Litecoin(LTC) Price

Litecoin was developed by Charlie Lee, a former Google engineer, with the goal of improving on Bitcoin’s perceived inefficiencies. His vision was to create a cryptocurrency that could process transactions more quickly and with lower fees in order to be more suitable for day-to-day payments. Litecoin has since grown into one of the most widely adopted cryptocurrencies in the world.

Litecoin operates on a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, similar to Bitcoin, but with a few key differences. It uses the Scrypt hashing algorithm, which is less resource-intensive and more accessible to a broader range of miners. The Litecoin network processes a new block approximately every 2.5 minutes, which is four times faster than Bitcoin’s 10-minute block time. This results in faster transaction confirmation and more frequent block rewards for miners.

While Litecoin and Bitcoin share many similarities in terms of design, Litecoin is built for faster and cheaper transactions. Bitcoin’s block time is 10 minutes, whereas Litecoin’s is only 2.5 minutes, resulting in quicker confirmations. Litecoin also uses Scrypt instead of Bitcoin’s SHA-256 algorithm, which affects how mining is conducted.

Both coins have a capped supply: Bitcoin at 21 million, Litecoin at 84 million. But Litecoin’s larger supply and faster block times make it more suited for smaller, everyday transactions. In contrast, Bitcoin is increasingly positioned as a store of value.

Litecoin has a maximum supply of 84 million coins, four times the supply of Bitcoin. New LTC is generated through mining, with block rewards halving every four years - a built-in deflationary mechanism that slows the rate of issuance over time. The most recent halving occurred in August 2023 which reduced the reward to 6.25 LTC per block.

This predictable issuance schedule, along with capped supply and high liquidity, supports Litecoin’s long-term viability as both a payment method and an investment asset.