It took a bit more than two years for Charlie Lee to launch Litecoin. He dubbed it “silver to Bitcoin’s gold” and a “light version of Bitcoin”. Two things are evident right away: Litecoin is a technological upgrade that improves upon Bitcoin’s foundation and it is one of the oldest cryptocurrencies out there.
One would expect a digital asset with such properties to have a considerable market capitalization. Indeed, in the first years of Litecoin’s existence it was seen as a serious rival to Bitcoin. In time, it gave way to Ethereum, Ripple, and other cryptocurrencies; even Doge is higher on the list, ranking 6th compared to Litecoin’s 9th. The Dogecoin community mocked Lee on April 1st, voting for him as Doge’s CEO.
The primary reason why Litecoin does not soar high is the fact that consumers follow the market trends rather than logic and reason. Also, there are just too many alternatives: Ether, Solana, Harmony, Horizen, Internet Computer, Waves… Choose whatever you wish. On top of that, it is not unheard of that information sources are biased.
‘How does Litecoin work?’ is indeed a technical question, and diving into it too deep would take more time than necessary. We will cover the key differences between Litecoin and Bitcoin, who uses Litecoin and how to use Litecoin herein.
How does Litecoin work: in general and in particular
The most general question we saw on the web is, ‘What does Litecoin do?’
Bitcoin and its forks are public ledgers. They allow the transfer of “money” units between users and keep a verifiable record of transactions, thus eliminating the need for a third party in the role of the regulator. They require an underlying technology to function: Internet, blockchain, and cryptography.
In the early days of Bitcoin, it looked like a childish game. Suppose that I want to send you one BTC, so I assign a network fee to my transaction and broadcast it to all the network users. The users act as witnesses: they pick the transaction up and one of them gets to append it to the public ledger. That person collects the fees and the mining reward. Wow, cool, we really do not need a central authority to rule the exchange of value over a certain network and singlehandedly control all the currency emission. So what do we do with the “toy money” now?
It took time before the realization came: digital coins are not merely toy money, they are not at all different from fiat money. The coins cost as much as people agree for them to cost. Then, the rush began.
Bitcoin absorbed too much public attention while plenty of the coins, including Litecoin, stayed undervalued. We have briefly described the technology behind Bitcoin but this is exactly how Litecoin works, too. What is different though?
* The maximal supply of Litecoin is 84B compared to Bitcoin’s 21B.
* Litecoin network creates new blocks approximately every 2.5 minutes, four times faster than Bitcoin’s, but the block reward is four times lower.
Having an actual developer team (Litecoin Foundation) behind a cryptocurrency. The team drives the network improvements and facilitates the emergence of new partnerships around the globe.
As for the question, ‘What is Litecoin used for?’ the inherent properties of the underlying Bitcoin’s technology alone would be enough to secure Litecoin a strong position as a means of exchange. Litecoin’s light and fast implementation actually deserves more acceptance.
What is Litecoin used for?
One of the previous articles we did on Litecoin elucidated how major marketplaces reluctantly joined the crypto revolution and started to accept crypto as payment. Either directly or through an intermediary (e.g., a browser extension or a payment system) it is possible to rent property, buy cat food, arrange a weekend abroad, or buy a bicycle on Amazon, you name it.
What is Litecoin used for?
Litecoin is used for trade or a store of value.
Another way to answer the question is, ‘Whatever conventional money is used for’. It might sound unreal to you but that’s the way it is!
Who uses Litecoin
It is unbelievably easy to start using Litecoin: any credible online wallet service or our mobile application can provide you with a Litecoin address for any applicable purpose. There is no need to download the full blockchain although you could do that, too. Anyone can start using Litecoin in a matter of seconds.
How about business entities?
Not so long ago, Litecoin partnered with Atari. Quite a few progressive fintech companies have already integrated Litecoin as one of the available currencies: PayPal, VISA. MasterCard made a respective announcement about crypto integration earlier this year. We have barely scratched the surface here; the list of companies that accept Litecoin is much, much longer.
How to use Litecoin
Have you got a wallet yet? As soon as you have it, the rest is fairly easy (it is exceptionally easy with Trustee: a couple of clicks is enough to buy LTC for fiat). The use cases of Litecoin are evident: trade, invest, have fun, and make profits.
Quite a bunch of progressive mobile wallets, including Trustee, facilitate the transfers of crypto through QR codes. It means that wherever you can access the Internet with your mobile device, you can pay with Litecoin. It usually takes minutes for a transaction to go through.
How to use Litecoin from now on is totally up to you! Make the best use of it.
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