Cryptocurrency investors are more interested in bitcoin because of its high market value and the popularity it has. However, some altcoins have proven to be a good investment decision if one should venture into it early as the price of a token is still low as compared to the bitcoin. One of this alternative is Litecoin (LTC).

On the litecoin official website, Litecoin is seen as, ”a peer-to-peer Internet currency that allows instant, near-zero cost payments to anyone in the world.”

Litecoin or LTC is one of the first altcoins, and it was forked from Bitcoin. That is, it was developed using the bitcoin’s existing protocol. Some people consider litecoin as the younger sibling of bitcoin because it works exactly like bitcoin regarding coins mining activities and the blockchain technology it utilizes to maintain a public ledger of all transactions.

At the time of writing this post, 1 LTC trades at $123.94, and it currently sits on the 6th position according to coinmarketcap ranking with a market cap of $7.03B.

The litecoin blockchain is capable of handling higher transaction volume than the bitcoin. Also, the speed of confirming a transaction on the litecoin network is faster compared to bitcoin.

History of Litecoin, LTC

Litecoin was released on October 7, 2011, by a former Google employee, Charlie Lee. The brain behind the network was to create a lighter version of bitcoin where transactions will be faster, and the transfer fee per transaction will be low.

On October 13, 2011, litecoin went live, and the following month, the aggregate value of the coin surged massively with a 100% leap within 24hrs.

Litecoin vs Bitcoin

Speed: Even though Litecoin was developed as a direct replica of bitcoin, the rate of confirming a transaction on the litecoin network is faster compared to the time it takes to verify a transaction on the bitcoin network.

Coin Supply Limit: One of the main reason why most cryptocurrencies have high value is that of its limited supply of tokens. Litecoin was designed to produce 84 million tokens in its lifetime which is four times as many currencies than bitcoin that is developed to create just 21 million coins.

Mining of Coins: This is the process of confirming a transaction, and it is determined by the hashing algorithm that each of the networks uses to solve a block, which involves the computation of complex mathematical puzzle. The litecoin network uses an algorithm known as ‘Scrypt’ while bitcoin uses an SHA-256 algorithm (secure hash algorithm 2).

How to Buy Litecoin

Buying litecoin directly can be a little bit difficult. In most cases, an investor is required to purchase bitcoin first before exchanging it for litecoin.

However, there are few exchanges where cryptocurrency investors can purchase Litecoins with a fiat currency and not using the regular bitcoin to litecoin exchange.

Binance: World’s number 1 exchange. Huge amount of cryptos to buy and sell.

Kraken: This is one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, and it deals mainly with bitcoin, but they still offer an option to buy other cryptocurrencies like litecoin. Kraken accepts some payment option like; USD bank wire, SEPA transfer, etc.

Litecoinlocal: Here, users that have litecoin for sale display adverts while interested buyers contact them and they use litecoinlocal as escrow.

Other platforms to buy litecoin include Bitrush, Coinbase, etc.

How to Store your Litecoin

Hardware wallet: These are physical wallets where cryptocurrencies like litecoin are stored. They come in different forms, but the most common of it is a USB stick style. A good example is Litecoin ledger nano S.

Desktop wallet: These wallets are download and installed on a particular PC and can only be accessible on that particular device. A good example is litecoin Exodus.

Mobile wallet: These are very easy to use, all you need is to download the litecoin app from the official website and install the app on your smartphone and use it at your convenience.

Paper wallet: These are like hardware wallets, but they are a little bit different. It involves the printing of your public and private keys on a piece of paper and then stores it in a secured place. The key is in the form of QR codes that can be scanned in the future.

Conclusion

Litecoin has made significant progress since its inception. Although it is still an underrated coin, it has shown that it is very competitive by adopting bitcoin’s mode of operation and beating them in their game in cases like faster confirmation transaction and a host of other advantages.

Recent history has shown how new cryptocurrencies have come into the digital currency space and becoming relevant within few months. Litecoin, however, needs to stay updated with latest innovations in order not to become irrelevant and lose its top ten position in the coinmarketcap ranking.