Litecoin (Litecoin) is a popular fork of bitcoin, often referred to as “digital silver”. Litecoin was one of the first to activate support for the SegWit protocol. However, even before the activation of Segregated Witness, Litecoin had a significantly faster transaction confirmation time than the same Bitcoin. Currently, the project continues to actively develop under the guidance of its famous creator Charlie Lee.
LITECOIN CRYPTOCURRENCY OVERVIEW
Litecoin is a peer-to-peer internet currency that includes almost zero-cost payments anywhere in the world. Litecoin is an open source, global payment network that is completely decentralized and not controlled by any central authority. Mathematics protects the web and empowers people to manage their own finances.
Litecoin features faster transaction confirmation times and improved storage efficiency than the leading math-based currency. With solid industry support, trade volume and liquidity, Litecoin is a proven medium for commerce in addition to Bitcoin.
Blocks are special structures for recording transactions, which are generated using circular hashing. Each block has a header and a list of operations. The header, in turn, contains the following information: hash function of the block, hash function of the previous block, hash function of operations, certain service information.
The process of finding a block is the basis of Litecoin mining, and if it is successfully generated, participants receive a reward. For each hash function found to form a block, the miner receives 25 LTC coins.
The founder of Litecoin positioned his currency as an improved Bitcoin due to the fact that he made several changes:
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Quantity. The number of coins that can be created is limited to 84,000,000 LTC. For comparison, the older brother has a limit of 21 million BTC.
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Complexity . The difficulty of creating blocks is recalculated every 3.5 days, which is faster than Bitcoin.
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New blocks. A block is created every 2.5 minutes, which is 4 times less than that of Bitcoin. This allows for faster confirmation of transactions.
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Reward. Initially, the reward for the created block was 50 LTC. This reward will be reduced by 2 times every 840,000 blocks and on 25 August 2015 it was reduced to 25 LTC.
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Generation. Mining Litecoins on graphics devices (video cards) is less efficient than mining Bitcoins. If graphics devices are 20 times more efficient than a processor when generating Bitcoin, then in the case of Litecoin this difference is 2 times less and amounts to 10 times.
Open source software
Litecoin is a free open source software project released under the MIT / X11 license, which gives you the right to execute, modify, and copy the software, as well as distribute modified copies of the software if you wish. The transparency of the release of new versions allows for independent verification of binary modules and the corresponding source code.
Block chain
The Litecoin blockchain is capable of handling higher transaction volumes than its counterpart Bitcoin. With more frequent block generation, the network is able to support a larger volume of transactions without the need for any software changes in the future. As a result, traders get faster confirmation times without having to wait for multiple confirmations with a large number of traded positions.
Wallet encryption
Wallet encryption allows you to protect your wallet so that you can view transactions and your account balance, but must enter your password at all times before deciding to spend litecoins. This provides protection against viruses and Trojans that steal wallets, as well as checks your sanity before sending a payment.
Mining reward
For each block generated, miners receive 25 litecoin (LTC) for the block found, and the amount of the reward is halved every 4 years (every 840,000 blocks). The maximum number of coins on the Litecoin network is approximately 84 million, which is four times the number of coins on the Bitcoin network.
Mining
Litecoin The algorithm behind Litecoin is similar to that of the most famous electronic (crypto or peer-to-peer) currency bitcoin. The main difference is that the Litecoin algorithm uses memory intensively. Due to the new algorithm, which actively uses RAM, the development of processors (ASICs) for Litecoin is impractical, which is why ordinary computers with video cards are used here.
This makes it problematic to develop specialized processors (ASICs) for Litecoin and makes it possible to effectively use conventional computers with GPUs to generate new blocks. In addition, the time it takes to confirm a payment is four times shorter for Litecoin (2.5 minutes on average) than for Bitcoin. The maximum possible number of Litecoin coins is 84 million, which is four times more than the number of Bitcoin coins.
DIFFERENCES OF LITECOIN PRODUCTION FROM BITCOIN
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Litecoin uses the CPU more efficiently for computing, the superiority of GPU mining is less pronounced.
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Litecoin blocks are generated on average every 2.5 minutes, which allows for faster confirmation of transactions.
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Due to the accelerated generation of blocks, the Litecoin client in the block verification mode can stay longer than the Bitcoin client on computers with weak processors.
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In the Litecoin wallet, there is the possibility of mining SOLO or in a pool.
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Difficulty is recalculated approximately every 3.5 days.
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A total of 84 million LTC can exist on the network, which is 4 times more than the maximum amount of BTC.
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The reward for generating new blocks is halved every 840,000 blocks.
There are also quite a few common features between these two cryptocurrencies, and this is not surprising, because they are both created on a similar basis.
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Cryptocurrencies are mined in the same way
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Both coins are not controlled externally and are characterized by a decentralized network
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Limited release of coins
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Absolute anonymity of wallet owners, freedom to dispose of funds
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Failure to return a completed payment
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The ability to store money in special wallets-parts of the network
A detailed overview of the LITECOIN cryptocurrency
If the word "bitcoin" is somehow heard (although few can clearly explain what it is), then the Litecoin cryptocurrency is only dreaming of the popularity of its older brother. In Runet, this cryptocurrency does not receive due attention and recognition, although it ranks second in the world in popularity and fourth in capitalization.
5 WAYS TO EARN LITECOIN
1. Mining. Litecoin appears in the same way as Bitcoin. Miners use the computing power of a computer to generate new coins.
They install a special program on their computer that turns it into a tool for making money. The computer begins to solve the problem of finding the right combination. And if the problem is solved on your computing power, then you will receive a reward in the amount of 25 coins.
Mining Litecoin on a regular computer alone is absolutely not profitable. The fact is that a huge amount of computing power is involved in mining and the chance that your computer will solve the problem is negligible. Therefore, miners are combined into systems called pools. If one of the pool participants solves the problem, then the reward is distributed among all participants. And this method of mining ceased to be profitable after the decline in the rate.
The only profitable way to mine Litecoins is through industrial mining. For this, special equipment is purchased, which is sharpened only for mining. This equipment can work both at home and industrial.
2. Cloud mining . The idea behind cloud mining is that you do not load your equipment with work, but rent computing power and use it to generate Litecoin. It is more profitable for these companies to lease equipment than to mine coins on it themselves. Therefore, all this reminds me of the times of the gold rush in the United States. Then the people who served the gold miners earned much more than the miners themselves.
3. Cranes. It is possible to earn some cryptocurrency using faucets. Litecoin faucets are sites where you will be credited with a little money for entering captcha. The amounts will be so insignificant that there is no need to talk about any serious earnings. If you sit all day on the taps, you can earn 1-2 dollars (and hate captcha forever).
Crane owners try to cover the site with advertising as much as possible. They expect that those who want to earn Litecoins by entering captcha will click on ads. And for each click on the advertisement, the owner will receive money, which he shares with the visitors.
4. Games. I would divide all the games that allow you to earn Litecoin by 2 kind:
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Working on the principle of slot machines.
Everything here is like in a regular slot machine: you invest money and play on it. Some win and most lose. If a down payment is not needed and you are given money to play, then you need to understand that the game gives you a taste of the game and victory in order to encourage you to invest money.
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Based on the pyramid principle.
There are games that allow you to earn Litecoin by playing. Some of them can only be played by making a deposit. And some give you free to start, then you still need to invest to increase profits. They will be needed for improvements in the game (building buildings, buying units, resources, etc.). If this game cannot be lost, then it is a pyramid. After all, where does the money for payments come from if no one loses? Only from contributions of new players.