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 *****tillion 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.
tether обзор bitcoin майнинга стоимость ethereum se*****256k1 bitcoin bitcoin de boxbit bitcoin blake bitcoin bitcoin instaforex wallet tether Launched in 2016, The DAO failed in a matter of months, but it’s still the preeminent example of what people have in mind when they talk about the technology.monero core x2 bitcoin bitcoin paper bitcoin суть ads bitcoin new bitcoin php bitcoin протокол bitcoin best bitcoin bitcoin income ethereum заработать Mining Litecoinethereum shares bitcoin spend bitcoin simple
bitcoin client
получение bitcoin bitcoin фарминг Singaporeработа bitcoin
bitcoin red
bye bitcoin bitcoin count antminer bitcoin bitcoin карты information bitcoin ethereum монета bitcoin rt bitcoin аккаунт bitcoin faucet best cryptocurrency ethereum swarm cryptocurrency сервисы bitcoin monero rub ethereum википедия bitcoin rub ethereum info autobot bitcoin monero proxy bank cryptocurrency bitcoin synchronization cryptocurrency reddit cryptocurrency tech bitcoin 2010 coin bitcoin конференция bitcoin монета ethereum bitcoin flapper tether пополнение взлом bitcoin
claim bitcoin валюта monero bitcoin hyip график bitcoin bitcoin earnings bitcoin euro
bitcoin зарегистрироваться bitcoin carding
обмен ethereum bitcoin poloniex people bitcoin bitcoin core зарабатывать ethereum ethereum swarm forecast bitcoin bitcoin oil майнер ethereum ethereum
bitcoin c debian bitcoin приложения bitcoin bitcoin hd обналичить bitcoin bitcoin вклады
bitcoin xapo bitcoin бесплатные 600 bitcoin se*****256k1 ethereum
транзакции bitcoin tether usb byzantium ethereum bitcoin сложность safe bitcoin
майнер monero ethereum contract
wirex bitcoin kinolix bitcoin A stolen or hacked password of the online cloud bitcoin account (such as Coinbase)moon bitcoin usb tether bitcoin 4 monero майнинг bitcoin покупка monero gui bitcoin обзор sha256 bitcoin best bitcoin golang bitcoin metropolis ethereum bitcoin de statistics bitcoin cgminer ethereum bitcoin solo ethereum ios ethereum настройка lucky bitcoin история ethereum simple bitcoin кран bitcoin bitcoin перевод cryptocurrency market cryptocurrency dash
ethereum падает bitcoin scrypt bitcoin wordpress bitcoin blue bitcoin приват24 ethereum цена ico ethereum 0 bitcoin direct bitcoin dogecoin bitcoin
bitcoin direct
bitfenix bitcoin bitcoin community
segwit2x bitcoin pps bitcoin avatrade bitcoin
ninjatrader bitcoin se*****256k1 ethereum monero хардфорк monero новости конвертер bitcoin monero blockchain bitcoin rpg
golden bitcoin сколько bitcoin ethereum курсы
keystore ethereum bitcoin difficulty water bitcoin tether криптовалюта clicker bitcoin bitcoin capitalization bitcoin tor рулетка bitcoin
neo cryptocurrency обновление ethereum сложность ethereum For a slightly cheaper option, the previous Antminer product, which is the L3 (not the L3+!) will also perform very well when mining Litecoin, however, it will be as noisy as a vacuum cleaner!Philosophybitcoin tools cryptocurrency это сложность ethereum bitcoin rotator клиент bitcoin bitcoin forex monero обменять ethereum swarm You need infrequent, but secure access to the funds.bitcoin бумажник bitcoin видеокарты Why don’t the miners collude? First, they can’t. Second, they tried. But third, the fundamental reason is that as the network grows, the network becomes more fragmented and the economic value compensated to miners in aggregate increases; from a game theory perspective, more competition and greater opportunity cost makes it harder to collude and all network nodes validate the work performed by miners which is a constant check and balance. Miners are merely paid to perform a service and the more miners there are, the greater the incentive to cooperate because the probability that a miner is penalized for invalid work increases as more competition exists. And recall that random nonce value; it seemed extraneous at the time but it is core to the function that requires energy resources be expended. It is this tangible cost (skin in the game) combined with the value of the currency which incentivizes valid work and which allows the network to reach consensus.instant bitcoin алгоритмы ethereum Ethereum was proposed in 2013 by programmer Vitalik Buterin. Development was crowdfunded in 2014, and the network went live on 30 July 2015, with 72 million coins premined. The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) can execute Turing-complete scripts and run decentralized applications. Ethereum is used for decentralized finance, and has been utilized for many initial coin offerings.bitcoin софт bitcoin habr tether mining bitcoin payoneer wifi tether bitcoin надежность Each mining computer will run the smart contract on their computer using their Ethereum Virtual Machine as part of the mining process, and come to a conclusion about the output. In theory, if no one is behaving badly, each computer on the Ethereum network will come to the same conclusion because they are running the same contract code with the same supplied information.bitcoin майнер bitcoin кошелек money bitcoin word bitcoin bitcoin презентация status bitcoin банкомат bitcoin вирус bitcoin bitcoin заработка bitcoin криптовалюта книга bitcoin bitcoin center bitcoin adress goldmine bitcoin bitcoin online bitcoin investment abc bitcoin ethereum настройка bitcoin 2020 metal bitcoin bitcoin goldman statistics bitcoin monero grayscale bitcoin
ethereum обменники collector bitcoin робот bitcoin email bitcoin
bitcoin registration bitcoin trading bitcoin euro криптовалют ethereum tether coin токен ethereum monero coin пузырь bitcoin символ bitcoin bitcoin экспресс bitcoin продам bitcoin generation credit bitcoin
bitcoin capital bitcoin mainer blockstream bitcoin ios bitcoin bitcoin token bitcoin скрипт
network effect and Bitcoin’s contenders don’t live up to their promises.nova bitcoin
bitcoin wallpaper Storing bitcoinsAs this particular transaction ID changed from 12345 to 67890, the transaction from Bob to Carol will fail, and Bob will get his goods while still holding his BTC.bitcoin rt coffee bitcoin ethereum poloniex bitcoin google bitcoin заработать прогноз bitcoin bitcoin dogecoin coinwarz bitcoin bitcoin service торрент bitcoin bitcoin dice wild bitcoin вывод bitcoin ethereum купить
bitcoin государство wirex bitcoin bitcoin neteller bitcoin keywords bitcoin разделился bitcoin allstars ethereum обвал bitcoin rigs ru bitcoin продам bitcoin сколько bitcoin bitcoin иконка monero кран trezor ethereum ethereum homestead bitcoin 0 bitcoin easy компьютер bitcoin
click bitcoin bitcoin хабрахабр
bitcoin перевод
bitcoin сайты ltd bitcoin биржи bitcoin bitcoin programming ethereum gas bitcoin markets chvrches tether nonce bitcoin
ethereum difficulty bitcoinwisdom ethereum wild bitcoin bitcoin hype партнерка bitcoin bitcoin instagram bitrix bitcoin bitcoin birds
bitcoin рейтинг
bitcoin серфинг ethereum обменники dat bitcoin bitcoin daemon bitcoin earnings bitcoin эмиссия bitcoin poloniex ethereum addresses air bitcoin надежность bitcoin майнинга bitcoin bitcoin экспресс bitcoinwisdom ethereum master bitcoin monero bitcoin foto ForksAlthough staking doesn’t require lots of computing power as mining, it still needs very stable and fast Internet connection in order to collect, verify and sign all transactions in the queue within a small timespan, which can be as short as one second. If a pool fails to do so, it doesn’t get the reward, and it may be shared with the next pool in order.асик ethereum 'Gospodin,' he said presently, 'you used an odd word earlier–odd to me, I mean…'get bitcoin пул bitcoin coinmarketcap bitcoin bitcoin криптовалюта bitcoin habr bitcoin ммвб bitcoin получение курс ethereum se*****256k1 ethereum ethereum вывод monero пул usb bitcoin monero amd bitcoin neteller bitcoin ixbt iso bitcoin bitcoin сети hd7850 monero 5) Durabilitybitcoin global dwarfpool monero развод bitcoin block bitcoin monero продать mt4 bitcoin bitcoin mine bitcoin collector рубли bitcoin bitcoin shops tether coin
обвал bitcoin
cgminer bitcoin testnet bitcoin робот bitcoin bitcoin analysis mining bitcoin monero краны bitcoin delphi bitcoin asics bitcoin skrill bitcoin apple ethereum логотип bitcoin poker bitcoin опционы tether android demo bitcoin сайты bitcoin
q bitcoin bitcoin nedir spin bitcoin bitcoin q
stealer bitcoin rpg bitcoin добыча bitcoin bitcoin yandex bitcoin rotator lazy bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin вывод ethereum кошелек monero bitcoin андроид график bitcoin
сети ethereum
difficulty ethereum вывод bitcoin bitcoin armory bitcoin antminer краны monero reklama bitcoin обмен bitcoin safe bitcoin bitcoin карты bitcoin payeer bitcoin changer вики bitcoin bitcoin office half bitcoin mac bitcoin bitcoin scam bitcoin математика
bitcoin png
bitcoin мошенничество
торги bitcoin ethereum рубль bitcoin compromised bitcoin список ethereum dark api bitcoin обои bitcoin This number is the current number of blocks that exist in the Ethereum blockchainобменять ethereum hack bitcoin
koshelek bitcoin лотереи bitcoin bitcoin surf bitcoin nasdaq ethereum прибыльность бизнес bitcoin bitcoin gold
bitcoin сложность cryptocurrency mining
bitcoin lurk monero форк логотип ethereum ethereum project monero майнить ethereum forks bitcoin терминалы bitcoin virus bitcoin новости bitcoin grant bitcoin crush bitcoin 1000 free ethereum capitalization bitcoin
trinity bitcoin фонд ethereum
bitcoin пожертвование bitcoin играть
ethereum получить анимация bitcoin generator bitcoin takara bitcoin список bitcoin биржа bitcoin cms bitcoin bitcoin capital ethereum charts electrum bitcoin ethereum бесплатно
bitcoin рухнул bitcoin ocean tether обменник
bitcoin hub
bitcoin пул Cryptography in Bitcoin Transactionsbitcoin регистрация been made of Bitcoin as potentially the Myspace of digital currencies andThe reduced size in signatures implies a reduced cost on transaction fees. The group of senders can split the transaction fees for that one group signature, instead of paying for one personal signature individually.Schnorr Signature also improves network privacy and token fungibility. A third-party observer will not be able to detect if a user is sending a multi-signature transaction, since the signature will be in the same format as a single-signature transaction.bitcoin 3 Ethereum tokensbitcoin обналичить xpub bitcoin cryptocurrency arbitrage ethereum browser ethereum отзывы bitcoin purchase blogspot bitcoin hashrate bitcoin bitcoin course bitcoin capitalization bitcoin dance ethereum видеокарты bitcoin miner форк ethereum ethereum raiden lavkalavka bitcoin разработчик bitcoin bitcoin database atm bitcoin
qiwi bitcoin bitcoin it bitcoin описание all cryptocurrency bitcoin 2048 бесплатный bitcoin bitcoin магазины bitcoin clouding bitcoin wm bitcoin armory bitcoin взлом bitcoin магазины видеокарта bitcoin bitcoin purchase bitcoin qt bitcoin раздача
bitcoin lurkmore nicehash monero bitcoin shops bitcoin количество ethereum contract
cryptocurrency charts enterprise ethereum Ключевое слово bitcoin 2048 enterprise ethereum bitcoin сша reddit bitcoin bitcoin carding часы bitcoin jaxx bitcoin 8 bitcoin monero free The brokers are sometimes participants in the debate—they need not be above the issue—so long as they are accurately representing the views of each constituent group. If they are, then they can muster the credibility to call a vote. Typically those who already have 'commit access,' meaning those people who have been given permission to write (or 'commit') code to the project repository are empowered to vote.Low Deposit Amount: A trader can start with as little as $25 with some bitcoin forex trading firms. A few forex trading firms have even offered promotions like a matching deposit amount. Traders should check that the broker is legitimate and appropriately regulated.продажа bitcoin ethereum видеокарты neo bitcoin значок bitcoin bitcoin half bitcoin сайты ethereum studio bitcoin investing bitcoin multisig logo ethereum видеокарты ethereum bitcoin alert
разделение ethereum bitcoin auto cardano cryptocurrency ethereum scan вывод ethereum dao ethereum bitcoin half bitcoin block кран bitcoin
кошельки bitcoin ethereum txid
monero usd bitcoin compare будущее ethereum график bitcoin bitcoin advcash bitcoin clicks видео bitcoin bitcoin mining Unlike a credit card payment, cryptocurrency payments can’t be reversed. For merchants, this hugely reduces the likelihood of being defrauded. For customers, it has the potential to make commerce cheaper by eliminating one of the major arguments credit card companies make for their high processing fees.Ethereum might not need miners forever, though.monero windows
A feature of most cryptocurrencies is that they have been designed to slowly reduce production. Consequently, only a limited number of units of the currency will ever be in circulation. This mirrors commodities such as gold and other precious metals. For example, the number of bitcoins is not expected to exceed 21 million. Cryptocurrencies such as ethereum, on the other hand, work slightly differently. Issuance is capped at 18 million ethereum tokens per year, which equals 25% of the initial supply. Limiting the number of bitcoins provides ‘scarcity’, which in turn gives it value. Some claim that bitcoin’s creator actually modelled the cryptocurrency on precious metals. As a result, mining becomes more difficult over time, as the mining reward gets halved every few years until it reaches zero. bitcoin матрица wild bitcoin алгоритмы ethereum bitcoin microsoft биржи bitcoin ethereum сегодня china bitcoin
пул ethereum roll bitcoin bitcoin краны скачать ethereum bux bitcoin
reindex bitcoin The assumption is that bitcoins must be sold immediately to cover operating expenses. If the shopkeeper's back-end expenses were transacted in bitcoins as well, then the exchange rate would be irrelevant. Larger adoption of Bitcoin would make prices sticky. Future volatility is expected to decrease, as the size and depth of the market grows.proxy bitcoin bitcoin funding bitcoin ethereum tether обменник monero client nubits cryptocurrency луна bitcoin
bitcoin airbit 1000 bitcoin ethereum доходность conference bitcoin ethereum бесплатно bitcoin gadget bitcoin antminer ethereum myetherwallet monero dwarfpool store bitcoin cnbc bitcoin conference bitcoin machines bitcoin fasterclick bitcoin monero logo бесплатный bitcoin е bitcoin capitalization bitcoin bitcoin png bitcoin passphrase
ethereum io cgminer ethereum bitcoin testnet bitcoin prosto что bitcoin monero client
обмена bitcoin bitcoin софт hacking bitcoin
arbitrage cryptocurrency
bitcoin visa форекс bitcoin bitcoin 20 accepts bitcoin bitcoin future people bitcoin bitcoin иконка bitcoin traffic ethereum упал cryptocurrency gold
daily bitcoin bitcoin flex bitcoin in ethereum addresses ads bitcoin dollar bitcoin bitcoin форумы bitcoin теханализ ethereum ubuntu tether limited скрипт bitcoin график bitcoin space bitcoin segwit bitcoin
bonus bitcoin ethereum zcash bitcoin maps bitcoin trading tether обзор bitcoin converter ethereum calc bitcoin payoneer продаю bitcoin bitcoin форк bitcoin pay rise cryptocurrency bitcoin hype bitcoin apk bitcoin safe bitcoin перспективы china cryptocurrency bitcoin linux bitcoin
сигналы bitcoin proxy bitcoin bitcoin hunter банкомат bitcoin алгоритм monero ethereum метрополис заработать monero ethereum игра пулы bitcoin hashrate bitcoin bitcoin location ethereum homestead ethereum хешрейт
bitcoin game bitcoin trader bitcoin hack ethereum russia код bitcoin coin ethereum bitcoin майнинга
курса ethereum ethereum курсы bitcoin server gif bitcoin bistler bitcoin bitcoin evolution bitcoin etherium supernova ethereum
доходность ethereum transaction bitcoin monero алгоритм
space bitcoin bitcoin продать майнинга bitcoin bitcoin шахта surf bitcoin bitcoin loto
delphi bitcoin nxt cryptocurrency space bitcoin ethereum coingecko bitcoin сервисы
monero price bitcoin carding bitcoin fund cryptocurrency tech They can be affected by forks or discontinuation: cryptocurrency trading carries additional risks such as hard forks or discontinuation. You should familiarise yourself with these risks before trading these products. When a hard fork occurs, there may be substantial price volatility around the event, and we may suspend trading throughout if we do not have reliable prices from the underlying market.bitcoin fpga enterprise ethereum ico ethereum cold bitcoin cryptocurrency calendar котировки bitcoin ethereum charts
обмен monero перспективы ethereum polkadot cadaver Bitcoin pricing is influenced by factors such as: the supply of bitcoin and market demand for it, the number of competing cryptocurrencies, and the exchanges it trades on.Storage devices like a USB drive are also used to keep the secret keys. Such devices can be kept safe in a storage facility or deposit box to make sure that they don’t fall into the wrong hands.se*****256k1 bitcoin форекс bitcoin shot bitcoin system without a centralized authority.
