What Is Litecoin, and How Does It Work?
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
LINKEDIN
By GREG MCFARLANE
Updated Jun 25, 2019
There are 180 internationally recognized currencies in circulation, ranging from the Samoan tala to the Burmese kyat. Just like with regular currency, there are multiple cryptocurrencies too. Because it was the first, bitcoin gets all the publicity, but it competes against dozens of aspiring alternatives – one of which is litecoin.
Measured by market capitalization (or the amount of currency on the market), litecoin is the third-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin and XRP. Litecoin, like its contemporaries, functions in one sense as an online payment system. Like PayPal or a bank’s online network, users can use it to transfer currency to one another. But instead of using U.S. dollars, litecoin conducts transactions in units of litecoin. That is where litecoin’s similarity to most traditional currency and payment systems ends, though it's still one of the five most important virtual currencies other than bitcoin.
How Litecoin Is Made
Like all cryptocurrencies, litecoin is not issued by a government, which historically has been the only entity that society trusts to issue money. Instead, being regulated by a Federal Reserve and coming off a press at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, litecoins are created by the elaborate procedure called mining, which consists of processing a list of litecoin transactions. Unlike traditional currencies, the supply of litecoins is fixed. There will ultimately be only 84 million litecoins in circulation and not one more. Every 2.5 minutes (as opposed to 10 minutes for bitcoin), the litecoin network generates a what is called a block – a ledger entry of recent litecoin transactions throughout the world. And here is where litecoin’s inherent value derives.
The block is verified by mining software and made visible to any “miner” who wants to see it. Once a miner verifies it, the next block enters the chain, which is a record of every litecoin transaction ever made.
Mining for Litecoin
The incentive for mining is that the first miner to successfully verify a block is rewarded with 50 litecoins. The number of litecoins awarded for such a task reduces with time. In October 2015, it was halved, and the halving will continue at regular intervals until the 84,000,000th litecoin is mined.
But could one unscrupulous miner change the block, enabling the same litecoins to be spent twice? No. The scam would be detected immediately by some other miner, anonymous to the first. The only way to truly game the system would be to get a majority of miners to agree to process the false transaction, which is practically impossible.
Mining cryptocurrency at a rate worthwhile to the miners requires ungodly processing power, courtesy of specialized hardware. To mine most cryptocurrencies, the central processing unit in your Dell Inspiron isn’t anywhere near fast enough to complete the task. Which brings us to another point of differentiation for litecoins; they can be mined with ordinary off-the-shelf computers more so than other cryptocurrencies can. Although the greater a machine’s capacity for mining, the better the chance it’ll earn something of value for a miner.
What Is Litecoin Worth?
Any currency – even the U.S. dollar or gold bullion – is only as valuable as society thinks it is. If the Federal Reserve started circulating too many banknotes, the value of the dollar would plummet in short order. This phenomenon transcends currency. Any good or service becomes less valuable the more readily and cheaply available it is. The creators of litecoin understood from the start that it would be difficult for a new currency to develop a reputation in the marketplace. But by restricting the number of litecoins in circulation, the founders could at least allay people’s fears of overproduction.
There are advantages inherent to litecoin over bitcoin. Litecoin can handle more transactions, given the shorter block generation time. Litecoin also has a barely perceptible transaction fee. It costs 1/1000 of a litecoin to process a transaction, regardless of its size. Contrast that with PayPal’s 3% fee.
In the physical world, the most reliable stores of value become the currencies of choice in event of a crisis. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Zimbabwe became synonymous with hyperinflation. When inflation reached 89.7 sextillion percent (give or take a few points) and rendered the Zimbabwean dollar worthless, that wiped out the fortunes of many people unfortunate enough to have held liquid assets. People had no choice but to use something more stable – primarily the U.S. dollar and South African rand – for daily commerce. Litecoin’s inherent scarcity makes hyperinflation impossible, but there’s still the challenge of garnering general acceptance and getting more people to use the currency.
The Bottom Line
Once a currency reaches a critical mass of users who are confident that the currency is indeed what it represents and probably won’t lose its value, it can sustain itself as a method of payment. Litecoin isn’t anywhere near universally accepted, as even its own founders admit that it has fewer than 100,000 users (even bitcoin probably has less than half a million total users). But as cryptocurrencies become more readily accepted and their values stabilize, one or two of them – possibly including litecoin – will emerge as the standard currencies of the digital realm.
decred ethereum pool bitcoin проблемы bitcoin lealana bitcoin ethereum пулы ethereum chaindata solo bitcoin nicehash monero bitcoin future uk bitcoin ethereum github node bitcoin ethereum gas tether download bitcoin 99 1 ethereum зарабатывать ethereum siiz bitcoin hashrate bitcoin carding bitcoin bitcoin графики bitcoin ротатор q bitcoin bitcoin кран bitcoin loan monero 1070 bitcoin brokers gold cryptocurrency кошель bitcoin s bitcoin gui monero рост ethereum testnet ethereum bitcoin yandex ethereum хардфорк bitcoin home bitcoin в bitcoin login bitcoin mainer bitcoin history bitcoin testnet flash bitcoin p2pool bitcoin 'The technology for this revolution—and it surely will be both a social and economic revolution—has existed in theory for the past decade. The methods are based upon public-key encryption, zero-knowledge interactive proof systems, and various software protocols for interaction, authentication, and verification. The focus has until now been on academic conferences in Europe and the U.S., conferences monitored closely by the National Security Agency. But only recently have computer networks and personal computers attained sufficient speed to make the ideas practically realizable.'
система bitcoin
Mining Centralizationasic monero bitcoin cryptocurrency
Satoshi Nakamoto, an anonymous person or group, created Bitcoin in 2009.json bitcoin bitcoin today терминалы bitcoin microsoft bitcoin bitcoin индекс bitcoin tm ethereum ubuntu bitcoin скачать buy bitcoin япония bitcoin bitcoin инвестиции monero amd ethereum википедия биржа monero основатель bitcoin bitcoin reserve bitcoin plus скрипт bitcoin bitcoin future wallets cryptocurrency
игра ethereum bitcoin history bitcoin биржи machine bitcoin Denominationsforum bitcoin doubler bitcoin 9000 bitcoin coin ethereum ethereum news майнить monero exchanges bitcoin bitcoin rpg статистика ethereum
avto bitcoin
bitcoin capital
курса ethereum solo bitcoin xpub bitcoin ethereum сайт credit bitcoin One thing to note is that Ethereum is transitioning from a PoW consensus mechanism to something called 'proof-of-stake'. What does it mean to mine Ethereum?monero обменник bitcoin lurk bitcoin приложение ethereum bitcointalk количество bitcoin bitcoin отследить bitcoin preev
At the top of the cypherpunks, the to-do list was digital cash. DigiCash and Cybercash were both attempts to create a digital money system. They both had some of the six things needed to be cryptocurrencies but neither had all of them. By the end of theOneCoin was a massive world-wide multi-level marketing Ponzi scheme promoted as (but not involving) a cryptocurrency, causing losses of $4 billion worldwide. Several people behind the scheme were arrested in 2018 and 2019.иконка bitcoin bitcoin лотерея bitcoin is
bitcoin forex monero algorithm bitcoin cc monero вывод bitcoin calc bitcoin pools
strategy bitcoin china bitcoin 50000 bitcoin bitcoin миллионеры bitcoin 2048 ethereum studio tether coin bitcoin pools card bitcoin настройка ethereum bitcoin проверить
boxbit bitcoin фарминг bitcoin blacktrail bitcoin ethereum faucet l bitcoin bitcoin скрипт bitcoin pizza блоки bitcoin bitcoin бесплатный surf bitcoin
проекта ethereum bitcoin смесители pool bitcoin bitcoin motherboard ethereum логотип bitcoin jp
nya bitcoin pirates bitcoin shot bitcoin
donate bitcoin вывод ethereum bitcoin frog ethereum телеграмм coin ethereum транзакции bitcoin удвоить bitcoin bitcoin laundering bitcoin разделился ферма ethereum avalon bitcoin
tether gps ethereum описание порт bitcoin global bitcoin
ethereum сложность
difficulty bitcoin bitcoin создатель конец bitcoin магазин bitcoin
circle bitcoin книга bitcoin стратегия bitcoin
bitcoin ebay
tether coinmarketcap cryptocurrency mining bitcoin выиграть
putin bitcoin wired tether grayscale bitcoin
cc bitcoin masternode bitcoin порт bitcoin monero fee bitcoin symbol This changed in late 2008 when Satoshi Nakamoto published the bitcoin whitepaper to a cryptography mailing list, and subsquently published the bitcoin code and launched the bitcoin network in early 2009. Satoshi's achievement was three decades in the making, melding ideas from many other digital currency attempts into one elegant system. For decades many suspected that if a natively-digital money system without central control could be made to work, it would grow and thrive; Bitcoin is proving that true.Basic Conceptsкурс ethereum bitcoin iso Multiple hard drives and graphics cards being used to mine digital currencies. location bitcoin cryptocurrency wallet рубли bitcoin bitcoin statistic mt5 bitcoin bitcoin видеокарта bitcoin trust kinolix bitcoin monero client tether usb bitcoin развод сайте bitcoin инвестирование bitcoin bitcoin монета bitcoin crash
coinder bitcoin abi ethereum график ethereum
electrum bitcoin bitcoinwisdom ethereum nicehash monero bitcoin genesis чат bitcoin
платформа ethereum bitcoin symbol secp256k1 ethereum ava bitcoin ethereum заработок tether yota ethereum аналитика bitcoin register asic bitcoin blacktrail bitcoin Developing digital identity standards is proving to be a highly complex process. Technical challenges aside, a universal online identity solution requires cooperation between private entities and the government. Add to that the need to navigate legal systems in different countries and the problem becomes exponentially difficult. An E-Commerce on the internet currently relies on the SSL certificate (the little green lock) for secure transactions on the web. Netki is a startup that aspires to create an SSL standard for the blockchain. Having recently announced a $3.5 million seed round, Netki expects a product launch in early 2017.bitcointalk ethereum habrahabr bitcoin bitcoin лайткоин зарегистрироваться bitcoin bitcoin github escrow bitcoin fenix bitcoin it bitcoin king bitcoin antminer bitcoin
transaction bitcoin bitcoin alien converter bitcoin пицца bitcoin bitcoin уполовинивание node bitcoin bitcoin foto polkadot cadaver майнинга bitcoin blocks bitcoin cryptocurrency это iso bitcoin
alpha bitcoin bitcoin mt4 bitcoin aliexpress keys bitcoin bitcoin коллектор tracker bitcoin tether usdt bitcoin удвоитель
etf bitcoin bitcoin froggy bitcoin 1000 payable ethereum japan bitcoin transactions bitcoin bitcoin фильм
bitcoin будущее puzzle bitcoin bitcoin charts ethereum токены шифрование bitcoin widget bitcoin bitcoin microsoft system bitcoin ad bitcoin bitcoin future monero dwarfpool bitcoin car обменять ethereum bitcoin bounty
краны monero видеокарты bitcoin программа tether получение bitcoin xmr monero
rotator bitcoin bitcoin payza bitcoin cnbc карты bitcoin monero bitcoin протокол trading bitcoin
вход bitcoin майнинга bitcoin best bitcoin monero btc bitcoin xt wallet tether bitcoin half chvrches tether bear bitcoin
total cryptocurrency bitcoin калькулятор ethereum cpu bitcoin 1000 utxo bitcoin bitcoin airbitclub майнинг bitcoin bitcoin удвоить bestexchange bitcoin ethereum монета miner monero wirex bitcoin short bitcoin monero cryptonight
advcash bitcoin wikipedia cryptocurrency nicehash bitcoin ethereum монета asics bitcoin криптовалюта ethereum reverse tether
bitcoin utopia bitcoin упал bitcoin cc panda bitcoin bitcoin шифрование ethereum poloniex new cryptocurrency difficulty monero bitcoin dice bitcoin миксер bitcoin rotators партнерка bitcoin
chain bitcoin ethereum twitter
bitcoin шахты
bitcoin widget wallpaper bitcoin bitcoin расчет bitcoin compare bitcoin вклады monero pro trust bitcoin cryptocurrency price monero fr bitcoin telegram bitcoin обучение курс bitcoin bitcoin адрес bitcoin delphi tether wallet sberbank bitcoin kraken bitcoin matteo monero tor bitcoin bitcoin сатоши bitcoin вики metatrader bitcoin bitcoin apk bitcoin автомат paypal bitcoin bitcoin clouding
bitcoin миксер ethereum org production cryptocurrency bitcoin ios
bitcoin coingecko tether yota аккаунт bitcoin bitcoin chart torrent bitcoin nanopool ethereum bitcoin будущее
ethereum serpent ethereum decred перспектива bitcoin bitcoin значок mist ethereum компиляция bitcoin теханализ bitcoin san bitcoin alipay bitcoin bitcoin etf monster bitcoin mine ethereum
ethereum обменять topfan bitcoin bitcoin arbitrage bitcoin seed bitcoin free bitcoin шахты bitcoin electrum bitcoin вложения проекта ethereum
bitcoin экспресс monero кошелек дешевеет bitcoin tether майнить monero algorithm комиссия bitcoin
алгоритм bitcoin pay bitcoin ethereum логотип trade cryptocurrency bounty bitcoin ethereum coin maining bitcoin bitcoin телефон bitcoin wmx bitcoin de
bitcoin delphi ethereum russia mercado bitcoin bitcoin сеть bitcoin calc blog bitcoin bitcoin arbitrage · Bitcoins are traded like other currencies on exchange websites, and this is how the market price is established. The most prominent exchange is MtGox.combitcoin видеокарта bitcoin circle бутерин ethereum bitcoin инструкция bitcoin weekly bitcoin traffic капитализация ethereum bitcoin eth car bitcoin
sberbank bitcoin bitcoin 999
raiden ethereum bitcoin программа история bitcoin