Hello guys I’m so excited to take part in this week’s task given by professor @yohan2on. This is actually my first time in participating in this community.
In this home work, I will like to share with you what I’ve learnt about Litecoin.

LITECOIN (LTC)

source

---

Litecoin is a a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency which was created by a Charles Lee, a Google engineer and a former Director of engineering at Coinbase. It was created as a way of improving Bitcoin. Litecoin is very similar to Bitcoin but with some slight changes, which is Litecoin is modified to large-scale adoption of the currency. It is not expensive, practical to use, as it can be mined using windows, Linux and other operating systems. It is cheap as well. It was made in such a way that you can even mine it in the comfort of your home.

Charles Lee

Litecoin goes with the currency LTC and is one of the major crypto currency in the world. For that reason it has a huge market capitalization of about $18 billion. This is why it is considered as one of the favorite child in cryptocurrencies.

Litecoin was created based on an open source software just as Bitcoin code and it is licensed under MIT/X11.

---

Source

How Litecoin differs from Bitcoin

There are some differences between Litecoin and Bitcoin. Some of which are;

1. With Bitcoin, there is much time used in creating blocks while Litecoin uses lesser time in creating block. That is to say, Bitcoin uses 10 minutes to create a block but Litecoin uses 2.5 minutes to generate a block. To simply put, Litecoin is faster in creating blocks than Bitcoin.
2. Transactions confirmation on Litecoin are on a faster rate than Bitcoin.This is due to the faster rate at which Litecoin takes in generating a block (Litecoin takes 2.5 minutes but Bitcoin takes 10minutes).
3. Another difference is that, they have different algorithms. The hash function SHA256 (Secure Hash Algorithm 256-bit) which is also known as the proof-of-work algorithm is used in Bitcoin while the Scrypt hashing algorithm is used in Litecoin.
4. Comparing volume of transactions that each can take, Litecoin can handle transactions of larger volumes as compared to Bitcoin and this is due to the faster rate of block generation.

How to buy Litecoin.

You can buy Litecoin coin through digital exchanges using other cryptocurrencies(such as Bitcoin and Ethereum) and you can also buy it with flat currencies(eg; USD $). Some websites you could use when you want to purchase Litecoin are; Coinbase and Binance

Another way of acquiring Litecoin is through mining;
This simply means, processing block of transactions into the Litecoin blockchain. Miners are expected to solve algorithms and in return are given rewards. The first miner to come out with a solution is rewarded with 12.5 coins per block and those that are not able to come up with a solution are given a chance on another block of transactions.
However, mining Litecoin requires hardware. Some miners use Graphics Processing Unit(GPU) or Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) machines in their process of solving an algorithm to get a solution.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Litecoin(LTC)

Advantages	Disadvantages
Transactions are easy and fast	Absolute anonymity
It has low transaction fees and less expensive	It is risky since it is not managed by any central authority
It is very easy to trade	It has branding issues since it is a fork of Bitcoin
Financial information are secure with Litecoin
It is decentralized

---

What can Litecoin be used for?
It can be used in transferring funds from one person to another without any middle man. It can also be used in payment processing in banks and other organizations.

Thank you so much for taking time to go through my post @yohan2on I’m really happy with the lecture you gave. Can’t wait for the next one.

Reference