Back In 2009, a janapense programmer going by the name Satoshi Nakamoto launched bitcoin as the world’s first cryptocurrency or atleast that is what is believed , since then many pother rumours and scenarios have surfaced , but it matters less tothe current situation.

The code of the Bitcoin was and still is open source, this means in laymans terms that it can be changed and altered by anyone and to be used for any project they see fit. that was the start of many other digital currencies that used this original code to create their own cryptocurrency . some were made successful other not so much.

Litecoin was build and designed like the robin to Batman, not to just replacve them but to assist and in its own terms become successful.

The crucial difference between bitcoin and litecoin.

bitcoin litecoin Coin limit 21 Million 84 Million Algorithm SHA-256 Scrypt Mean block time 10 minutes 2.5 minutes Difficulty retarget 2016 block 2016 blocks Block reward details Halved every 210,000 blocks. Halved every 840,000 blocks Initial reward 50 BTC 50 LTC Current block reward 25 BTC 50 LTC Block explorer blockchain.info block-explorer.com Created by Satoshi Nakamoto Charles Lee Creation date January 3rd, 2009 October 7th, 2011 Market cap $10,467,596,650.78 $540,274,528.26 Bitcoin Statistics Litecoin Statistics

Mining differences

Just like bitcoin, litecoin is a crytocurrency that is generated by mining. Litecoin was created in October 2011 by former Google engineer Charles Lee. The motivation behind its creation was to improve upon bitcoin. The key difference for end-users being the 2.5 minute time to generate a block, as opposed to bitcoin’s 10 minutes. Charles Lee now works for Coinbase, one of the most popular online bitcoin wallets.

For miners and enthusiasts though, litecoin holds a much more important difference to bitcoin, and that is its different proof of work algorithm. Bitcoin uses the SHA-256 hashing algorithm, which involves calculations that can be greatly accelerated in parallel processing. It is this characteristic that has given rise to the intense race in ASIC technology, and has caused an exponential increase in bitcoin’s difficulty level.

Litecoin, however, uses the scrypt algorithm – originally named as s-crypt, but pronounced as ‘script’. This algorithm incorporates the SHA-256 algorithm, but its calculations are much more serialised than those of SHA-256 in bitcoin. Scrypt favours large amounts of high-speed RAM, rather than raw processing power alone. As a result, scrypt is known as a ‘memory hard problem’.

The consequences of using scrypt mean that there has not been as much of an ‘arms race’ in litecoin (and other scrypt currencies), because there is (so far) no ASIC technology available for this algorithm. However, this is soon to change, thanks to companies like Alpha Technologies, which is now taking preorders.

To highlight the difference in hashing power, at the time of writing, the total hashing rate of the bitcoin network is over 20,000 Terra Hashes per second, while litecoin is just 95,642 Mega Hashes per second.

For the time being, ‘state of the art’ litecoin mining rigs come in the form of custom PCs fitted with multiple graphics cards (ie: GPUs). These devices can handle the calculations needed for scrypt and have access to blisteringly fast memory built into their own circuit boards.

There was a time when people could use GPU mining for bitcoin, but ASICs have made this method not worth the effort.

Transaction differences

The main difference is that litecoin can confirm transactions must faster than bitcoin. The implications of that are as follows:

Litecoin can handle a higher volume of transactions thanks to its faster block generation. If bitcoin were to try to match this, it would require significant updates to the code that everyone on the bitcoin network is currently running.

The disadvantage of this higher volume of blocks is that the litecoin blockchain will be proportionately larger than bitcoin’s, with more orphaned blocks.

The faster block time of litecoin reduces the risk of double spending attacks – this is theoretical in the case of both networks having the same hashing power.

A merchant who waited for a minimum of two confirmations would only need to wait five minutes, whereas they would have to wait 10 minutes for just one confirmation with bitcoin.

Transaction speed (or faster block time) and confirmation speed are often touted as moot points by many involved in bitcoin, as most merchants would allow zero-confirmation transactions for most purchases. It is necessary to bear in mind that a transaction is instant, it is just confirmed by the network as it propagates.

Summary Both Bitcoin and Litecoin are deflationary. Litecoin payment confirmations are faster. Litecoin is more adaptive to technical up-scaling. Both coins can compliment each other.

Comparing two stocks to find out the relatively better value buy is quite easy for a traditional research analyst who deals with equity market. The number of parameters available for comparison is wide and time tested, starting from a simple quarterly result’s net profit to complex ones like debt equity ratio, PE, trailing EPS etc. Stocks are categorized by its market capitalization and industry to make the study more focused. But when comes to crypto world, we don’t have any time tested parameters to filer out the naked ones from others which are promising and disruptive in nature. So an investor who decided to invest in crypto currencies have to overcome this black-hole by using some simple traditional techniques which requires normal IQ level only. Let us first discuss about the similarities between these two coins and then step in to future outlook of Litecoin. 1. Both Bitcoin and Litecoin are deflationary These crux behind the deflationary nature is simple defined by the demand supply logic in basic economics. The supply of both these coins will be tapered in coming years and at the same time demand will be increasing if something catastrophic is not happening in crypto space. Bitcoin will have 21 million coinsin its entire life span and Litecoin will have 84 million, which is exactly 4 times that of Bitcoin. Considering the fact that in early days, people gave little importance on secure storage, millions worth coins were lost which cannot be recovered by any chance. This is the reason why both of these coins are considered deflationary in nature. The current supply of Bitcoin is nearly 16.4 million whereas Litecoin has 51.85 million coins in circulation.

“When I released Litecoin there were a lot of other cryptocurrencies that were pre-mined by founders wanted to be super rich. I preannounced Litecoin on Bitcointalk, so people could mine it from the get go. It was more widely distributed from the start than Bitcoin.” Charlee Lee, Litecoin founder

2. Litecoin payment confirmations are faster

The block generation time of Bitcoin is 10 minutes and Litecoin is 2.5 minutes. In simple terms, it means that transactions are confirmed 4 times faster in Litecoin. The downside of smaller block generation time is, it is easy for reversal of transaction compared to a larger block. Since the value of Bitcoin is high, Litecoin’s future lies in using it for small transactions as the transaction fees associated is negligible compared to Bitcoin’s transactions.

Litecoin has a large economy and our technology works on Litecoin with almost no changes. We like ethereum too, but ethereum is too different from bitcoin for us to easily switch. Litecoin has the best combination of economic size and technical similarity to bitcoin. On Litecoin, transaction fees are only a few cents. This means users can comfortably load only $1 onto our network while still paying negligible fees. This is a radically lower barrier to entry compared to $100 for bitcoin. Litecoin is one hundred times better for our application today than bitcoin. Ryan X. Charles, Yours

3. Both coins are based on “Proof of Work” concept

The coin rewarding functionality of both Bitcoin and Litecoin are based on the concept of proof of work, though their algorithms differ. Bitcoin is using SHA-256 and Litecoin is using scrypt algorithm. SHA-256 is a complex algorithm and data block processing with SHA-256 possess slower—transaction turnaround times with less room for error. Successful mining of coins using SHA-256 requires hash rates at the giga hashes per second range or higher which means miners need high performing ASIC chips. Scrypt is simpler and it is is much easier to run on GPUs, and tends to use up less energy than using SHA-256.

Future Outlook for Litecoin

Litecoin is more adaptive to technical up-scaling

If we compare the history and road-map of Bitcoin and Litecoin, it is evident that the later has been well ahead in adapting new improvement plans. Segwit is already activated in Litecoin without any political doldrums. The founder Charlee Lee has joined back at Litecoin foundation after his stint in coinbase. The team behind Litecoin is now working on Lightning network and adding smart contracts. Once implemented successfully, these two projects can change the future of Litecoin.

Lightning Network

I believe Litecoin will be the first crypto to implement lightning network which would increase the scalability of transactions. Ind is one of the implementations which is in the final stages and expected to complete in next 6 months. Once lightning network is implemented, the number of transactions per second can grow to millions.

Smart Contracts

The future road-map of Litecoin shows its interest in anonymous smart contracts. Smart crypt vault is one of the items on the roadmap Charlie Lee is excited about. The technology combines MAST (Merkelized abstract syntax trees) and covenants – script combinations that restrict how coins are spent. The team is expecting a positive outcome in this month on this as per Charlie’s tweet.

Conclusion

Charlee Lee introduced Litecoin as “silver crypto currency” when Bitcoin took the name of “Crypto gold”. If we understand the fundamental logic behind both the coins, we don’t need rocket science knowledge or high IQ to understand the fact that Litecoin is heavily undervalued. The ideal price of Litecoin is ultimately pegged with 1/4th of Bitcoin price. This is by the simple calculation of supply of coins, 21 million vs 84 million. According to google keyword search, Litecoin is still not in limelight like Bitcoin or Ethereum. This can change in near future and both the coins can compliment each other on a long run.