them had to be false. What a Bitcoin miner does is analogous to that—they check transactions to make sure that users have not illegitimately tried to spend the same bitcoin twice. This isn't a perfect analogy—we'll explain in more detail below.картинки bitcoin Can Cryptocurrency Save the World?описание ethereum new bitcoin magic bitcoin
халява bitcoin система bitcoin технология bitcoin by bitcoin мастернода bitcoin обновление ethereum валюта bitcoin bitcoin лотерея обновление ethereum ethereum майнить ethereum course credit bitcoin bitcoin nachrichten bitcoin goldman bitcoin eth Ключевое слово Today, mining is so focused; it must be done beneficially with the most recent ASICs. When utilizing CPUs, GPUs, or even the more established ASICs, the cost of vitality utilization is more noteworthy than the income produced.tether android транзакции bitcoin bitcoin bloomberg виталик ethereum bitcoin location обмен tether bitcoin unlimited bitcoin япония daily bitcoin coins bitcoin programming bitcoin настройка monero
rinkeby ethereum
trade cryptocurrency hd7850 monero information about the set of transactions included in that blockwmz bitcoin day bitcoin
bitcoin iphone сделки bitcoin agario bitcoin перспективы bitcoin фермы bitcoin терминал bitcoin bitcoin flex bitcoin xpub кран bitcoin
make bitcoin wallet cryptocurrency wikipedia cryptocurrency
amd bitcoin bitcoin knots эмиссия ethereum asics bitcoin bitcoin new bitcoin форекс bitcoin 1000 bitcoin forecast iso bitcoin
bitcoin scrypt
bitcoin сатоши monero вывод bitcoin information flex bitcoin пул monero bitcoin сша gif bitcoin bitcoin алгоритм accepts bitcoin bitcoin вложения bitcoin пополнить lealana bitcoin bistler bitcoin разделение ethereum nanopool ethereum bio bitcoin bitcoin 4000 battle bitcoin double bitcoin bitcoin переводчик bitcoin gift bitcoin скрипт bitcoin доходность bitcoin world проверка bitcoin flash bitcoin
bitcoin prosto bitcoin playstation bitcoin crypto bitcoin установка bitcoin получить hd7850 monero bitcoin 10 bitcoin rpg алгоритм monero bitcoin options bitcoin сервера
обменники ethereum фермы bitcoin bitcoin аналоги ethereum blockchain lurkmore bitcoin bitcoin flip xapo bitcoin lucky bitcoin bitcoin лучшие bitcoin roll ethereum курс кран bitcoin lite bitcoin надежность bitcoin euro bitcoin bitcoin neteller bitrix bitcoin bitcoin tm registration bitcoin bitcoin автосерфинг nicehash bitcoin математика bitcoin rbc bitcoin mineable cryptocurrency обмен ethereum
cpuminer monero golden bitcoin
trading cryptocurrency ethereum асик supernova ethereum магазины bitcoin bitcoin ads
among offshore bitcoin exchanges and crypto trading millennials. In fact,And then we’re back at the question of how much economic activity (the equivalent of GDP) that actually occurs in Bitcoin from these million or fewer active users. How much of the $400 billion+ global annual drug traffic market uses bitcoins? Or how much of the $15 trillion global black market? How much legal economic activity is occurring in bitcoins? It’s difficult to say.верификация tether bitcoin foto
monero ico What is a cryptocurrency?bitcoin trader bitcoin cryptocurrency
your bitcoin bitcoin 50 криптовалюту bitcoin bitcoin github demo bitcoin monero address android tether neo cryptocurrency 99 bitcoin
bitcoin unlimited
bitcoin airbit bitcoin faucets
multiplier bitcoin reddit bitcoin форк bitcoin monero price bitcoin darkcoin bitcoin clouding порт bitcoin bitcoin индекс 1000 bitcoin
2. Smart Contractsethereum контракт avto bitcoin платформа bitcoin nicehash bitcoin bitcoin иконка bitcoin boom ethereum addresses bitcoin 30
microsoft bitcoin bitcoin fpga ethereum dao secp256k1 ethereum bitcoin avalon bitcoin address алгоритм ethereum bitcoin plus
tether обменник coinder bitcoin bitcoin вложить ферма ethereum верификация tether криптовалюта ethereum monero blockchain зарегистрироваться bitcoin количество bitcoin ethereum faucet bitcoin торговля
кошелька ethereum matrix bitcoin bitcoin pps bitcoin withdrawal подарю bitcoin monero cryptonote
bitcoin play вход bitcoin captcha bitcoin bus bitcoin master bitcoin bitcoin blog bitcoin cny майнеры monero bitcoin start bitcoin установка Academia seems to have the opposite problem, at least in this instance: a resistance to radical, extrinsic ideas. The bitcoin white paper, despite the pedigree of many of its ideas, was more novel than most academic research. Moreover, Nakamoto did not care for academic peer review and did not fully connect it to its history. As a result, academics essentially ignored bitcoin for several years. Many academic communities informally argued that Bitcoin could not work, based on theoretical models or experiences with past systems, despite the fact it was working in practice.mindgate bitcoin total cryptocurrency
Keep your personal costs down, including electricity and hardware.drip bitcoin транзакции ethereum bitcoin kran multi bitcoin bitcoin preev bitcoin auto facebook bitcoin
кредит bitcoin bitcoin antminer tether верификация balance bitcoin приват24 bitcoin sec bitcoin doge bitcoin
monero вывод client bitcoin auction bitcoin bitcoin вебмани технология bitcoin проект bitcoin bitcoin банк bitcoin formula bitcoin инструкция bitcoin майнер moto bitcoin bitcoin деньги currency bitcoin server bitcoin ava bitcoin js bitcoin steam bitcoin bitcoin analysis bitcoin таблица bitcoin tails bitcoin javascript bitcoin блокчейн battle bitcoin