Here’s What You Need to Know About the Upcoming Litecoin Hard Fork
Litecoin owners are at a crossroads. After Bitcoin and Ethereum, Litecoin is the next cryptocurrency facing an impending hard fork. In layman’s terms, it’s a split in Litecoin’s blockchain that will create a new cryptocurrency named Litecoin Cash. The Litecoin split date has moved to the coming Sunday (February 18, 2018). Here are a few facts you need to consider before you jump on this bandwagon.
What Is Litecoin Cash?
Fact #1: Litecoin will be forked at block number 1371111 to create Litecoin Cash.
At the time of writing, there were 1397 blocks remaining to reach the targetted block. The target is expected to be reached by Sunday night. So the Litecoin hard fork will possibly occur on February 18, 2018, a day earlier than previously announced.
Fact #2: Litecoin Cash will reward Litecoin owners in the ratio of 10:1.
What this simply means is that for every Litecoin you hold in your private address at the time of the fork, you’ll be eligible to receive exactly 10 Litecoin Cash coins.
Fact #3: In terms of mining, Litecoin Cash will be closer to Bitcoin than to Litecoin.
Litecoin Cash is being built on the SHA-256 mining algorithm—the same as Bitcoin. Litecoin, on the contrary, uses Scrypt mining. The two mining methods require different computer rigs.
The criticism leveled at Litecoin Cash is that it’s ostensibly being created for the old Bitcoin miners who are now out of work. Bitcoin mining has become exceedingly costly with difficulty levels increasing over time.
Large, centralized, financially strong organizations capable of bearing high costs of electricity and expensive hardware have largely taken over Bitcoin mining, thus driving out mom-and-pop miners. It is believed that Litecoin Cash will allow these mom-and-pop miners to put their rusting rigs back to work.
Fact #4: Litecoin Cash developers claim the coin will be cheaper to transact in compared to Litecoin.
The exact fees are not known at this point. We may have to wait for the coin to begin exchanging hands to be able to determine fees. However, since Litecoin is already much cheaper to use than Bitcoin for day-to-day transactions and the Litecoin team is also in the process of further lowering transaction fees, we are unsure how Litecoin Cash will hold up against Litecoin in the long run.
How to Get Litecoin Cash?
Fact #5: To claim Litecoin Cash coins, you’ll need to load your private keys into the Litecoin Cash wallet.
Here’s how it’ll work. Following the fork, you’ll have to move your LTC coins to a new private address to ensure your LTC coins don’t get stolen. Once the LTC coins are securely stored on another address and your original private address is empty, you’ll need to import this empty address into the Litecoin Cash wallet and claim your coins.
Fact #6: No notable cryptocurrency exchange has indicated it will list Litecoin Cash for trading.
Although the developers say they are in talks with some exchanges, trying to convince them to add the coin, there are no specific names identified and no public confirmations have been made.
If and when it does, Litecoin Cash will trade under the symbol LCC.
Is Litecoin Cash A Scam?
Fact #7: Litecoin founder Charlie Lee has cautioned investors against Litecoin Cash.
Charlie Lee is calling the Litecoin hard fork a scam. He has warned Litecoin holders not to enter private keys into Litecoin Cash’s web site or wallet.
charlie lee
Analyst Take
Litecoin Cash will have a supply 10-times the supply of Litecoin. It’s easy to predict that the coin will initially trade for pennies on the dollar. Our Litecoin Cash forecast is downbeat until we see the coin gaining some traction in the market.
While the project, per se, may be legitimate, the reasoning behind the hard-fork seems partly dubious and partly inane. Having given a fair warning, we’ll be taking a seat on the fence to let investors make their own call based on their research.
Hi! I am a robot. I just upvoted you! I found similar content that readers might be interested in:
https://jutiagroup.com/20180216-litecoin-cash-forecast-7-facts-to-know-before-the-split/