The cryptocurrency market is facing the terrible Bitcoin invasion these days, and it is likely that you will see Bitcoin in your dreams as well, as it has become the most popular currency around the world, and everyone loves it and prefers it to all other currencies, but many people prefer to invest outside Bitcoin for many reasons, including the great price fluctuation and the high value One currency. Let's make room for other currencies and learn about one of the most interesting currencies these days, Litecoin.

It is said that Litecoin relies on Bitcoin in one way or another, but Litecoin has its own strengths as well, so what is Litecoin? How does it work? How can we get it and use it? How will its future be? Let's get to know

What is Litecoin?

Litecoin is a cryptocurrency that operates on the peer-to-peer system, and it is an open-source project, meaning that any developer can view the source and modify it, and this program is used to organize the production of new units of Litecoin coin, in addition to making sure of The validity, encryption and protection of transfers made in the electronic payment system.

The Litecoin system works completely independently and is not subject to the authority of any central bank as it happens in traditional currencies, the Litecoin network is completely decentralized and does not depend on any party to supervise or monitor it, everything is available to everyone.

The difference between Litecoin and Bitcoin

The two currencies are similar in many respects, and many observers describe Bitcoin as being gold in the digital currency markets, to be Litecoin as silver, which is exactly what the developers focused on when building Litecoin to be compatible with Bitcoin, except that there are basic differences between them:

Litecoin provides greater speed in confirming transactions, as it processes a single block in the blockchain within two and a half minutes, while processing a single block in Bitcoin requires ten minutes, which allows processing and verification of transactions and transfers in less time, but it is a negative thing in some cases that There are no transformations taking place, resulting in the possibility of similar repeating blocks.

Litecoin operates with a different encryption algorithm that is more complex than Bitcoin's, and this results in a greater consumption of memory used to create the new blocks.

Litecoin continues to create new currencies until it reaches 84 million Litecoin, which is four times what Bitcoin will reach, which is only 21 million Bitcoin.

Litecoin start

Litecoin was launched on October 7, 2011 as an open source program on the GitHub platform by Charlie Lee, a former Google employee, and that was a disaster for Bitcoin users, because Litecoin relies on the same blockchain technology, with more speed and a higher final number. In addition to a stronger encryption algorithm and a simpler user interface.

Founder of Litecoin

Charlie Lee, an African-Asian computer engineer born in Ivory Coast, is known around the world for being the founder of Litecoin, and has held the position of General Manager of the Litecoin Foundation since July 2013. He worked for Google for a certain period before he showed interest in cryptocurrencies and launched His famous currency.

Charlie Lee mined 150 Litecoins before launching the new currency for circulation, and although Charlie believed in the success of his project and the flexibility of his currency against Bitcoin, he knew that competing with Bitcoin was very difficult and could be impossible.

The most important events affecting Litecoin

Although cryptocurrencies such as Litecoin were originally intended to perform transactions over the Internet faster, their value increases or decreases depending on a number of factors related to the market.

Despite Litecoin's lack of government support that regular currencies enjoy, but its movement and fluctuation in the market constitutes a great attraction for investors in the past few months, but its value of course is less than the value of Bitcoin, which today is more than 11 thousand dollars, and therefore its market value is less than the value Its counterpart, Bitcoin, is also worth $ 196 billion

But Litecoin has made many people among the richest of the rich in a short period of time, like many other digital currencies, its value increased in 2017 from $ 4 at the beginning of the year to more than $ 375 at the end of the year, which represents a profit of more than 9000%.

Although its value is much lower than Bitcoin, this may not necessarily affect its value directly, but it could make it more popular over time, which in turn creates more opportunities and potential to increase the value over time due to the increased demand for it.

How does Litecoin work

Litecoin is a network through which payments can be made and money transferred from one person to another using peer-to-peer technology, meaning that it does not require the presence of a third-party intermediary, and is not subject to any authority or government that controls it, which gives it the decentralization characteristic, which is one of the main reasons for people switching currencies Traditional to cryptocurrency.

The Litecoin system is not dealt with a physical coin or paper currency as is the case in traditional currencies such as the dollar and the euro, but the virtual currency is used as is the case in all competing currencies. Your Litecoin balance or sale according to the daily exchange rate and against any conventional currency you own

What is a Litecoin blockchain?

Litecoin works with the same blockchain technology that Bitcoin does, and it is the public record in which all transfers are recorded in addition to all new mined currencies, and it consists of a large number of blocks, each block includes all the contents of the preceding block and so on until we reach the first block and all Blocks and the links between them are secured by a strong encryption system.

When a transfer is performed, the blockchain records and verifies the operation by writing down the full details of the transaction and encrypting it, and every 2.5 minutes a block is created containing a number of accepted transfers, and it is added to the blockchain

Is Litecoin mining profitable?

Elite of digital currency professionals say that trading Litecoin generates more profits than mining, because the hardware you must acquire to start mining is very expensive and your profit may not be guaranteed due to the many risks that you may face, which are:

The difficulty of entering the mining network in light of the large and growing number of prospectors who have mighty equipment that you cannot match, all of this will reduce the probability of profit, knowing that Litecoin mining profits will halve in mid-2019.

The difficulty of selling the equipment used for mining in the event that you decide to stop mining or your profit is little, as the equipment required for the mining process is often qualitative and is assembled in a special way, and the possibility of using it for other purposes is very difficult.

Significant delay in shipping mining gear upon request,Many people mentioned that they ordered their equipment and could only receive it after several months had passed, which could cause you to lose a lot.

The high energy consumption required by the mining process, often your electricity bill will be greater than what you earn from Litecoin mining, so beware.

The future of Litecoin

The year 2019 will be pivotal for Litecoin, because, as we mentioned, the number of coins that are mined will be halved, which will lead to a shortage of supply, an increase in demand and a noticeable rise in Litecoin prices, and the year 2020 will witness a decrease in the number of new mineralized Bitcoins, which will also affect Prices of all digital currencies.

When Litecoin was first launched it was just one of a handful of digital currencies, and the number has swelled dramatically to have more than 1,300 digital currencies, and as new digital currencies continue to be issued daily.
Despite this, Litecoin managed to get its name and proved its presence in this large sea of ​​digital currencies, and interest in Litecoin as a means of transactions has increased in recent months due to the rise in the value of Bitcoin and the high fees imposed to conduct transactions with Bitcoin, so users began to search for an alternative, and it seems that they are They chose Litecoin.