Last two weeks, I payed $20 in fees for a bitcoin transaction of $150 that took over 40 minutes to get confirmed and processed. I didn’t feel good paying that amount of money in fees because I was running at lose with my little crypto gains. Since then, I hate using bitcoin for daily transactions and even holding it, if not in large proportion isn’t appealing anymore.
I’m not the only one paying this much in fees as I have seen people that payed between $30-$50, some fees rounding up to a high percentage of the whole transaction. I wanted to move to Bitcoin Cash, but major exchanges in Nigeria are yet to start accepting Bitcoin Cash transactions so I was forced to test one of bitcoin oldest alternatives called Litecoin, which is becoming a strong competition to bitcoin.
I heard of litecoin not long after I came across bitcoin, but then my reaction wasn’t positive because I thought that there was no valid reason to create a bitcoin alternative than to enrich oneself. Though then, I wasn’t aware that bitcoin might have many of the issues it has now and I didn’t know all the challenges ahead once bitcoin begin to go mainstream.
Passing The Test Of Time
Bitcoin as a cryptocurrency has over the years passed the test of time of many challenges and most times coming out stronger after each test. The most challenging one being Mt. Gox hack. Bitcoin largest exchange that was hacked back in 2014 and $460 million belonging to customers were reported stolen.
This caused many to question the future of bitcoin as the cryptocurrency was just gaining acceptance and trust of the public then and many naysayers even predicted the end of bitcoin. But here is bitcoin community today growing large. And many more of other challenges that saw bitcoin to where it is now.
The test of time, I’m afraid bitcoin will have big trouble surviving is the ability to serve the world as a currency useful for fast, easy and cheap daily transaction. That was the original vision of Satoshi Nakamoto but Bitcoin don’t seem to be able to cope with its own anticipated future. Meaning bitcoin has become a victim of its popularity.
Litecoin was designed with the same vision and similar technical principle used for bitcoin, as one of the first fork of bitcoin designed as an online peer to peer payment system. But over the years bitcoin has been claiming supremacy and out shinning all competitions with the biggest market cap and largest community.
But with bitcoin long, congested network and scalability issues which has caused increased in transaction fees and take longer time for transactions to get confirmed,I believe many people like me will source for a better alternatives like litecoin.
Transaction Speed and Scalability
Litecoin has a faster transaction speed and very low fee compared to bitcoin. Bitcoin’s average transaction confirmation time is 9 minutes per transaction, while litecoin throughput is 2.5 minutes. This means that litecoin transactions are 4 times faster confirmed than bitcoin and thus attractive to users like me that believe transactions should be instant.
When litecoin was created, it was noted that the original intention wasn’t to be a competitor to bitcoin, but to be a support to it. The purpose was to be silver to bitcoin “gold”but the future, I perceive is that litecoin might go a long away to compete with bitcoin in dominance with more switch from users.
The Future Adoption.
Bitcoin was fulfilling purpose and was fast enough for the average user until its future begin to arrive earlier than expected, which brought in more customers and transactions increased more than the network could handle.
Is it possible for such thing to happen to litecoin as well? If litecoin has the same or double of bitcoin traffic in both customers and transactions, will it be able to survive the test of time too? Is litecoin Scrypt Algorithm far scalable than bitcoin SHA-256 algorithm?
What do you think? Your reply and input will be greatly welcomed and appreciated, because I really want to hear other people's opinion regarding both coins.
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Hey bania, great post. I had a similar experience with using Bitcoin to actually transfer some money in the real world and couldn’t believe the fees. Litecoin all the way for me now.
Litecoin have some big announcements coming up which relate to transaction speeds and costs becoming even more efficient in the future and price is breaking out higher on the charts too. Go Litecoin!
Great post. I think that there is no doubt that Litecoin offers everything that Bitcoin does at a faster, more low cost and more scalable network. I think that Litecoin will be able to scale in the future, purely due to its development team. If you look at the ethereum foundation grants for scaling research, it is clear that scalability is becoming a top priority for top coins. I imagine that Litecoin will too scale to meet the needs of its user base.
I think that Litecoin is still quite undervalued, and that 2018 will be a great year for it! I'll be doing an in depth anlysis over on my page soon.
@lukebrn that's a great contribution and yeah I believe that litecoin is greatly undervalued and I also believe that this year, litecoin real value will be unleashed.
Regarding scalability, it's now one of the most important issues discussed daily in the industry because we are getting near to the future and more people are waking up to the decentralization age reality. I hope litecoin will be able to scale and meet the demand of a huge market.
@bania thank you. I completely agree!
Scalability really is huge this year and will continue to be of great importance, without a doubt. I guess we'll see how it fairs out but I have faith in it!
I really hope ypure correct. I think LTC has been losing ground as more people trade it for popular alt coins. LTC is easy to purchase, fast to transfer, and has low fees. ETH has the same but I think more people are bullish on ETH and will HODL. LTC really needs some good press and a few major players to adopt it. Imagine if an online retailer like eBay or Amazon began accepting LTC! Until that happens, I doubt well see the same level of returns as Q4 2017.
@digitaldruid most people trading ltc for other altcoins are more of speculators than investors. ETH can't compete with LTC because they were designed for different purposes and yeah, I agree that more mainstream retail giants acceptance of litecoin will trigger wider adoption and unleash litecoin real potential.
I really think this will happen within next month
Let's hope for 500 USD per coin in few months :)
this seem to be a complain for most people , the slowness and expensive exchange rate, i personally was done with bitcoin last year before it became famous, i missed out on the growth but have gained with etherium much of the ground, i hear litecoin is fast so am tempeted to buy in and try it out, you seem to be having it right with so i will try it
Yeah, bitcoin is failing to meet the expectations of many investors and users. Litecoin is a good alternative and currently undervalued. Let's get on the train and make some profit
Lol, really funny
BTC is a long dead horse, too slow and expensive. Move on people..
We are moving on, man. Moving on to litecoin
Nice information The Price of the Bitcoin in 2018 are Estimated at Rp 814 Million
Litecoin to the moon baby
how do you think or your prediction about bitcoin price in 2018 whether it will be increasing or going down.
I just want to survey some people's opinions
Bitcoin still has value and still create value daily for it holders and users, so I don't see bitcoin going down to nothing. I see it getting more recognition and paving the way for other cryptocurrencies to gain mainstream attention.
very good post and very useful.
but what do you think about the price of sbd and steem at the beginning of this month,
What is your opinion?
I think everything that is happening in crypto currently is worth it, including the rising price of steem and SBD. They are real coin with real value built on a scalable blockchain, so appreciation in price is a validation of their worth. Let's enjoy this while it last
Steem is much better than Bitcoin. Instant transactions, FREE transactions. And it's own social media. Bitcoin is important as the door opener but there are so many crypto currencies now that have so much more to offer.
Yeah, different cryptocurrencies today developed to solve different problems in different industries. But there are few of them that are really bringing something tangible to the table. And one really doing this steem.
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It is true what you say about transection but Bitcoin is strongest then litecoin.
Each market has to change over time.
Lite coin is solid
valid points
While I agree with so much of what you say, I think you are missing a main point. Bitcoin has the name recognition and first mover status. The problems you describe above will get fixed and when they do, so many of the altcoins...including Litecoin....will die. It is just not possible to have so many coins and Bitcoins problems will get resolved and it will maintain, and strengthen its dominance. Right now, it is speculation mania...when that subsides and we are left with the true benefits of cryptocurrencies, then you will see many altcoins disappear.
I think Litecoin actually has a chance of being a real world currency , Litepay out next month!
I thought as much
I will be honest, my initial investment in Litecoin was driven mostly out of greed. I felt the price to get into Bitcoin was too prohibitive and Litecoin seemed like a viable alternative. As I started to read about the differences between the cryptos and realized the benefits of Litecoin (fees/transaction speed), I was sold. I do now own some Bitcoin, but I still feel like while Bitcoin is a store of value, Litecoin can be the standard in actual transactions.