Bitcoin vs Litecoin: What’s the Difference?

Over the years, public interest in cryptocurrencies has grown exponentially, the main focus of this interest is Bitcoin, which after the launch of its first public client in 2009 has become a prominent name in the cryptocurrency space. Since then, many other cryptocurrencies have entered the scene with at least 20 being followed by major financial news sites each day. Litecoin In fact, developers of Litecoin have long said that their intention is to make “money” Bitcoin “gold”.

On the surface Bitcoin and Litecoin have a lot in common, at the most basic level they are both. While sovereign currencies such as the US dollar or the Japanese yen depend on political and legal mechanisms for their value and legitimacy. cryptocurrencies Rely on the cryptographic integrity of the network, but Bitcoin and Litecoin are of different importance.

important points

As of February 24, 2019, Bitcoin’s market cap is approximately $67 billion compared to $2.7 billion for cryptocurrency. Litecoin Whether Bitcoin’s market interest you high or low depends largely on a historical perspective when we consider that Bitcoin’s market cap was almost $42,000 in July 2010. Current figures. This seems quite staggering, although not by much compared to its market cap of $326 billion on December 17, 2017, while Bitcoin is still the most valuable player in other cryptocurrency spaces such as Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin.

Litecoin

One of the main differences between Bitcoin and Litecoin concerns the total number of coins each cryptocurrency can produce. This is where Litecoin separates itself. The Bitcoin network cannot exceed 21 million while Litecoin can support up to 84. In theory, this sounds like a significant advantage in favor of Litecoin, but the real world impact can be negligible, this is because both Bitcoin and Litecoin can be split into almost negligible amounts, in fact, in volume. The minimum amount of Bitcoin that can be transferred is one millionth of a Bitcoin (0.00000001 Bitcoins), colloquially known as one “satoshi.” Users of both currencies therefore have no problem purchasing low-cost goods or services. The general price of a single undivided Bitcoin or Litecoin could be higher.

In November 2013, IBM executive Richard Brown raised the possibility that some users might want to do all transactions in units rather than fractions of a unit, a potential advantage for Litecoin, but even assuming this to be true, the problem mayThis can be solved with a simple change to the software offered in the digital wallet which conducts the transaction. Bitcoin, as Tristan Winters pointed out in an article for magazine. Bitcoin “The Psychology of Decimals ” Popular Bitcoin wallets such as Coinbase and Trezor offer the option to display the value of Bitcoin in official currency (or fiat), such as the US dollar. It can help avoid the psychological aversion to fractal trading.

Major differences

Although transactions are technically instantaneous on both the Bitcoin and Litecoin networks, it takes time to confirm transactions from other network participants, according to Blockchain.info. The long run of the Bitcoin network is more than 10 minutes per transaction. But this can vary greatly when traffic is high, the equivalent figure for Litecoin is about 2.5 minutes. In exchange for Bitcoin, it would have to wait four times as long for payment confirmation as if the same product had been sold in exchange for it. Litecoin, on the other hand, allows merchants to accept transactions without waiting for any confirmation at all. The security of unconfirmed transactions is a matter of debate.

Special Considerations

The most fundamental technical difference between Bitcoin and Litecoin is the different cryptographic algorithms they use. It makes use of the long-established SHA-256 algorithm, while Litecoin uses a new algorithm called Scrypt.

The major practical significance of these different algorithms is their impact on the “mining” process of new coins, both in Bitcoin and Litecoin. Currency chains, known as miners, allocate computing resources to confirm other users’ transactions, in return for doing so these miners receive rewards for receiving units of the currency they mine.

SHA-256 is generally considered to be a more complex algorithm than Scrypt, while allowing for more parallel processing. Mining Bitcoins As Efficiently as possible A common method for mining Bitcoin consists in the use of application-specific integrated circuits. (ASIC). These are different hardware systems than simple CPUs and GPUs, in front of them they can be tuned for mining. Bitcoins The real effect of this is that Bitcoin mining has become more accessible to everyday users.

Scrypt, on the other hand, is designed to be susceptible to custom hardware solutions used in cryptocurrency mining. ASICs This has led many commentators to view Scrypt-based cryptocurrencies such as Litecoin as more accessible for users who wish to participate in the network as miners, while some companies have adopted Scrypt ASICs. To market Litecoin’s vision of more accessible mining remains true for the majority of mining. Litecoin is made through CPUs or GPUs miners.

While Bitcoin and Litecoin may be the gold and silver of the area. cryptocurrency Today, history has shown that the status quo in this dynamic and emerging sector can change in a matter of months. cryptocurrencies that we are accustomed to keep their size in the coming months and years.

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