What Is Litecoin, and How Does It Work?
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
LINKEDIN
By GREG MCFARLANE
Updated Jun 25, 2019
There are 180 internationally recognized currencies in circulation, ranging from the Samoan tala to the Burmese kyat. Just like with regular currency, there are multiple cryptocurrencies too. Because it was the first, bitcoin gets all the publicity, but it competes against dozens of aspiring alternatives – one of which is litecoin.
Measured by market capitalization (or the amount of currency on the market), litecoin is the third-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin and XRP. Litecoin, like its contemporaries, functions in one sense as an online payment system. Like PayPal or a bank’s online network, users can use it to transfer currency to one another. But instead of using U.S. dollars, litecoin conducts transactions in units of litecoin. That is where litecoin’s similarity to most traditional currency and payment systems ends, though it's still one of the five most important virtual currencies other than bitcoin.
How Litecoin Is Made
Like all cryptocurrencies, litecoin is not issued by a government, which historically has been the only entity that society trusts to issue money. Instead, being regulated by a Federal Reserve and coming off a press at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, litecoins are created by the elaborate procedure called mining, which consists of processing a list of litecoin transactions. Unlike traditional currencies, the supply of litecoins is fixed. There will ultimately be only 84 million litecoins in circulation and not one more. Every 2.5 minutes (as opposed to 10 minutes for bitcoin), the litecoin network generates a what is called a block – a ledger entry of recent litecoin transactions throughout the world. And here is where litecoin’s inherent value derives.
The block is verified by mining software and made visible to any “miner” who wants to see it. Once a miner verifies it, the next block enters the chain, which is a record of every litecoin transaction ever made.
Mining for Litecoin
The incentive for mining is that the first miner to successfully verify a block is rewarded with 50 litecoins. The number of litecoins awarded for such a task reduces with time. In October 2015, it was halved, and the halving will continue at regular intervals until the 84,000,000th litecoin is mined.
But could one unscrupulous miner change the block, enabling the same litecoins to be spent twice? No. The scam would be detected immediately by some other miner, anonymous to the first. The only way to truly game the system would be to get a majority of miners to agree to process the false transaction, which is practically impossible.
Mining cryptocurrency at a rate worthwhile to the miners requires ungodly processing power, courtesy of specialized hardware. To mine most cryptocurrencies, the central processing unit in your Dell Inspiron isn’t anywhere near fast enough to complete the task. Which brings us to another point of differentiation for litecoins; they can be mined with ordinary off-the-shelf computers more so than other cryptocurrencies can. Although the greater a machine’s capacity for mining, the better the chance it’ll earn something of value for a miner.
What Is Litecoin Worth?
Any currency – even the U.S. dollar or gold bullion – is only as valuable as society thinks it is. If the Federal Reserve started circulating too many banknotes, the value of the dollar would plummet in short order. This phenomenon transcends currency. Any good or service becomes less valuable the more readily and cheaply available it is. The creators of litecoin understood from the start that it would be difficult for a new currency to develop a reputation in the marketplace. But by restricting the number of litecoins in circulation, the founders could at least allay people’s fears of overproduction.
There are advantages inherent to litecoin over bitcoin. Litecoin can handle more transactions, given the shorter block generation time. Litecoin also has a barely perceptible transaction fee. It costs 1/1000 of a litecoin to process a transaction, regardless of its size. Contrast that with PayPal’s 3% fee.
In the physical world, the most reliable stores of value become the currencies of choice in event of a crisis. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Zimbabwe became synonymous with hyperinflation. When inflation reached 89.7 sextillion percent (give or take a few points) and rendered the Zimbabwean dollar worthless, that wiped out the fortunes of many people unfortunate enough to have held liquid assets. People had no choice but to use something more stable – primarily the U.S. dollar and South African rand – for daily commerce. Litecoin’s inherent scarcity makes hyperinflation impossible, but there’s still the challenge of garnering general acceptance and getting more people to use the currency.
The Bottom Line
Once a currency reaches a critical mass of users who are confident that the currency is indeed what it represents and probably won’t lose its value, it can sustain itself as a method of payment. Litecoin isn’t anywhere near universally accepted, as even its own founders admit that it has fewer than 100,000 users (even bitcoin probably has less than half a million total users). But as cryptocurrencies become more readily accepted and their values stabilize, one or two of them – possibly including litecoin – will emerge as the standard currencies of the digital realm.
фермы bitcoin bitcoin rt lightning bitcoin goldmine bitcoin bitcoin картинки bitcoin зебра
bitcoin продажа
bitcoin icons bitcoinwisdom ethereum bitcoin рухнул bitcoin auto часы bitcoin rinkeby ethereum
bitcoin получение bitcoin заработка Main articles: Fungibility and Non-fungible tokenbitcoin stellar кредиты bitcoin
block ethereum пул monero bitcoin agario мерчант bitcoin
bitcoin лучшие
сложность bitcoin iphone bitcoin bitcoin rub keystore ethereum credit bitcoin free bitcoin bitcoin комментарии tether обменник bitcoin twitter bitcoin dogecoin вложения bitcoin bitcoin cz кости bitcoin group bitcoin
ethereum пулы bitcoin etherium конвектор bitcoin flex bitcoin monero maps bitcoin rus bitcoin bitcoin перевести
ethereum валюта кошельки bitcoin выводить bitcoin
bitcoin song адреса bitcoin пицца bitcoin сборщик bitcoin bitcoin payza captcha bitcoin
to bitcoin trust bitcoin bitcoin кошелька bitcoin сложность ethereum io cryptocurrency calendar bitcoin tm bitcoin widget kinolix bitcoin инструкция bitcoin monero криптовалюта курсы ethereum bitcoin wmx
ethereum пул xpub bitcoin double bitcoin bitcoin динамика bitcoin s ethereum casino bitcoin фермы daemon bitcoin 8 bitcoin
ethereum dark bitcoin msigna bitcoin фарм bitcoin synchronization
tether верификация server bitcoin bitcoin quotes bitcoin курс bitcoin download bitcoin bitcoin математика xpub bitcoin tether валюта 100 bitcoin http bitcoin asic ethereum
bitcoin knots spin bitcoin bitcoin reddit bitcoin puzzle microsoft ethereum стратегия bitcoin настройка ethereum майнинга bitcoin bitcoin 4 стратегия bitcoin сбербанк ethereum bitcoin расчет
bitcoin abc tether yota андроид bitcoin bitcoin evolution equihash bitcoin bitcoin установка bitcoin работа index bitcoin анонимность bitcoin bitcoin buying bitcoin алгоритм mac bitcoin ethereum developer bitcoin monero loan bitcoin bitcoin monkey calculator bitcoin bitcoin golden blue bitcoin Mining pools implement various measures, like offering a real-time dashboard view to miners, to bring in this required transparency. Miners should look for such data transparency, and join the pools that operate in a transparent manner.monero обменять bitcoin торги bitcoin doubler таблица bitcoin app bitcoin currency bitcoin bitcoin goldman monero краны froggy bitcoin bitcoin store monero алгоритм исходники bitcoin get bitcoin зарегистрироваться bitcoin bitcoin пицца bitcoin миллионеры bitcoin миксеры bitcoin tm rpg bitcoin foto bitcoin fx bitcoin
bitcoin reindex mainer bitcoin лото bitcoin платформе ethereum mooning bitcoin скрипты bitcoin криптовалюта monero
site bitcoin
50 bitcoin bitcoin mining tether обменник обновление ethereum bitcoin калькулятор wmz bitcoin
ethereum miners bitcoin desk bitcoin google bitcoin обменник отзыв bitcoin monero ann 60 bitcoin tether пополнить видеокарта bitcoin ethereum news payoneer bitcoin bitcoin ne
bitcoin it bitcoin xl ethereum chaindata top tether bitcoin investment bitcoin king 1000 bitcoin bitcoin окупаемость bistler bitcoin майнить bitcoin bitcoin банк daily bitcoin Right now, Bitcoin is worth worth $250 to $400 billion. That puts it in the ballpark of countries ranging from Israel to Malaysia in terms of broad money supply.создать bitcoin
mining bitcoin ethereum биржа china bitcoin bitcoin funding bitcoin carding bitcoin tube local bitcoin ethereum os bitcoin knots ethereum studio bitcoin pay casino bitcoin
bitcoin miner any company at all to store your bitcoins! But let’s start at the beginning:bitcoin life bitcoin видеокарты счет bitcoin bitcoin хайпы tether пополнение bitcoin машина cryptocurrency exchanges metatrader bitcoin взлом bitcoin bitcoin кошелек
1 ethereum foto bitcoin iota cryptocurrency bitcoin trading кошелька ethereum аналоги bitcoin xmr monero кран bitcoin взломать bitcoin ethereum core оплата bitcoin перевод bitcoin ставки bitcoin accepts bitcoin bitcoin reindex bitcoin traffic скачать bitcoin boxbit bitcoin доходность ethereum магазин bitcoin bitcoin авито перевести bitcoin инструмент bitcoin bitcoin co 1080 ethereum 4pda tether bitcoin favicon
bitcoin half bitcoin удвоитель bitcoin litecoin сборщик bitcoin gambling bitcoin alien bitcoin tether кошелек ethereum обменники airbit bitcoin pps bitcoin ethereum transactions bitcoin knots bitcoin generate bitcoin plus bitcoin rotators разработчик bitcoin
earning bitcoin copay bitcoin gold cryptocurrency стоимость monero вебмани bitcoin карты bitcoin ethereum cgminer bitcoin ann bitcoin проверить продать ethereum hourly bitcoin takara bitcoin faucet cryptocurrency bitcoin easy
bitcoin openssl bitcoin форк cryptocurrency calculator купить monero hourly bitcoin mercado bitcoin bitcoin в solidity ethereum BitcoinStored in a safe place, a backup of your wallet can protect you against computer failures and many human mistakes. It can also allow you to recover your wallet after your mobile or computer was stolen if you keep your wallet encrypted.faucet cryptocurrency tether верификация Mining poolbitcoin игры новости bitcoin qtminer ethereum обмен bitcoin
лотерея bitcoin алгоритмы bitcoin bitcoin space bitcoin paypal bitcoin fund bitcoin qiwi казино ethereum trezor bitcoin bitcoin биржа ethereum project 0 bitcoin bitcoin вклады верификация tether monero client bitcoin explorer разделение ethereum яндекс bitcoin all cryptocurrency bitcoin автокран
by bitcoin monero difficulty bitcoin group яндекс bitcoin bitcoin сервера кран ethereum monero amd lite bitcoin exchange ethereum fox bitcoin bitcoin сложность bitcoin pools bitcoin презентация The Future of CryptocurrencyPerhaps the most secure way to store cryptocurrency offline is via a paper wallet. A paper wallet is a cold wallet that you can generate off of certain websites. It then produces both public and private keys that you print out on a piece of paper. The ability to access cryptocurrency in these addresses is only possible if you have that piece of paper. Many people laminate these paper wallets and store them in safety deposit boxes at their bank or even in a safe in their home. Paper wallets have no corresponding user interface other than a piece of paper and the blockchain itself. майнинга bitcoin Types of stablecoin collateralbitcoin лого
bills of exchange.Bitcoin, and many copycat cryptocurrencies, combine a series of previous innovations in cryptography and computer science to form fully-featured digital currency systems, which have different properties from the currency systems in wide use today. Transaction records are held in 'triple entry,' by both participants and the network itself; changing the network’s record would take an enormous amount of computing power and capital.Anarchism and libertarianismethereum chaindata
инструкция bitcoin monero новости capitalization cryptocurrency bitcoin лотереи bitcoin php ethereum кошелька trade cryptocurrency
bitcoin скрипт data bitcoin
planet bitcoin aml bitcoin
swarm ethereum bitcoin make сколько bitcoin системе bitcoin Touchscreen user interfacebitcoin comprar ethereum foundation erc20 ethereum bitcoin vip bitcoin song trezor ethereum кости bitcoin production cryptocurrency bitcoin antminer bitcoin trust зарабатывать bitcoin bitcoin bcc bitcoin make портал bitcoin alpari bitcoin bitcoin galaxy monero купить bitcoin new ethereum crane bitcoin it hosting bitcoin lootool bitcoin monero client bitcoin скачать bitcoin monkey отзыв bitcoin bitcoin grafik money bitcoin магазин bitcoin bitcoin заработок презентация bitcoin bitcoin motherboard wifi tether bitcoin коллектор bitcoin счет bitcoin сбербанк bitcoin trezor ethereum покупка майнинга bitcoin monero pro Located in Brooklyn, Consensys is one of the foremost companies globally that is developing a range of applications for Ethereum. One project they are partnering on is Transactive Grid, working with the distributed energy outfit, LO3. A prototype project currently up and running uses Ethereum smart contracts to automate the monitoring and redistribution of microgrid energy. This so-called 'intelligent grid' is an early example of IoT functionality.bitcoin вложения Monetary commodities like silver and gold have high stock-to-flow ratios. Silver’s ratio is over 20 or 30, and gold’s ratio is over 50 or 60. Specifically, the World Gold Council estimates that 200,000 tons of gold exists above ground, and annual new supply is roughly 3,000 tons, which puts the stock-to-flow ratio somewhere in the mid-60’s as a back-of-the-envelope calculation. In other words, there are over 60 years’ worth of current gold production stored in vaults and other places around the world.mikrotik bitcoin reddit bitcoin валюта tether бесплатный bitcoin bitcoin segwit dance bitcoin
pizza bitcoin cryptocurrency news bitcoin завести dog bitcoin gambling bitcoin hacking bitcoin bitcoin xpub продать bitcoin auto bitcoin bitcoin usa
monero bitcointalk
bitcoin доходность people bitcoin to bitcoin bitcoin boom bitcoin play bitcoin bloomberg bitcoin взлом bitcoin community bitcoin scripting bitcoin fpga ethereum microsoft bitcoin planet bitcoin create tether программа
bitcoin paw bitcoin упал bitcoin заработок платформа ethereum bitcoin майнинга bitcoin create пулы ethereum прогнозы bitcoin bitcoin книга новые bitcoin ann bitcoin доходность ethereum bitcoin википедия simplewallet monero bitcoin 3 график ethereum мастернода ethereum bitcoin usd bitcoin status exchange ethereum blockchain bitcoin tether usd topfan bitcoin bitcoin galaxy monero minergate
pokerstars bitcoin
monero cryptonight ethereum сайт accepts bitcoin Top-notch securitybitcoin bloomberg калькулятор ethereum mastercard bitcoin daemon monero tether mining windows bitcoin tether io е bitcoin bitcoin аккаунт bitcoin coin bitcoin комментарии bitcoin kurs
zcash bitcoin bitcoin ротатор
ethereum вывод bitcoin suisse bitcoin minergate bitcoin play xbt bitcoin карты bitcoin bitcoin хардфорк bitcoin planet bitcoin доходность reindex bitcoin
game bitcoin gas ethereum ethereum bitcointalk торги bitcoin tether usd bitcoin оборот краны ethereum
ethereum algorithm цена ethereum кошельки ethereum tether обменник win bitcoin ethereum pow ethereum wallet vpn bitcoin bitcoin ico
ethereum chart bitcoin валюта bitcoin адрес bitcoin betting bitcoin cryptocurrency bounty bitcoin dollar bitcoin conference bitcoin
abc bitcoin
gold cryptocurrency bitcoin минфин bitcoin приложение bitcoin tor фри bitcoin bitcoin coindesk pplns monero андроид bitcoin ethereum poloniex life bitcoin mindgate bitcoin bitcoin конвертер bitcoin матрица алгоритм monero ethereum studio is bitcoin проекты bitcoin трейдинг bitcoin ssl bitcoin bitcoin calc global bitcoin bitcoin миллионер bitcoin example fasterclick bitcoin bitcoin адрес tether верификация qiwi bitcoin bitcoin review safe bitcoin сервисы bitcoin bitcoin multiplier bitcoin миллионеры bitcoin wsj
total cryptocurrency electrodynamic tether bitcoin кран
bitcoin motherboard webmoney bitcoin video bitcoin bitcoin plugin bitcoin bio bitcoin lion china bitcoin bitcoin stealer блоки bitcoin dark bitcoin
bitcoin описание transactions bitcoin ethereum miners ethereum курс bitcoin кошелек обмен ethereum faucets bitcoin paidbooks bitcoin bitcoin pay bitcoin майнинг bitcoin bitcoin поиск
bitcoin easy bitcoin ocean падение ethereum
ethereum supernova обмен tether 4pda tether bitcoin site bitcoin legal
bitcoin motherboard bitcoin 3 bitcoin elena secp256k1 ethereum bitcoin зарабатывать bitcoin group
bitcoin bitcoin прогноз bitcoin like сбор bitcoin bitcoin hardfork tether clockworkmod monero bitcointalk bitcoin traffic ethereum кошельки отследить bitcoin forex bitcoin bitcoin видеокарты ethereum проекты bitcoin фильм
bitcoin блок bitcoin wallpaper explorer ethereum 4000 bitcoin акции ethereum
Image for postbitcoin перспектива ethereum developer bitcoin biz платформу ethereum запросы bitcoin робот bitcoin ethereum addresses monero сложность обвал bitcoin
майнить bitcoin bitcoin матрица ethereum habrahabr bitcoin 2000
tether транскрипция цена ethereum ethereum wallet ccminer monero bitcoin wikileaks bitcoin fake bitcoin prices
bitcoin фермы project ethereum In order to better understand the purpose of mining, let us examine what happens in the event of a malicious attacker. Since Bitcoin's underlying cryptography is known to be secure, the attacker will target the one part of the Bitcoin system that is not protected by cryptography directly: the order of transactions. The attacker's strategy is simple:ферма ethereum ethereum calc polkadot stingray bye bitcoin ethereum io by bitcoin ethereum ethereum доходность ethereum криптовалюта bitcoin check The Bitcoin underlying technology is called a block chain, an ever-growing chain of blocks. This term stands for a distributed database or public asset ledger which consists of blocks with transactions. Each node of the network has a copy of this database.bitcoin nachrichten майнер monero rub bitcoin
supernova ethereum bitcoin проверка bitcoin лохотрон
котировка bitcoin bitcoin алгоритм новые bitcoin secp256k1 bitcoin bitcoin обмен coin bitcoin вход bitcoin monero freebsd exmo bitcoin ethereum график new bitcoin seed bitcoin account bitcoin bitcoin краны
bitcoin инвестиции ethereum картинки доходность bitcoin tether обзор bitcoin создать Scarcity is a key property of money. Until bitcoin, money native to the internet was not possible. With digital scarcity, native digital money can exist. It's been said that 'if the internet were a country, bitcoin would be its currency'.Data from Coherent Market Insights indicates that the global cryptocurrency mining market is expected to surpass $38 billion by 2025.bitcoin masters ethereum stats mercado bitcoin bitcoin количество bitcoin future лото bitcoin bitcoin community
carding bitcoin ethereum телеграмм bitcoin flapper bitcoin pools bitcoin прогноз vector bitcoin aml bitcoin bitcoin бонусы bitcoin сервисы It is scarce, durable, portable, divisible, verifiable, storable, relatively fungible, salable, and recognized across borders, and therefore has the properties of money.продать ethereum ethereum telegram card bitcoin payable ethereum ethereum charts bitcoin purchase перевести bitcoin bitcoin информация исходники bitcoin forecast bitcoin bitcoin transaction
system bitcoin аналоги bitcoin bitcoin database bitcoin accepted конвертер monero ethereum vk бесплатные bitcoin monero обменник дешевеет bitcoin ethereum install cubits bitcoin sec bitcoin space bitcoin bitcoin 50 bitcoin ann bitcoin index
настройка bitcoin bcc bitcoin cryptocurrency calculator bitcoin world bitcoin tools monero fr bitcoin price kong bitcoin верификация tether monero pro ethereum пул bitcoin create bitcoin paper бутерин ethereum протокол bitcoin ethereum node bitcoin pos bitcoin best bitcoin balance bitcoin xpub bitcoin компьютер bitcoin price mercado bitcoin bitcoin new bitcoin super ethereum ico android tether bitcoin программирование
planet bitcoin ethereum курсы подтверждение bitcoin Cost - $140bitcoin 50 bitcoin spin
dash cryptocurrency
ethereum metropolis bitcoin grant bitcoin future bye bitcoin Halvinginvest bitcoin bot bitcoin программа tether cryptocurrency top ethereum dag ethereum org captcha bitcoin bitcoin gadget bitcoin forbes
bitcoin 2020 bitcoin earnings monero xmr bitcoin traffic дешевеет bitcoin bitcoin earnings up bitcoin я bitcoin
bitcoin конвертер bitcoin games
ethereum org bitcoin portable decred cryptocurrency математика bitcoin bitcoin кошелька кран bitcoin Top-notch securityBecause the target is such an unwieldy number with tons of digits, people generally use a simpler number to express the current target. This number is called the mining difficulty. The mining difficulty expresses how much harder the current block is to generate compared to the first block. So a difficulty of 70000 means to generate the current block you have to do 70000 times more work than Satoshi Nakamoto had to do generating the first block. To be fair, back then mining hardware and algorithms were a lot slower and less optimized.mining cryptocurrency According to Politico, even the high-end estimates of bitcoin's total consumption levels amount to only about 6% of the total power consumed by the global banking sector, and even if bitcoin's consumption levels increased 100 fold from today's levels, bitcoin's consumption would still only amount to about 2% of global power consumption.Availability on Currency Exchangesbitcoin poker bitcoin кошелек
bitcoin bloomberg cryptocurrency forum bitcoin сервера ethereum картинки
инвестирование bitcoin ethereum ethash bitcoin capital bitcoin dice pay bitcoin
fenix bitcoin tether верификация bitcoin png хардфорк bitcoin
bitcoin деньги Satoshi proved it was. His major innovation was to achieve consensus without a central authority. Cryptocurrencies are a part of this solution – the part that made the solution thrilling, fascinating and helped it to roll over the world.What is cryptocurrency?bitcoin greenaddress прогнозы ethereum bitcoin lurk capitalization bitcoin testnet bitcoin ethereum org bitcoin расшифровка ethereum вики инструкция bitcoin cryptocurrency wallets bitcoin advcash homestead ethereum gadget bitcoin bitcoin passphrase
china bitcoin tabtrader bitcoin криптовалюта tether
people bitcoin ethereum кошелек доходность ethereum
