Litecoin was one of the first altcoins released. It was created in October 2011 by Charlie Lee as a fork of Bitcoin, who intended to work out difficulties that Bitcoin had. In order to do this, Charlie lessened the Bitcoin's block time to two and a half minutes on Litecoin. This made Litecoin a lot quicker in terms of confirming transactions on the network and made transactions more cost-efficient. Litecoin utilizes the Scrypt algorithm and was the first cryptocurrency to make use of it.
Since its release, Litecoin has been quicker at adjusting to new technologies such as Segwit and the Lightning network than Bitcoin. The reason being is that Litecoin's community is much smaller with a different set of miners compared to Bitcoin. Because of Bitcoin's community politics, there has been disagreements on adopting new technologies, particularly from miners. However, the problems Litecoin initially solved are no longer big issues today as Bitcoin recently adopted new protocols into its network.
Although Litecoin has a smaller community when put next to Bitcoin, in general it is quite large. This is one positive indicator of Litecoin. It has a solid user-base and a considerable amount of developers. Another positive indicator is that it is also listed in hundreds of exchanges, which gives access to a large number of investors/traders. Litecoin's circulating supply is also low at 53 million. I've mentioned this in this guest blog I did for Coin News Asia; circulating supply is something you should look at when picking cryptocurrencies to invest in.
One downside of Litecoin is that it doesn't seem to be making major developments that sets it apart from other cryptocurrencies at the moment. However, it has reached new highs at around $90 earlier this month and right now it is currently at $50 due to the recent ICO bans in China and fear in the market. That being said, you can expect the price to hike back up to all time highs as the cryptocurrency market recovers, which it slowly is.
If you would like to start mining Litecoin and Bitcoin check this miner out. Once you get your miner you can start mining at Minergate. You can also purchase Litecoin and Bitcoin at HitBTC.
Please note that I am not a financial expert. I am simply sharing my opinions on the topic. Do not take my words as financial advice. Always do your own research.
Good article. I was about to start a similair discussion. Be prepared for a fluctuating crypto market. We do need more indept investment analysis. Besides coinmarketcap.com there is: https://www.coincheckup.com They seem to give this complete indepth analysis of all cryptocoins. Sorted by team, product, company, advisors, previous investors, etc. Check: https://www.coincheckup.com/coins/Litecoin#analysis To watch Litecoin Investment and research analysis.
Thanks for sharing! I'm glad you enjoyed my article.
I already own some Litecoins! So let's hope the best :) Upvote & Followed!
Thanks!