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Bitcoin and Litecoin are two of the oldest cryptocurrencies and some of the most popular. Although Litecoin is a Bitcoin fork, they have unique characteristics and advantages over each other. In this article, we’ll be taking a look at a side-by-side comparison of the two cryptocurrencies; Bitcoin vs Litecoin: Which is a Better Investment?
But first, let’s take a look at their definition and history.
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is the first ever cryptocurrency introduced and it is the most popular crypto. It was launched by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 and released as open-source software in early 2009. After this, many other crypto coins followed suit, but Bitcoin has remained the world’s largest by market capitalization. Bitcoin has since developed and has become a means of investment, transaction and exchangeable currency.
Features of Bitcoin
- There is no central power in bitcoin as there are in traditional currencies, which are issued and managed by a central authority, which can be the country’s government or any other organization.
- Bitcoin transactions are visible to everyone on the ledger board
- Bitcoin is not physical. There are no physical bitcoin notes or coins.
- There is no fixed value of Bitcoin. Its value and price depends on the demand.
What is Litecoin?
Litecoin is a fork of the Bitcoin blockchain which makes it similar to Bitcoin in several ways. It was created on 2011 by former Google engineer Charlie Lee. He announced the launch of the “lite version of Bitcoin” through a posted message on a popular Bitcoin forum
Since then, Litecoin has become a popular gateway into the crypto market, offering users faster transfers and more efficient mining.
Like Bitcoin, LTC is mainly used as a currency to pay for goods and services.
Litecoin produces lower transaction fees than Bitcoin and takes lesser time to mine. The blockchain mines new tokens around a quarter of the time it takes for Bitcoin. Litecoin’s overall design provides access to those looking for a currency that is convenient and trustworthy.
Features of Litecoin
- There are 84 million Litecoins. Each Litecoin can be divided up to 8 decimal places
- Litecoin works on the Lightning Network. This enables small transactions to process off of the main blockchain.
- Litecoin is built using a Proof-Of-Work protocol like Bitcoin. This means a network of miners computes complex calculations to keep the Litecoin blockchain running.
- Litecoin is meant to be a transactional currency and/or a store of value. Investing in Litecoin can be compared to investing in gold.
Differences Between Bitcoin and Litecoin
1. Transaction Speed:
Bitcoin has an average transaction confirmation time of fewer than 9 minutes, although it may last a bit longer in moments of high traffic.
Litecoin’s transaction confirmation takes less than 2.5 minutes. Litecoin was created with the goal of making transactions faster, so transaction speed would be attractive enough for people to use it.
2. Algorithms:
Litecoin uses Scrypt, while Bitcoin uses SHA-256.
3. Market Capitalization:
As of the time of this writing of this article, Bitcoin’s total value is 398.76 Billion while Litecoin is $3,852,161,301.
4. Distribution:
In terms of distribution, there are only 21 million Bitcoin in circulation, while Litecoin is much higher with a total of 84 million.
Similarities between Bitcoin and Litecoin
1. Mining:
This is the process by which cryptocurrencies are released into circulation. Both BTC and LTC require special mining machines. The reward for mining one block of Bitcoin is 6.25 BTC, while that of Litecoin is 12.5 LTC.
2. Halving:
This is the process where earnings from mining rewards are reduced by half. Both BTC and LTC halvings happen every 4 years.
3. Storage:
Both Bitcoin and Litecoin are stored in wallets. These wallets are digital wallets that can be online or offline.
Bitcoin vs Litecoin: Which is a Better Investment?
Deciding which coin to invest in depends on what you want to do with your coins, and your views on crypto. LTC are generated faster than Bitcoin, but Bitcoin is worth more. Bitcoin might be better if you want more value per coin, while Litecoin might be better if you want more coins at a lesser value.
Conclusion
Both Litecoin and Bitcoin can be excellent investment opportunities, and they can be converted from one to the other if you desire. Check out their offerings and choose the one that best suits your needs before choosing between them.
