What is Litecoin?
Litecoin is often referred to as Bitcoin’s little brother. It is a peer-to-peer internet currency that enables instant near-zero cost payments to the world. The cryptocurrency, like others, is an open source global payment that is completely decentralized without any central authority. Mathematics plays an important part in securing the network and allows individuals to control their finances.
With substantial industry support, liquidity and trade volume, Litecoin is a proven medium of commerce that complements Bitcoin. What sets it apart is that the Litecoin blockchain is capable of handling higher transaction volume than bitcoin.
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as of the time of writing, Litecoin seems like a worthwhile investment. Some governments have even come around to accepting it. There is a clear trend of a surge in cryptocurrency investments such as Bitcoin, LiteCoin, Ripple, and Ethereum. For instance, Russia is attempting to legitimize cryptocurrency as it would help the government to crack down on money laundering.
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Why is Litecoin Better than Bitcoin?
One of the major differences that set apart Bitcoin and Litecoin is their proof of work algorithm. Bitcoin uses the SHA-256 hashing algorithm, which involves calculations that can be greatly accelerated in parallel processing. Litecoin, on the other hand, uses the script algorithm. Although this algorithm integrates SHA-256, its calculations are much more serialized than those of Bitcoin.
Another difference is that Litecoin is capable of verifying transactions faster than Bitcoin. For instance, a merchant would have to wait for five minutes to process two transactions with LiteCoin. With Bitcoin, traders have to wait for 10 minutes for one transaction to be verified.
How to Buy Litecoin via Exchanges?
Same as other popular cryptocurrencies, there are two ways to purchase Litecoin via exchanges. The first option being with other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, etc. The second option to buy Litecoin is with fiat currencies (USD, EUR, GBP). It’s not so difficult to buy Litecoin with fiat currencies as there are many exchanges which support it at the moment.
Below is a step by step guide to buying Litecoin via exchanges:
Step 1 – Getting a Litecoin Wallet
Getting a LiteCoin wallet is the prerequisite of trading with this form of cryptocurrency. Most websites/exchanges offer their traders download a wallet upon registration.
Another way to get Litecoin wallets is by signing into litecoin.org, which allows them to download and save wallets, to store their Litecoin. Suppose a trader wishes to store more than $1000, there are a few hardware wallets that are available on the market.
Step 2 – Find Exchange that Supports Litecoin
Surprisingly, there is no dearth of Litecoin exchanges where one can trade this cryptocurrency in exchange for dollars or Bitcoins. For those who are interested to buy Litecoin via exchanges that support Litecoin purchase with fiat currencies, Exmo and Bitfinex provide this service.
For those who search for an exchange that supports Litecoin with other cryptocurrencies, Binance would be the most recommended exchange as it has a wide selection of cryptos.
In the case you prefer to buy Litecoin with cryptocurrencies, however, you do not own any cryptocurrency, then enter Coinbase, open an account, follow the instructions and you are ready to go.
Step 3 – Buy and Sell Litecoin
Now, after you opened the digital wallet and an account in one of the exchanges that support Litecoin, you can start trading Litecoin. Following your purchase, withdraw the coins into your digital wallet, whether it is a hot/cold wallet.
Litecoin Trading Through CFD’s
Litecoin is a vast open-source network and is a cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin. However, in this context, the topic is purely for trading in Litecoin. As discussed above, exchanges are one way of going about it. Another way to trade Litecoin is through a contract for difference (CFD’s). When a trader engages in a contract with an exchange, there is an agreement drawn up between the two parties the difference in starting Litecoin price and ending price will be settled between them.
One of the brokers that provide the option to trade Litecoin is Plus500 (*76.4% of retail CFD accounts lose money, Availability subject to regulation). The broker allows you to leverage the position as well as to short (bet on a decrease in Litecoin’s value) the coin. Plus500 (*76.4% of retail CFD accounts lose money)also provide you a leverage position on Litecoin. Note that when you trade through a CFD broker you do not own any agreement or possessing the coin but speculate Litecoin’s price fluctuations.
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Litecoin Mining
There are different ways to mine Litecoin. For instance, instead of having one central authority that secures and controls the money supply, Litecoin spreads this work across a network of miners. Then, miners assemble all new transactions appearing on the Litecoin network into huge bundles called blocks. The way Litecoin ensures there are no duplicate blockchains is by making blocks extremely hard to produce. Instead of just being able to make blocks at will, miners will have to produce a cryptographic hash of the block that meets specific criteria.
These days, more people tend to rely more on mining pools as mining independently can lead to over-utilization of a lot of resources which simply does not seem like a worthy investment. Mining pools were invented to share processing power so that miners can find blocks much faster. Pool users earn shares by sharing proof of work and they are rewarded accordingly.
However, if a trader is determined to mine on his own, then Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) devices are the best bet because they come integrated with pre-installed mining software. They also require little to no configuration.
Ther are many ways to mine Litecoin as it is currently one of the most profitable cryptocurrencies to mine. If you wish to mine Litecoin, research deeply, through articles, videos, and forums to find out the best way for you to mine Litecoin.
Litecoin ATMs
Litecoin ATMs seem to be in great demand lately. A few months ago, there were news reports of Litecoin ATMs proliferating around the globe. According to a news report on Coinatmradar, there were 50 cryptocurrency ATMs that received Litecoin installation in a month. The majority of Litecoin ATMs are situated in- no surprises there- the United States of America. Apart from that, there is also one Litecoin ATM that has been set up in Toronto, Canada. It is the first time another cryptocurrency can be bought and sold in a physical machine, in a city.
Conclusion
With Bitcoin, reaching a temporary stagnant phase, other forms of cryptocurrencies are jumping into the fray. Ethereum, Litecoin, ripple, and IOTA have reached new highs lately and opened up a new conversation as to a new alternative to the traditional money system. Litecoin as purely a form of cryptocurrency was introduced to address the gaping flaws in Bitcoin. Lately, people are also taking note of this cryptocurrency and that was part of its rising in price in 2017.