If you’ve read any news over the past three years, you’ve surely heard and seen the word Bitcoin and know it’s a cryptocurrency. But you may not have heard of heard of Litecoin, an important and competing cryptocurrency.

What is Litecoin?

Litecoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer payment method that is relatively innovative at adopting new market technologies. Litecoin was one of the first forks of Bitcoin, which came about when Google employee Charlie Lee attempted to solve some of the problems currently found in the Bitcoin blockchain. Litecoin presents a solution to the cost and scalability issues present when using Bitcoin. Instead of taking almost ten minutes (or longer!) to process a transaction, Litecoin only takes about two and half minutes. Also, Litecoin has a much higher market cap than Bitcoin, meaning it is less lucrative to mine and thus keeps the costs of transaction fees low and the pool of miners large.

How Do I Get Litecoin?

First and foremost, you must have a wallet to store your cryptocurrency on. There are many options out there for this. Decide whether you want a hardware wallet or an app and then go from there. If you decide you want an application that will work on your cell phone (and be convenient wherever you go) I highly recommend Coinbase. And the nice thing about Coinbase is you can hook it to your bank account and buy cryptocurrencies directly without having to make an additional account with an exchange. There is also an official Litecoin desktop wallet if you’re more of a computer user. If you decide you would rather go the hardware route, the two biggest wallets on the market are the Ledger Nano S and the Trezor.

Once you have your wallet, like I mentioned above, you can visit almost any exchange to purchase your Litecoin. This will require making an account with whatever exchange you choose. The most highly recommended markets for this are Bittrex if you’re in America or OKEx if you are in Asia. If you’d rather not purchase from an exchange, you can always trade with friends or family. On the flip side, if you have the knowledge and equipment, you can also set up your computer to mine Litecoin. While this is more rewarding the mining Bitcoin, mining any cryptocurrency can be difficult and take more money than you make. Ensure you look into the entire process of mining before you being to invest.

Litecoin Reddit

After you’ve purchased your Litecoin, I highly recommend you begin to be involved with the Litecoin community. And the best way to do that is by visiting the Litecoin reddit thread.

This thread had over 209 thousand followers and posts up to date information about Litecoin prices, improvements, and even scams. If you decide to mine Litecoin, following this thread is especially important as it will provide information on mining and connect you with other miners.

Beyond just the basic thread, there are many Litecoin subreddits that can be useful depending on what you are planning to use Litecoin for. If you are planning to use it for purchases, well I hate to burst your bubble but there are very few places currently accepting Litecoin (but there are a few! More on that later), however, if you are looking to make money by trading or investing Litecoin, it is probably in your best interest to check out an investment subreddit. Now Litecoin doesn’t have it’s own investment group on reddit, but there are many subreddits that encompass Litecoin investing. If you are in Australia, I highly recommend checking out the reddit r/CryptoAus. This thread is for anyone who wishes to invest in cryptocurrencies in Australia. It’s a small group, but well moderated and could help you get started in the trading world. If you don’t live in Australia, check out the thread r/crypto_invest or r/BTCForum. Neither of these Reddits are Litecoin specific, but both post frequent posts or articles on the cryptocurrency.

Even if Reddit isn’t you’re thing, it’s important to stay in the know as a cryptocurrency investor. I suggest also following @Litecoin and @LiteCoinNews on twitter. Both accounts post current events as they relate to the cryptocurrency and Litecoin worlds.

How Do I Use It?

So now you have some Litecoin and have read up on the news and you’re probably wondering just what you can do with it. Ultimately, Litecoin was designed to be a person to person payment system, so next time you need to pay someone, why not ask if you can do so in Litecoin? Of course this is a bit far fetched, but you never know what the answer may be!

Now, if you’re unable to pay friends with Litecoin, you’re probably looking for another use. Well lucky for Litecoin fans out there, in early 2019 the Miami Dolphins adopted Litecoin as their official cryptocurrency. You can now use Litecoin to buy tickets for their games as well as merchandise. This only applies to tickets and items purchased directly from the Miami dolphins organization. You can also use your Litecoin at CryptoPet, an online pet apparel company that not only accepts Litecoin, but a slew of other cryptocurrencies as well. For those who enjoy travel, CheapAir.com will accept Litecoin when purchasing flights. If you want someone to plan your travel for you, check out BTCtrip, a company that accepts Bitcoin and Litecoin as payment for vacation planning and hotel bookings.

Besides just shopping, Litecoin can also be used for gambling. Many online cryptocurrency casinos are currently outfitting themselves to accept Litecoin in the near future. One of the best on the market, MintDice, hopes to have their Litecoin payment system up and running in the next year. On MintDice, you can use your cryptocurrency not only to gamble on games like dice and slots, but also to invest in the house bankroll.

These are not all the uses for Litecoin, and there are many more out there. If you’re serious about making Litecoin a regular part of your every day shopping life, check out CoinSpent, which lists many ways in which you can spend your Litecoin. If you have questions about Litecoin, there are many free guides online which can guide you through purchasing, investing, and even mining this cryptocurrency.

Article brought to you by the MintDice cryptocurrency casino. Originally posted on MintDice.