🚀 What the Hell is Litecoin and why is it Mooning?

What's going on: One week ago I tried to answer the question "What the Hell is IOTA and why is it mooning?". If you haven't been already a subscriber, you can read the piece on steem.it. Now it's time to take a closer look at Litecoin, because, well, it's mooning too and it's one of the most interesting cryptos out there.

No doubt: Bitcoin is still king of crypto land, with gigantic media coverage and (thanks to futures contracts) fancy Wallstreet credibility. And while it's getting less and less usable as a payment method (for example Steam just stopped accepting BTC, because of enormous transaction fees and volatility) it's more and more becoming Gold 2.0 – a digital, tamper proof store of value with a lot of upsides (better divisibility, portability, no authenticitiy-checks required, etc.) compared to the rare metal.

So if Bitcoin is Gold 2.0, then Litecoin is Silver 2.0: It has most of the advantages of Bitcoin, but it's "lighter" and offers some neat extras. Litecoin “forked” off the Bitcoin ledger in late 2011. It was intended to be the silver to Bitcoin’s gold: a faster, more lightweight version of the Satoshi Nakamoto-created cryptocurrency. Instead of the approximately 10 minutes it takes for a Bitcoin transaction, a Litecoin transaction only takes 2.5 minutes.

Source: coincentral.com

Charlie Lee, an ex-Google engineer and former director of engineering at Coinbase, is the creator of Litecoin and quite the opposite of what Satoshi Nakamoto is for Bitcoin. Lee is – much like Ethereum's Vitalik Buterin – a funny and extroverted guy, who attends crypto talks, makes bold statements on Twitter and is serious about the tech and not the money. “I wanted Litecoin to complement bitcoin—not compete,” said Litecoin-Mastermind Lee at a Coinbase talk in March. “Bitcoin can be used for like moving millions of dollars between banks, buying houses, buying cars. It’s really secure… Litecoin can be used for cheaper things.” Still, Lee has kept Litecoin simple and similar in technical ways to Bitcoin so that the cryptocurrency could “merge in” Bitcoin bug fixes with minimal effort.

Funny thing is that Litecoin was not intended to become what it is now: “It was an excuse to kind of learn the Bitcoin code,” he said during a March Coinbase talk. “I decided that I can actually create an altcoin that’s better than what’s out there, and lastly it was fun to play around with what’s out there.” He got serious about his creation earlier this year, when he announced via Twitter that he will leave cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. While Bitcoin's Nakamoto no longer around, leading current supporters to interpret his white paper, those with questions about Litecoin can just ask Lee about his vision (this can be an advantage or disadvantage, we will see).

One big difference between Litecoin and Bitcoin is the mining process, that uses hardware that is more widely available. While Bitcoin mining uses the SHA-256 hashing algorithm, which requires ASIC microchip technology, Litecoin uses the Scrypt algorithm. This requires a larger working memory, most ASICs makers have been barred from developing a suitable technology. Instead, Litecoin is often mined on graphics cards or GPUs.

Why should I care: The price spike has largely been attributed to a combination of increased awareness of Bitcoin, the potential for Litecoin to become the payment method of choice, should Bitcoin price become so large that smaller payments are not viable and the store of value-component, that it shares with BTC.

Litecoin's price jumps also reflect the overall growth of the crypto space. Just to put things in perspective: LTC is right now (Dec. 13 2017) worth more than the entire cryptocurrency market just 15 months ago. It's an interesting crypto, but as always: It's an all-time-high, this can turn out to be one big bubble that will be followed by a bearish crypto winter.

And you should also check out Charlie Lee's Tweet, that proofs that Litecoin is more than just another pump and dump-coin:

Source: cointelegraph.com, coincentral.com, fortune.com
GIF: giphy.com

Want to get essential news on Cryptocurrencies and everything Blockchain for free? Subscribe to Cryptomizer, the daily newsletter with the most essential news on Bitcoin and everything blockchain.