Litecoin (LTC) is one of the first altcoins in the world. Like Bitcoin, it undergoes a halving event every 4 years. Litecoin is the first project in the history of blockchain to have similar working groups after Bitcoin. In this article, we will discuss what Litecoin is and what it does.
What is Litecoin?
Litecoin is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency created in 2011 by former Google engineer Charlie Lee. It is a fork of the Bitcoin blockchain, but it uses a different algorithm called Scrypt. This makes Litecoin transactions faster and more affordable than Bitcoin transactions.
How does it work?
Litecoin shares many features with Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Both Litecoin and Bitcoin use an open-source blockchain and the Proof of Work(PoW) consensus mechanism. However, Litecoin uses a different algorithm to validate blocks than Bitcoin. Bitcoin uses the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA), while Litecoin uses an algorithm called Scrypt. This difference in algorithms is intended to prevent institutional miners from dominating the Litecoin network.
In addition to its algorithm, Litecoin differs from Bitcoin in two main ways. First, Litecoin blocks are mined four times faster than Bitcoin blocks. This means that Litecoin transactions can be confirmed more quickly. Second, Litecoin has a total supply of 81 million coins, which is four times the total supply of Bitcoin.
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Litecoin Mining
Litecoin mining is done using devices called ASICs, which are specially produced for this purpose. Mining Litecoin is quite difficult and cannot be done with a simple video card. As with Bitcoin, there is a halving every 4 years. This means that the reward for mining a block is halved every 4 years. For example, the reward for mining a block was 25 LTC on August 25, 2015, while the current reward is 12.5 LTC. On August 23, 2023, the reward will be 6.25 LTC.
Team
Charlie-Lee Keith Young Alan Dustin Jay Milla
Co-Founder Operational Manager General Director Marketing Manager
Tokenomics of Litecoin
Litecoin tokens were not given to the team members or the founder. They were only distributed as a reward to Bitcoin holders at the time. Because Litecoin was forked from Bitcoin, BTC holders received LTC equivalent to the assets they held. The newly released LTC token can only be created through mining. The maximum supply is limited to 84 million units. As the project’s mechanism is Proof of Work (PoW), miners are currently rewarded with 12.5 LTC for each block they mine.
Litecoin Market Statics
According to CoinMarketCap data, the maximum supply of Litecoin is 84 million LTC. The circulating supply of Litecoin is 73,079,789 LTC, which represents 87% of the total supply. The market capitalization of Litecoin is $6,382,609,933.
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