Litecoin is one of the oldest cryptocurrencies in existence. It was created almost a decade ago by computer scientist Charlie Lee, a native of Ivory Coast.
Like Bitcoin, its essence is peer to peer, and it allows instant payments at a very low cost. Litecoin was launched on the mythical bitcointalk.org forum. The publication of its launch dates back to October 09, 2011.
Lee, under the pseudonym coblee called it “Litecoin” and explained that this currency was a “lite” version of Bitcoin. He further explains that “Litecoin is the result of those of us who came together in an effort to create a currency that would be a real alternative to Bitcoin.“.
Lee then specifies that the Litecoin consensus would be Proof of Work (PoW). In those years it was still possible to mine Bitcoin and Litecoin at the same time. While Bitcoin uses the much-renowned SHA256 algorithm, Litecoin uses a newer algorithm, called scrypt.
LTC: the Litecoin cryptocurrency
LTC is the acronym used by exchanges to refer to the Litecoin network cryptocurrency. The total supply of this coin was set at a maximum of 84 million. It reached its highest price ever on May 10, 2021, when its price exceeded US$400 on numerous exchanges.
As Litecoin is inspired by BTC, it has the similarity of halving approximately every 4 years. Litecoin’s last halving took place on August 5, 2019.
Until then, block rewards were 25 LTC. After that day, it was reduced by half. That is, 12.5 LTC. The next halving is expected to take place on August 6, 2023.
And as its protocol indicates, the rewards will decrease again, reaching 6.25 (current amount that the Bitcoin network delivers to its miners). If we look at the graph over time, it can be seen that its best performance was in 2021, surpassing even its December 2017 peaks.
Since its launch, millions of users have used Litecoin for various purposes. Among them, financing projects as well as seeking funding, raising money for social causes, etc. On social networks, mainly on Twitter and Discord, the community exchanges technical analysis of Litecoin and its fundamentals on a daily basis.
How to mine Litecoin?
To date, there are more than 66.7 million LTC mined, leaving just over 17 million to be mined. While this at first glance seems very little, the reality is that it is estimated that the last coins will be mined in the year 2142, close to the date when the last BTC will also be mined.
The bitcoin network’s average transaction confirmation time is currently just under nine minutes per transaction, while Litecoin’s is approximately 2.5 minutes.
The primary thing to start mining is to create a Litecoin wallet. It is important to compare existing Litecoin compatible wallets and choose one that offers the right features and security protections for each case, depending on the frequency of use and portability.
Litecoin mining is not free. In the first instance, it is necessary to include in the budget the usual electricity costs, depending on the country where you live, you may be better or worse positioned in front of this factor.
Second, you must take into account hardware equipment costs and availability, depending on demand and shipments in times of pandemic restrictions.
Litecoin mining is currently carried out with ASICs. These devices are marketed with pre-installed software. They usually come with a user’s manual. Once you have all the above mentioned, it is advisable to learn more about the existing pools.
Is the Hash rate important?
The hash rate, commonly called hashrate, is the unit of measurement of processing power. Litecoin miners have to perform various mathematical operations for security reasons and the higher the hashrate of the computers, the faster they can solve those calculations. And earn more rewards.
In simple terms, a hash rate can be defined as the speed at which a given mining machine operates to find the answer (hash) that allows it to solve a block.
Litecoin News
The cryptocurrency ETP industry has experienced rapid development in Europe. Following the Bitcoin ETP and later the launch of the Ether ETP, CoinShares launched a physically-backed Litecoin ETP in mid-April.
LITE was the ticker symbol chosen to denominate each Litecoin ETP unit. It was backed with 0.2 LTC at launch. Its base currency is the USD. CoinShares thus seeks to provide a wider offering of ETPs to the market.
If you want to know more about Litecoin’s history and how it works, see our article What is Litecoin?
