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About Litecoin
Litecoin’s price performance
Litecoin in the news
Litecoin (LTC) is no longer a niche token; it is one of the most actively...
Canary Capital disclosed a 0.95% fee for its proposed spot Litecoin exchange-traded fund. The fee...
Grayscale Investments filed an S-3 registration statement with securities regulators for a Litecoin exchange-traded fund....
The expansion is expected to come through a pending acquisition of Dogehash, a miner focused on the Scrypt algorithm that secures both Dogecoin and Litecoin.
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Litecoin FAQ
Litecoin uses the Proof of Work consensus mechanism, where miners solve a complex mathematical problem to win the chance to verify transactions and create a block. These miners receive mining rewards for their efforts. During each halving, the mining rewards are reduced by 50 percent to slow the creation of new tokens. For example, after the second halving in August 2019, the mining rewards were reduced to 12.5 LTC from 25 LTC.
Easily buy LTC tokens on the OKX cryptocurrency platform. Available trading pairs in the OKX spot trading terminal include LTC/USDT, LTC/USDC, LTC/ETH and LTC/BTC.
You can also buy LTC with over 99 fiat currencies by selecting the "Express buy" option. Other popular crypto tokens, such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Tether (USDT), and USD Coin (USDC), are also available.
Additionally, you can swap your existing cryptocurrencies, including XRP (XRP), Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), and Chainlink (LINK), for LTC with zero fees and no price slippage by using OKX Convert.
To view the estimated real-time conversion prices between fiat currencies, such as the USD, EUR, GBP, and others, into LTC, visit the OKX Crypto Converter Calculator. OKX's high-liquidity crypto exchange ensures the best prices for your crypto purchases.
Litecoin was developed from a fork in the Bitcoin network and, therefore, uses Bitcoin's source code. However, Litecoin differs from Bitcoin in several ways, including transaction processing speed, fees, and privacy. Litecoin can process 54 transactions per second compared to five transactions processed per second on the Bitcoin network. Because of the speed of transactions, each new block on the Litecoin network is generated in about 2 minutes and 20 seconds, compared to 10 minutes on Bitcoin. Transaction fees on Litecoin are also comparatively lower than Bitcoin. Additionally, after the MimbleWimble upgrade, Litecoin offers greater privacy and scalability than Bitcoin.
Dive deeper into Litecoin
Developed in 2011 as a fork of the Bitcoin network, Litecoin aimed to improve upon Bitcoin's shortcomings. It was the first altcoin, and its goal was to offer a decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) currency with faster transaction processing times and lower fees than Bitcoin.
Built with payments in mind, Litecoin outperforms Bitcoin in terms of transaction speed and confirmation time. While Bitcoin can process approximately five transactions per second, Litecoin has a capacity of 56 transactions per second. The network's confirmation time is also significantly shorter, taking approximately two minutes and 20 seconds compared to Bitcoin's, of nearly 10 minutes per block.
Even after over a decade, Litecoin remains committed to providing users with low-cost, private, secure, and borderless payment solutions. Its vision is to enable individuals to send payments anywhere in the world at any time, making it a practical and accessible digital currency for everyday transactions. Litecoin's usage as a payment method has increased over the years, with merchants, including the American Red Cross, Newegg, and Twitch, accepting LTC as payment.
How does Litecoin work
Litecoin was created from the original Bitcoin source code. That said, it has several differences, which make it faster, cheaper, and more accessible. Here are the components that make Litecoin different:
Scrypt hashing
Litecoin was launched with a unique algorithmic architecture called Scrypt. Scrypt uses less processing power than Bitcoin’s SHA-256 algorithm, lowering the entry barriers for miners and promoting network decentralization. Scrypt also protects Litecoin from potential attacks by miners.
SegWit (Segregated Witness)
SegWit was initially proposed for Bitcoin but was first adopted by the Litecoin network. It separates the witness data (digital signature data) from the transaction data, allowing for more transactions to be included in each block and increasing the overall capacity and scalability of the network. The successful implementation of SegWit on Litecoin served as a testbed and paved the way for its subsequent adoption on the Bitcoin network.
MimbleWimble upgrade
Litecoin also launched its highly anticipated MimbleWimble upgrade, which allows for anonymous transactions on the network, similar to other private networks like Zcash (ZEC) and Monero (XMR). MimbleWimble's integration with Litecoin via extension blocks (MWEB) allowed users to conceal transaction information, thereby increasing privacy. The upgrade was released in January 2022 and activated in May.
The MimbleWimble upgrade was first suggested in October 2019 in two Litecoin improvement proposals. Then, in October 2020, the network launched the first MimbleWimble testnet. According to the Litecoin Foundation, the upgrade enhances the network's scalability since the amount of data stored on-chain reduces fungibility.
LTC price and tokenomics
LTC has a capped supply model, with a maximum supply 84 million. This specific cap was chosen so that the last LTC would be mined in 2142. Like BTC, LTC operates on a Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism, producing new tokens exclusively through mining. Every four years, LTC undergoes a halving to reduce the rewards earned by miners.
LTC has a wide range of use cases. As the native token of the network, LTC is used to pay transaction fees. LTC can also be used outside the network as a medium of exchange, purchasing goods and services or exchanging for other digital assets, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
About the founders
Litecoin was founded in 2011 by Charlie Lee, an MIT graduate and former software engineer at Google. Lee played a key role in the development and launch of Litecoin. In 2013, he joined Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, where he served as the Director of Engineering. In 2017, Lee made the decision to leave Coinbase to focus on the full-time development and advancement of Litecoin.
Lee is also the director of the Litecoin Foundation, a Singapore-based non-profit organization that works towards the growth and adoption of LTC. In December 2017, Lee sold his entire stake in Litecoin, saying it was a conflict of interest for him to talk about the cryptocurrency while influencing it.
Since its inception, the Litecoin team has grown and expanded to include more core developers. This dedicated team works on improving and maintaining the Litecoin network, ensuring its security, scalability, and overall functionality.
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