What is Litecoin?

 

Litecoin (LTC): What It Is & Information

Litecoin is based on the same open-source code behind Bitcoin, with some notable differences. Created by engineer Charlie Lee to be the silver to bitcoin's gold, one of the main disparities between the two cryptocurrencies lies in their transaction speeds.

Because it generates blocks about four times faster than Bitcoin, Litecoin can confirm the legitimacy of transactions a lot quicker as well as process a much higher number of them over the same time frame.

For more information about how blocks are created and transactions are confirmed, be sure to read our primer on blockchain technology – which functions as the underpinning of Litecoin and most other p2p virtual currencies.

While the identity of the Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto is shrouded in mystery, Litecoin’s creator Charlie Lee is very active on social media (See Picture on the Bottom) and his blog. Charlie Lee is an ex-Google employee who had the vision to create a lighter version of Bitcoin.

While Bitcoin was seen as “gold” and a store of value for long-term purposes, Litecoin was seen as the “silver” and a means of a transaction for cheaper and everyday purposes. So, on October 7, 2011, Litecoin was released via an open-source client on GitHub. The Litecoin Network went live on October 13, 2011. It is basically a fork of the Bitcoin Core client. We recommend the Trezor Wallet for normal use.

Litecoin Technical Information:

Coin limit	84 Million
Algorithm	Scrypt
Mean block time	2.5 minutes
Difficulty retarget	2016 blocks
Block reward details	Halved every 840,000 blocks
Initial reward	50 LTC
Current block reward	50 LTC
Block explorer	block-explorer.com
Created by	Charles Lee
Creation date	October 7th, 2011

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