Welcome back to the season to of the Crypto academy. Here is my Homework Post for Professor @yohan2on; Altcoins.

Litecoin

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Litecoin is a peer-to-peer and open-source digital currency created on October 7th 2011 by Charlie Lee. The idea of the name Litecoin was used as the lighter version of Bitcoin. Litecoin has almost the same technology and objective like Bitcoin to become a global payment service. Litecoin was invented to fix the pitfalls in the Bitcoin network which include slow transaction process and high transaction fees.

Litecoin uses Bitcoin source code as its foundation which makes it similar to Bitcoin. Litecoin is fully decentralized meaning there's no central authority controlling the network. Litecoin makes use of Cryptographic protocol to create and transfer its coins. Blockchain technology is being employed in Litecoin which means all transactions are recorded in a public digital ledger. Despite using the source code as Bitcoin, Litecoin aimed at facilitating a more convenient way of making payments and transactions faster and lower fees than the Bitcoin network.

How it works

Litecoin was developed using Bitcoin source code which makes it similar to BTC. But there are still some differences between the two network. Just like Bitcoin, validation of transactions and generation of a new block in Litecoin are done using the proof of work consensus mechanism. Litecoin uses a script mining algorithm that differs from the Bitcoin SHA256 mining algorithm.

The script mining was developed to fix the pitfalls in Bitcoin mining which includes high installation cost and running cost. But Litecoin mining algorithm was designed to enable users to mine Litecoin using a regular computer. Litecoin block is generated every 2.5 minutes making it 4x faster than Bitcoin. The reward in mining Litecoin is cut in half every 4 years with the next halving to take place in 2023.

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In 2017, Litecoin implemented SegWit technology to its network. SegWit technology prevents excess data to be included in new blocks. This will help to free up spaces in the block and record more transactions. Through SegWit technology, Litecoins transactions were increased from 28 to 56 per second.

Unique Features of Litecoin

-Faster Transaction:Litecoin was developed to eliminate the flaws in Bitcoin transactions. Unlike Bitcoin that 10mins to confirm a block, Litecoin takes 2.5 minutes to confirm a block making it 4 times faster than the Bitcoin network. Similarly, the use of SegWit technology also helped to increase Litecoin transaction speed from 28 to 56 transactions per second.

-Scalability:Scalability is the term used in terms of the number of transactions that can be performed. In comparison to Bitcoin which processes a maximum of 7 transactions per second, Litecoin processes a maximum of 56 transactions per second. The scalability in Litecoin makes it faster to carry out transactions than the Bitcoin network. Litecoin also supports Lightening Network which is an off-chain scaling solution that allows more transactions to be carried out between users.

-Mining:Litecoin uses the proof of work consensus mechanism just like Bitcoin. Bitcoin mining is difficult to run and not everyone can afford the high cost of machines used in mining. Litecoin uses the Script mining algorithm. Instead of using the costly ASICs hardware in Bitcoin mining, miners can use GPU's to mine Litecoin which is cheaper and affordable.

-Decentralization:Unlike the traditional means of payment where banks and financial institutions are trusted with users funds. Similarly, in a centralized setting, the banks and central banks as a third party and control transaction processes. Litecoin network is fully decentralized which means that there's no third party during transactions and nobody has control over your funds. Similarly, the decentralized nature of Litecoin guarantees the security of user funds and makes it nearly impossible for hackers to manipulate transactions.

Use cases of Litecoin

• International exchange
• Remittance use
• Purchase of goods and services
• Investment purposes (Staking)

Litecoin Team

Litecoin Foundation is a non-profit organisation registered in Singapore. The foundation has member all over the globe who work together to develop and keep improving Litecoin. The foundation is headed by Litecoin founder Charlie Lee who was a software engineer at Google.

_{Litecoin Founder, Charlie Lee Source}

Charlie Lee works with other top management in the foundation like Xinxi Wang, the founder of crypto exchange platform Coinut and Zing Yang, an experienced venture and capital investment enthusiast. Litecoin Core development team involves developers who contribute to the Litecoin project. The core team works together with the Litecoin foundation and also gets financial support from the foundation.

Technical Overview of Litecoin

Market Stats	Overview
Rank	9th
MarketCap	$22.04 billion
Total supply	66.75 million
Circulating supply	66.75 million
Max. Supply	84 million
24 hour trading volume	$12.89 billion
All-time high	$330.18
All-time low	$1.32
Price change since launch	+$327.10
Return of Investment since launch	+7,600%

Screenshot from Coinmarketcap mobile app: Litecoin all-time chart

From the market start and chart of Litecoin, we can see a good development and progress in the coin. Currently, the price has broken the previous all-time high at $256 and it's trading higher. We hope to see continuous growth in the price of Litecoin.

Where you can buy Litecoin

Litecoin has gained dominance in the cryptocurrency industry and can be exchanged for fiat currencies like USD, AUD, EUR, GBP. Litecoin can be exchanged in major exchanges like Binance, Poloniex, Kucoin, Houbi global, Coinbase, Okex etc.
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Litecoin trading pairs and exchanges Source

Litecoin Wallet

Litecoin Wallets Source

Litecoin is considered one of the first altcoins in the cryptocurrency industry. Its dominance has made it available and supported by almost every digital wallet just like Bitcoin. Litecoin can be stored in hardware wallets like Trezor and Ledger devices. Similarly, it can be stored in mobile wallets like Trust wallet, exodus wallet, Atomic wallet etc. Litecoin can also be stored in Coinbase web wallet.

Litecoin Blockchain Explorer

Just like other cryptocurrencies, Litecoin transactions can be viewed and tracked on Litecoin block explorer. With these, transparency can be created in transactions and balances in addresses can be viewed. Below are Litecoin explorers from :

• Blockchair
• Chains CryptoID
• Litecoin Explorer
• Token View LTC
• BSC scan

In conclusion, Litecoin has proven to be a better version of Bitcoin in terms of transaction speed, transaction fees and ease of mining. Though there is still a new generation of cryptocurrency projects like Zilliqa and Cardano that offer more scalability features, they are still in the process of competing with Litecoin and Bitcoin in terms of liquidity. Similarly, Litecoin has built a dedicated team and foundation that work together to improve the Litecoin products.