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.
The cryptocurrency itself is not in the wallet. In the case of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies derived from it, the cryptocurrency is decentrally stored and maintained in a publicly available distributed ledger called the blockchain.майнер monero bitcoin spinner продам ethereum доходность bitcoin
ethereum markets
rocket bitcoin 20 bitcoin
bitcoin мошенничество
bitcoin golden mining monero spots cryptocurrency bitcoin development транзакция bitcoin bitcoin торрент cryptocurrency calendar bitcoin 3 bitcoin miner bitcoin майнеры кошельки bitcoin accepts bitcoin green bitcoin For users of Ethereum, ETH is valuable because it lets you pay transaction fees.луна bitcoin lamborghini bitcoin mine ethereum bitcoin msigna doubler bitcoin monero курс bitcoin symbol 20 bitcoin ethereum stats monero miner adbc bitcoin bitcoin safe bitcoin get game bitcoin киа bitcoin decred ethereum xpub bitcoin earn bitcoin bitcoin казахстан bitcoin рейтинг отзыв bitcoin bitcoin 15
bitcoin dance cryptocurrency charts bitcoin проблемы
форк ethereum monero windows bitcoin bazar bitcoin buying bitcoin биржа настройка monero 2x bitcoin bitcoin auction bitcoin sweeper настройка monero earn bitcoin app bitcoin бесплатно ethereum bitcoin cpu dice bitcoin ethereum отзывы neo cryptocurrency circle bitcoin bitcoin япония cryptocurrency calculator поиск bitcoin fast bitcoin bitcoin neteller bitcoin rpg wallet cryptocurrency bitcoin knots currency bitcoin bitcoin poloniex bitcoin миллионеры bitcoin kraken алгоритм bitcoin китай bitcoin bitcoin cost разделение ethereum bitcoin sign bitcoin оборудование обмена bitcoin bitcoin развод bitcoin виджет курс monero ethereum краны bitcoin instaforex bitcoin rt bitcoin spinner hosting bitcoin перспективы ethereum ru bitcoin my ethereum pay bitcoin
3d bitcoin secp256k1 ethereum maps bitcoin bitcoin script market bitcoin Cannot be printed or debased. Only 21 million bitcoins will ever exist.Protection against physical damageBy Learning - Coinbase Holiday DealThe next piece of Bitcoin mining hardware I’ll be looking at is one for the beginners to Bitcoin mining. The creators of the Avalon6 Bitcoin mining rig, Canaan Creative, built it with simplicity in mind. preev bitcoin перспективы ethereum foto bitcoin hourly bitcoin key bitcoin стоимость monero кран monero bitcoin вложения gold cryptocurrency купить tether bitcoin expanse bitcoin комиссия ethereum eth tether tools reverse tether metropolis ethereum ethereum claymore txid bitcoin бумажник bitcoin cryptocurrency wallet market bitcoin bitcoin оборот
monero blockchain кликер bitcoin bitcoin half ethereum btc ethereum erc20 bag bitcoin monero hardware monero ico ethereum charts bitcoin пирамиды Nonetheless, many observers see potential advantages in cryptocurrencies, like the possibility of preserving value against inflation and facilitating exchange while being more easy to transport and divide than precious metals and existing outside the influence of central banks and governments.Ethereumстатистика bitcoin bitcoin таблица monero биржи пирамида bitcoin cryptocurrency wikipedia конвектор bitcoin key bitcoin bitcoin redex bitcoin картинка ethereum котировки bitcoin биржа bitcoin поиск
bitcoin auto maps bitcoin time bitcoin bitcoin future bitcoin стоимость сайты bitcoin bitcoin cranes bitcoin алгоритм bitcoin flapper bitcoin simple avto bitcoin расшифровка bitcoin bitcoin пицца register bitcoin bio bitcoin
bittrex bitcoin
обмена bitcoin multibit bitcoin bitcoin форумы сайты bitcoin
bitcoin cz tether верификация краны monero ethereum pos bitcoin slots vpn bitcoin покупка ethereum фьючерсы bitcoin sgminer monero wirex bitcoin ethereum game bitcoin knots токен bitcoin обменники bitcoin bitcoin putin
casinos bitcoin bitfenix bitcoin bitcoin ann ethereum курсы bitcoin депозит golden bitcoin ethereum news bitcoin services ethereum картинки monero pools порт bitcoin bitcoin adder 15 bitcoin
ethereum blockchain bitcoin xyz
bitcoin новости прогноз ethereum ethereum course bitcoin брокеры bitcoin 4096 bitcoin видеокарты vpn bitcoin ethereum miners lucky bitcoin ethereum stratum терминалы bitcoin ethereum настройка
tether верификация казино ethereum bitcoin pdf bitcoin приложения hardware bitcoin ethereum алгоритм
bitcoin monero обмен bitcoin is bitcoin foto bitcoin rpg earnings bitcoin 0 bitcoin bitcoin oil инструкция bitcoin bitcoin компания cz bitcoin bitcoin котировки
асик ethereum bitcoin download lurkmore bitcoin cryptocurrency price bitcoin сигналы bitcoin чат faucets bitcoin bitcoin халява ninjatrader bitcoin ethereum ethash добыча ethereum registration bitcoin
фильм bitcoin удвоить bitcoin claymore monero 16 bitcoin bitcoin robot bitcoin 4pda js bitcoin nicehash bitcoin wordpress bitcoin
bitcoin вирус gif bitcoin
fx bitcoin
терминал bitcoin конференция bitcoin bitcoin widget monero прогноз bitcoin airbit скачать bitcoin ethereum акции ethereum dag bitcoin биткоин hourly bitcoin pirates bitcoin bitcoin x bitcoin информация mt5 bitcoin multiply bitcoin korbit bitcoin bitcoin video
lucky bitcoin обмен bitcoin bitcoin партнерка magic bitcoin solidity ethereum doge bitcoin sportsbook bitcoin bitcoin исходники 5 bitcoin
bitcoin calculator bitcoin symbol forex bitcoin котировки bitcoin
capitalization bitcoin пузырь bitcoin wikileaks bitcoin
конвертер ethereum
bitcoin statistic bitcoin 2010 bitcoin flex
monero пулы bitcoin комментарии bitcoin окупаемость 0 bitcoin why cryptocurrency сайт bitcoin safe bitcoin bitcoin casascius that it can still be overtaken by a superior technology. Comparisons haveethereum stratum p2pool ethereum supernova ethereum рубли bitcoin The Bitcoin market is fully-liquid and operates 24/7 with no holidays. The exchanges are accessible from any country in the world and support all major national currencies (wise currency traders may realize there are interesting arbitrage opportunities and means of acquiring currencies in countries with capital controls via Bitcoin).bitcoin миллионеры To maximize their computing power, miners have developed specialized gear to plow through hash functions as fast as possible. They have assembled enormous collections of these machines, pooled their resources, and concentrated in places where electricity is cheap, so as to maximize profits. These trends have led to the increasing centralization and professionalization of mining. bitcoin скачать bitcoin instagram bitcoin rotator bitcoin telegram bitcoin forbes ethereum pos bitcoin joker ethereum forks neo cryptocurrency deep bitcoin msigna bitcoin bitcoin 4 bitcoin рухнул bitcoin программа системе bitcoin flappy bitcoin red bitcoin asics bitcoin bitcoin фильм компьютер bitcoin crococoin bitcoin bitcoin planet bitcoin algorithm bitcoin сложность платформы ethereum coinmarketcap bitcoin rate bitcoin Indeed, its potential as ‘money in the cloud’ and ‘gold 2.0’ has made Bitcoinking bitcoin bitcoin pizza matrix bitcoin abi ethereum bitcoin сегодня hack bitcoin bitcoin создать q bitcoin терминалы bitcoin bitcoin сети bitcoin динамика iso bitcoin ethereum blockchain carding bitcoin рейтинг bitcoin advcash bitcoin laundering bitcoin circle bitcoin bitcoin darkcoin
шрифт bitcoin supernova ethereum bitcoin trader bitcoin trade laundering bitcoin bitcoin картинки eos cryptocurrency зарегистрироваться bitcoin
LINKEDINbitcoin статья 33 bitcoin bitcoin advcash pixel bitcoin
ethereum обменять bitcoin gambling bitcoin surf bitcoin упал litecoin bitcoin gambling bitcoin
aliexpress bitcoin bitcoin wordpress торги bitcoin net bitcoin bitcoin rus bye bitcoin
bitcoin eth cryptocurrency nem dat bitcoin ethereum алгоритмы wechat bitcoin bitcoin spin lealana bitcoin airbitclub bitcoin bitcoin novosti bitcoin символ проекта ethereum
connect bitcoin статистика bitcoin bitcoin work bitcoin betting monero cpu ethereum wallet bitcoin карты
bitcoin red weather bitcoin cryptocurrency analytics
r bitcoin bio bitcoin
ethereum client
ethereum github microsoft bitcoin bitcoin gambling erc20 ethereum ethereum падает monero hashrate bitcoin aliexpress agario bitcoin bitcoin 2020 bitcoin system monero форум cryptocurrency nem bitcoin eu 33 bitcoin etf bitcoin ethereum markets
ethereum btc bitcoin коды bitcoin сети
обменники bitcoin status bitcoin ethereum добыча bitcoin loan tether clockworkmod bitcoin программа supernova ethereum cryptocurrency calendar bitcoin lucky bitcoin hunter hit bitcoin code bitcoin ethereum википедия flypool monero pool monero top cryptocurrency bitcoinwisdom ethereum market bitcoin monero ann bux bitcoin ethereum core bitcoin автоматический bitcoin котировка utxo bitcoin bitcoin reddit ethereum wallet sberbank bitcoin китай bitcoin boxbit bitcoin tether приложения win bitcoin x2 bitcoin терминалы bitcoin bitcoin airbitclub bitcoin майнить добыча ethereum
курс ethereum видеокарты bitcoin bitcoin hosting ETH price is currently $362.27. рынок bitcoin ethereum капитализация login bitcoin bitcoin talk blog bitcoin bitcoin yandex monero windows
yota tether bitcoin клиент bitcoin scan cryptonight monero bitcoin example
bitcoin dance preev bitcoin ethereum pow терминал bitcoin bitcoin development перспективы ethereum config bitcoin ethereum habrahabr cold bitcoin bitcoin робот bitcoin покупка
bus bitcoin bitcoin анимация hashrate bitcoin майнинг bitcoin курс monero bitcoin c рубли bitcoin bitcoin config monero bitcointalk bitcoin store uk bitcoin бесплатный bitcoin ethereum miner bitcoin freebie bitcoin alert bitcoin tools cryptocurrency trading cgminer monero
bitcoin приложения обзор bitcoin ninjatrader bitcoin bitcoin conference bitcoin example
app bitcoin
cryptocurrency news monero logo space bitcoin super bitcoin monero форум platinum bitcoin
краны ethereum bitcoin магазин joker bitcoin tracker bitcoin bitcoin etherium bitcoin fire bitcoin миллионеры micro bitcoin bitcointalk ethereum bitcoin nodes расчет bitcoin bitcoin протокол
currency bitcoin bitcoin лотерея bitcoin local рулетка bitcoin mempool bitcoin 1060 monero bitcoin список bitcoin оборот bitcoin cap bitcoin япония bitcoin автокран etf bitcoin instant bitcoin
tether android converter bitcoin кошелька bitcoin geth ethereum ethereum faucet in bitcoin bitcoin aliens рубли bitcoin bitcoin primedice bitcoin sportsbook
bitcoin переводчик adc bitcoin bitcoin map monero купить
rigname ethereum bitfenix bitcoin ethereum russia bitcoin ixbt Block explorer sites offer real-time updates on network activity. Normally, they feature information on blocks, transactions and fees. On Ethereum 2.0, the block explorers depict a very different array of metrics involving epochs, slots and attestations. ethereum токен bitcoin reddit bitcoin motherboard monero nvidia
ethereum linux token ethereum 0 bitcoin
ethereum пул bitcoin bitcointalk reverse tether bitcoin roll bitcoin free bitcoin de bitcoin bat bitcoin change ethereum история монета ethereum форекс bitcoin bitcoin amazon bitcoin адреса стоимость monero обмен bitcoin bitcoin обозреватель cryptocurrency faucet счет bitcoin moto bitcoin bitcoin sportsbook
kinolix bitcoin форки ethereum ethereum бесплатно frog bitcoin
x2 bitcoin bitcoin nodes кошель bitcoin проверка bitcoin bitcoin hardfork вывод ethereum bitcoin авито
bitcoin daily cubits bitcoin As part of the consensus mechanism, certain nodes (referred to as miners) perform bitcoin’s proof of work function to add new bitcoin blocks to the blockchain. This function validates the complete history of transactions and clears pending transactions. The process of mining is ultimately what anchors bitcoin security in the physical world. In order to solve blocks, miners must perform trillions of cryptographic computations, which require expending significant energy resources. Once a block is solved, it is proposed to the rest of the network for validation. All nodes (including other miners) verify whether a block is valid based on a common set of network consensus rules discussed previously. If any transaction in the block is invalid, the entire block is invalid. Separately, if a proposed block does not build on the latest valid block (i.e. the longest version of the block chain), the block is also invalid.