Litecoin Guide: Best Exchanges for Buying Litecoin

Litecoin Was Created for Speed

Upon its establishment in 2011, Litecoin quickly became the second most popular cryptocurrency to make its way onto the markets. Litecoin is similar to the bitcoin network, sharing much of the original codebase. Its intentions where simple: provide a faster experience with less friction when compared to what is offered by the bitcoin network. Like many other peer to peer digital currencies, Litecoin claims to be the best for payments, offering fast transaction times and low fees.

History of Litecoin: Humble Origins, Big Plans

Litecoin is the brainchild of ex-Google employee, Charlie Lee. The Litecoin Foundation, a non-profit company based out of Singapore was started to oversee the long-term development of this cryptocurrency. However, it wasn’t until 2013 that Litecoin began receiving massive amounts of market attention. This occurred after a software release that fixed many of the issues not addressed in the initial version of the coin.

In total, Litecoin became worth more than a billion dollars just two years after its initial launch – not too shabby. The coin would then follow Bitcoin through the market swings, including a massive rise during the crypto bubble in December 2017.

Litecoin, like Bitcoin, adopts the process of mining to release new coins into circulation. In 2019, the amount of LTC being issued by the network per block decreased by half, from 25 to 12.5. As a result, the number of miners participating in the mining of Litecoin decreased significantly, indicating a loss in popularity, and incentive to participate in the network.

Where to Buy Litecoin

To understand how to buy LTC, you need to understand cryptocurrency exchanges. These are platforms where you can trade one crypto type for another, or non-digital assets like fiat currency (traditional money like the USD, CAD, EUR, GPB etc.) You’ll need your debit card or credit card handy to purchase your first LTC. You can buy Litecoin at many crypto exchanges, including:

• Coinbase
• Binance
• KuCoin
• Huobi
• Kraken
• Coinmama
• Bitpanda

Advantages of Litecoin: Scalability, Supply and Swiftness

Litecoin has several notable differences that set it apart from Bitcoin. The coin has four times the supply (84 Million). Moreover, Litecoin has an average block time of 2.5 minutes, which is a quarter of Bitcoin’s, allowing Litecoin to publish blocks at a faster rate. (Block time is the period it takes to validate a new batch of transactions.)

This ultimately means that Litecoin is inherently more scalable than the bitcoin network. Faster blocks mean that Litecoin can handle more transactions on the network. Furthermore, Litecoin has a larger max block size of 4 MB, allowing each block to hold four times the volume of transactions than Bitcoin.

When compared to other blockchain networks, LTC gets to leverage the upgrades that take place on other networks (built on similar technology such as Bitcoin, and Bitcoin Cash). The best example of this is when Bitcoin was upgraded with a technology called “Segregated Witness” and Litecoin was able to be improved with minimal alterations to make it compatible for Litecoin’s codebase.

Litecoin being second to market in the realm of cryptocurrency has allowed it to establish dominance as a sort of silver medal winner with Bitcoin taking the gold. Finally, LTC is often the second cryptocurrency that newcomers to the world of crypto get exposed to, with Ethereum also gaining ground and vying for that number 2 spot. Hang in there, Litecoin!

Disadvantages of Litecoin: A Copycat Investment

Litecoin is very much a copy of Bitcoin. There isn’t anything necessarily novel or innovative about Litecoin, which makes its value offering less appealing for those looking to invest in the latest and greatest. LTC has the same amount of capability as BTC, which pales in comparison to something like Ethereum or EOS, which are platforms that have enabled smart contracts – a program designed to digitally facilitate, authenticate or compel contracts without the need for a third party.

LTC still appears to be much more like an investment, rather than an actual currency, due to the value of Litecoin being very volatile. That being said, you can still buy LTC and trade/spend it easily.

If you are new to the world of cryptocurrency or are looking to add something different to your crypto wallet, Litecoin could prove to be beneficial. Although it’s not the OG like Bitcoin, LTC has emerged as one of the best second in commands since Jonah Hill in Moneyball – or basically every movie he’s in.