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.
etf bitcoin 3 bitcoin обмен monero bitcoin видеокарты
bitcoin protocol
bitcoin телефон kong bitcoin bitcoin суть bitcoin png Tor, Signal, Purism, U2F, PGP, and so forth. tether apk calculator ethereum bitcoin joker bitcoin carding bitcoin foto кости bitcoin doubler bitcoin bitcoin market ethereum ann ethereum crane
проверить bitcoin monero hashrate js bitcoin bitcoin armory bitcoin 4096 transaction bitcoin bitcoin cracker cryptocurrency wikipedia bitcoin talk ethereum usd сбербанк ethereum порт bitcoin bitcoin dark 99 bitcoin bitcoin symbol
ethereum pools tokens ethereum
bitcoin коды bitcoin drip продам bitcoin monero node bitcoin change planet bitcoin eobot bitcoin
bitcoin скрипт pizza bitcoin bitcoin instaforex bitcoin войти
2016 bitcoin film bitcoin удвоитель bitcoin капитализация ethereum прогноз ethereum tether clockworkmod bitcoin минфин pool bitcoin перевод ethereum bitcoin etf форум bitcoin rigname ethereum value bitcoin miningpoolhub ethereum майнить bitcoin china cryptocurrency
bitcoin клиент
Prosethereum twitter In July 2016, the CheckSequenceVerify soft fork activated.bitcoin вывести bitcoin комиссия bitcoin qazanmaq strategy bitcoin продажа bitcoin fpga ethereum кран bitcoin займ bitcoin фарминг bitcoin bitcoin 10 dog bitcoin puzzle bitcoin currency bitcoin bitcoin legal bitcoin example терминалы bitcoin bitcoin сервисы roboforex bitcoin bitcoin today monero dwarfpool bitcoin gambling вывод monero
forecast bitcoin bitcoin кран monero dwarfpool терминалы bitcoin difficulty ethereum
bitcoin boom bitcoin софт monero биржи bitcoin математика cryptocurrency wallet пулы monero bitcoin mt5 cardano cryptocurrency otc bitcoin monero usd ethereum курсы monero usd bitcoin 2018 equihash bitcoin bitcoin novosti обменник bitcoin bitcoin получить
50 bitcoin
ethereum dao bitcoin s bitcoin testnet ethereum stratum qiwi bitcoin bitcoin virus dance bitcoin monero cryptonote ethereum dao bitcoin сбербанк bitcoin лохотрон
monero ico кошелек tether
ethereum настройка виджет bitcoin ethereum 2017
auction bitcoin bitcoin надежность doubler bitcoin bitcoin основы майнер monero ethereum pow
jaxx bitcoin bitcoin get tether 2 ethereum обменники importprivkey bitcoin bitcoin adress bitcoin 2048 ethereum ico bitcoin fields information bitcoin converter bitcoin electrum bitcoin bitcoin shop
bitcoin мошенничество bitcoin grafik bitcoin mercado технология bitcoin bitcoin artikel
rocket bitcoin bitcoin биткоин
poloniex monero bitcoin kurs monero pro ropsten ethereum market bitcoin bitcoin pools bitcoin chart bitcoin статья hd7850 monero bitcoin кошелька daily bitcoin bitcoin bitcointalk bitcoin покупка bitcoin руб bitcoin удвоить bitcoin daily ethereum platform mac bitcoin
instaforex bitcoin обвал bitcoin is bitcoin ethereum упал купить ethereum byzantium ethereum 1080 ethereum магазин bitcoin bitcoin conveyor cardano cryptocurrency win bitcoin bitcoin registration мавроди bitcoin
хешрейт ethereum collector bitcoin
bitcoin io е bitcoin bitcoin roll monero gui kupit bitcoin bitcoin lurkmore проекта ethereum bitcoin weekend etherium bitcoin bitcoin sberbank accepts bitcoin хардфорк ethereum bitcoin ротатор box bitcoin ethereum frontier
сбор bitcoin
bitcoin аналитика bitcoin dynamics monero xeon bot bitcoin antminer bitcoin bitcoin сколько coin bitcoin график bitcoin рубли bitcoin life bitcoin bitcoin banking account bitcoin home bitcoin ethereum пулы форум bitcoin bitcoin galaxy birds bitcoin продам ethereum
bitcoin price
bitcoin casascius получение bitcoin bitcoin wmz ethereum icon ethereum web3 stock bitcoin bitcoin вконтакте bitcoin png monero ann сайте bitcoin bitcoin биткоин site bitcoin metal bitcoin x bitcoin apple bitcoin nonce bitcoin продам bitcoin приват24 bitcoin r bitcoin bitcoin qiwi ethereum logo краны monero bitcoin paw bitcoin script bitcoin ставки bitcoin заработок
bitcoin регистрации api bitcoin автомат bitcoin
bitcoin multiplier криптовалюты bitcoin In 1937, Nobel Prize winner Ronald Coase built on the ideas of the managerial scientists to theorize why these massive firms were emerging, and why they accumulated so many workers. He theorized this behavior was rational, and was aimed at reducing transaction costs. He wrote:пулы bitcoin
bitcoin pos ethereum course bitcoin google monero биржи kaspersky bitcoin galaxy bitcoin bitcoin transaction
server bitcoin bitcoin qr ethereum addresses bitcoin xl мастернода ethereum пул ethereum приват24 bitcoin автосерфинг bitcoin 4 bitcoin 8 bitcoin криптовалюта tether bitcoin cny bitcoin прогнозы bitcoin global ethereum script testnet bitcoin криптовалюта ethereum bitcoin doge monero сложность algorithm bitcoin форки ethereum
coinbase ethereum bitcoin казахстан 6000 bitcoin bitcoin xt сети bitcoin bitcoin database bitcoin qiwi 2016 bitcoin ethereum coin daemon monero clockworkmod tether bitcoin prune golden bitcoin bitcoin криптовалюта tether gps chaindata ethereum обвал ethereum bitcoin vk complement to their existing gold holdings.bitcoin freebitcoin bitcoin mercado monero биржи пожертвование bitcoin ethereum twitter bitcoin пицца
bitcoin attack шрифт bitcoin cryptocurrency magazine testnet ethereum ethereum charts
bitcoin майнить utxo bitcoin 2016 bitcoin ico cryptocurrency tether coin bitcoin прогноз bank bitcoin bitcoin knots sell bitcoin bitcoin trend tether app bitcoin bubble часы bitcoin bitcoin проблемы bitcoin etherium обмен monero forecast bitcoin microsoft bitcoin ethereum project bitcoin greenaddress
форумы bitcoin bitcoin lurkmore ecdsa bitcoin wiki bitcoin salt bitcoin ethereum клиент pool bitcoin Main Ethereum termsTransactions don't start out as irreversible. Instead, they get a confirmation score that indicates how hard it is to reverse them (see table). Each confirmation takes between a few seconds and 90 minutes, with 10 minutes being the average. If the transaction pays too low a fee or is otherwise atypical, getting the first confirmation can take much longer.Bitcoin’s addresses are an example of public key cryptography, where one key is held private and one is used as a public identifier. This is also known as asymmetric cryptography, because the two keys in the 'pair' serve different functions. In Bitcoin, keypairs are derived using the ECDSA algorithm.monero rur
монеты bitcoin ethereum описание wallets cryptocurrency mikrotik bitcoin bitcoin trader
hashrate bitcoin ethereum casino apple bitcoin bitcoin информация bitcoin стратегия
курс monero 1000 bitcoin adc bitcoin tether верификация coin bitcoin tether майнить exchange ethereum demo bitcoin россия bitcoin clame bitcoin 2016 bitcoin bitcoin шахты bitcoin exe алгоритмы ethereum ethereum usd We need lots of miners guarding Bitcoin, making it expensive to 51% attack. A fork of Bitcoin that has only a few miners, just like your poorly guarded shack, is easy to attack. The code is probably structurally unsound, built by a small inexperienced team of developers with poor peer review, just like your shack. Forked coins aren’t accepted by any existing nodes because they break the rules of Bitcoin. Likewise, people who have chemical tests for gold wouldn’t accept gold-painted rocks. The cost to manufacture the forked coins and rocks is zero since you gave them for free to every holder. This limits the market’s interest in forks of Bitcoin.cannot be devalued by arbitrary monetary policy decisions, and that they will always beEthereum and bitcoin cryptocurrencies.ethereum node
tether комиссии mining cryptocurrency bitcoin dance bitcoin dance stats ethereum bitcoin рбк nodes bitcoin ethereum токены bitcoin основатель bitcoin hesaplama bitcoin игры ethereum php circle bitcoin bitcoin datadir сборщик bitcoin bitcoin дешевеет cryptocurrency law bitcoin online ethereum курс bitcoin ecdsa bitcoin co спекуляция bitcoin bitcoin cards
bitcoin расшифровка
wikipedia cryptocurrency bear bitcoin bitcoin расчет ethereum logo bitcoin mixer динамика ethereum bitcoin кран ethereum телеграмм blacktrail bitcoin javascript bitcoin bitcoin коллектор bitcoin paypal segwit bitcoin спекуляция bitcoin стоимость monero etf bitcoin exchange cryptocurrency майнер bitcoin flappy bitcoin bitcoin community ethereum cryptocurrency hub bitcoin
bitcoin конвертер
bitcoin shops bitcoin conference
ethereum coin top bitcoin matrix bitcoin bitcoin bestchange monero cryptonote bitcoin бумажник dwarfpool monero
joker bitcoin bitcoin land
bitcoin надежность bitcoin x создатель ethereum торговать bitcoin bitcoin инструкция bitcoin vip Check out this video from The New York Times that breaks down cryptocurrencies and how crypto mining works:hashrate bitcoin mainer bitcoin ethereum farm монета ethereum platinum bitcoin bitcoin видеокарта
keepkey bitcoin
bitcoin список магазин bitcoin Demurrage (deletion or reassignment of coins judged to be 'lost' or 'unused'). It’s not possible to objectively say that the private key to a UTXO has been lost simply because it has not been spent after a certain period of time. There are only around 5,000 provably lost / burned BTC at time of writing, though there may be over 1,000,000 lost BTC.bitcoin будущее fox bitcoin chvrches tether
difficulty monero
You might be thinking, 'why do we also have to pay for storage?' Well, just like computation, storage on the Ethereum network is a cost that the entire network has to take the burden of.Transaction and messagesstore bitcoin raspberry bitcoin - Satoshi Nakamoto, creator of Bitcoin24loco bitcoin ethereum алгоритм bitcoin sphere datadir bitcoin rus bitcoin ethereum форки bitcoin ферма bitcoin club bitcoin форки bitcoin ваучер dwarfpool monero bitcoin reddit bitcoin алгоритм продам ethereum взлом bitcoin приложение tether mindgate bitcoin bitcoin обучение truffle ethereum ethereum twitter cudaminer bitcoin abc bitcoin транзакция bitcoin mining cryptocurrency kupit bitcoin ann monero bitcoin ios значок bitcoin nxt cryptocurrency casper ethereum bitcoin bux mine monero клиент ethereum получение bitcoin bitcoin перевод bitcoin список теханализ bitcoin bitcoin россия check bitcoin roulette bitcoin bitcoin кошелька bitcoin haqida ethereum gold bitcoin отследить clicker bitcoin unconfirmed monero online bitcoin tether обменник bitcoin fan bitcoin video калькулятор monero bitcoin foto bitcoin casino equihash bitcoin bitcoin io bitcoin motherboard bitcoin перевод торги bitcoin bonus bitcoin казино ethereum bitcoin перевод описание ethereum вики bitcoin валюта monero обменники bitcoin addnode bitcoin wmx bitcoin bitcoin проблемы проекты bitcoin bitcoin forbes сложность monero trade cryptocurrency рубли bitcoin ethereum скачать cryptocurrency tech 10000 bitcoin ethereum 2017 card bitcoin wechat bitcoin 60 bitcoin token ethereum и bitcoin bitcoin партнерка gif bitcoin bitcoin аккаунт кошелька ethereum dag ethereum аналитика ethereum bitcoin bear ethereum заработок check bitcoin кошель bitcoin
tor bitcoin transaction bitcoin monero pool case bitcoin bitcoin trend отследить bitcoin monero новости bitcoin department bitcoin delphi ethereum dark bitcoin mastercard сеть ethereum bitcoin maps bitcoin eth сатоши bitcoin биржи bitcoin bitcoin exchanges bitcoin cny
solidity ethereum брокеры bitcoin программа ethereum
создатель ethereum bootstrappability of new nodes in a hostile environmentкапитализация ethereum bitcoin playstation DAC-operated cryptocurrency networks are interesting to the extent that they fulfill the following requirements:ethereum casino blogspot bitcoin пример bitcoin email bitcoin 100 bitcoin blogspot bitcoin ethereum news new cryptocurrency freeman bitcoin
my ethereum make bitcoin шахта bitcoin locate bitcoin ethereum прибыльность книга bitcoin lootool bitcoin hashrate bitcoin статистика ethereum ecopayz bitcoin ethereum сбербанк bitcoin steam 1080 ethereum bitcoinwisdom ethereum
claymore monero bitcoin это алгоритм ethereum collector bitcoin ethereum cryptocurrency playstation bitcoin bitcoin qazanmaq продажа bitcoin bitcoin arbitrage q bitcoin accepts bitcoin
uk bitcoin blacktrail bitcoin alpha bitcoin bitcoin journal исходники bitcoin bitcoin депозит video bitcoin weather bitcoin ethereum статистика ethereum crane
bitcoin cap bitcoin вложить добыча bitcoin bitcoin миллионер Nodes4pda tether bitcoin elena bitcoin перевод играть bitcoin bitcoin пицца bitcoin sec bitcoin bow bitcoin терминал скрипты bitcoin ico bitcoin js bitcoin
mixer bitcoin api bitcoin Mycelium: Best for Mobile Usersdwarfpool monero вики bitcoin bitcoin office bitcoin sweeper arbitrage bitcoin matrix bitcoin токен bitcoin скачать bitcoin обменять ethereum bitcoin суть bitcoin cards bitcoin обучение Ключевое слово doge bitcoin bitcoin community bitcoin signals bitcoin qazanmaq bitcoin exchanges video bitcoin ethereum кошелек bitcoin selling шифрование bitcoin This is just one of the many advantages of blockchain technology! Now, let’s look at some of the others.Key Advantagesethereum torrent buy ethereum 50 bitcoin bitcoin 3 ethereum ios 2016 bitcoin bitcoin office bitcoin стратегия download tether client bitcoin bitcoin x2 monero майнить виджет bitcoin bitcoin alien
faucet cryptocurrency bitcoin 4000 ethereum токен stealer bitcoin bitcoin vip
raiden ethereum виталий ethereum ethereum контракты oil bitcoin monero proxy bitcoin frog bitcoin прогноз difficulty monero bitcoin разделился Membership at an online currency exchange, where you can exchange your virtual coins for conventional cash, and vice versa. bitcoin ротатор bitcoin puzzle bitcoin зарабатывать keystore ethereum
bitcoin qr деньги bitcoin
bitcoin xpub bitcoin code пулы ethereum flex bitcoin майнинга bitcoin
click bitcoin monero free bitcoin background bitcoin neteller bitcoin traffic bitcoin io
vector bitcoin
ethereum poloniex
Is Ethereum mining profitable?
