Before Dogecoin, Solana, and BNB, or even today's popular stablecoins, there was Litecoin (LTC). Litecoin is a fork of Bitcoin and an open-source, peer-to-peer (P2P) global payment platform, and it celebrated its 12th year in the crypto industry last October 2023. While it started popular and strong in 2011, Litecoin soon faded into the sidelines to give way to newer blockchain projects, including the much-publicized 'meme coins' today. While the buzz is on the next rising meme coins and Bitcoin and Ethereum's spot ETFs, Litecoin remains a reliable blockchain project with plenty of use cases.

Last October 2023, Litecoin celebrated its 12th year in the industry. In a blog post published on October 13th, 2023, the developers boasted about the project's longevity, consistent innovation, zero downtime, and 'dramatic growth in use and adoption.' These statements are not without basis—since Bitcoin's launch in January 2009 and with an estimated 30,000+ altcoins developed and introduced to the market, only a few remain relevant and useful, including Litecoin.

What is Litecoin (LTC)?

Litecoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and open-source software project inspired by Bitcoin. It's a fork of Bitcoin, and where its main chain shares a slightly modified Bitcoin codebase. With these slight codebase differences, users enjoy faster transaction confirmations, lower transaction fees, and faster mining difficulty targeting.

Litecoin works like a real currency because it can be used for payments using peer-to-peer technology without third-party involvement. A decentralized Litecoin network manages and processes Litecoin transactions.

Like most cryptocurrencies, Litecoin boasts three crucial characteristics: open-source, decentralized, and safe and secure. Litecoin is an open-source software project released under the MIT/X11 license. This means that anyone can run, modify, and copy the software, allowing an individual to distribute modified copies of the software.

Open-source is the opposite of proprietary code, where a company or a small group of individuals owns the code and keeps it private. For example, Apple's iOS and Windows are proprietary codes, which means private companies own them, and no one can touch or tinker with them.

Since Litecoin is open-source, anyone can verify the code, confirm its protocol, and promote better security. Also, Litecoin's blockchain is decentralized since there's no third party like a bank or board that controls the transactions. Finally, Litecoin is also safe and secure to use.

Here are a few things that make Litecoin different

As mentioned, over 30,000 altcoin projects were developed through the years, which will continue to rise. While Litecoin shares plenty of similarities with Bitcoin and other leading altcoins, it also boasts a few unique features and characteristics:

• Litecoin has a maximum supply of 84 million units, making it a scarce commodity also a hedge against inflation;
• The blockchain relies on the proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism. Litecoin's network requires its members to contribute computing power to solve math puzzles and prevent bad actors from altering or manipulating the platform. Each transaction is checked and validated before it's added to the blockchain. The validator (miners) works by confirming these transactions and gets a reward for their efforts.
• In the Litecoin blockchain, miners are rewarded with a certain amount of LTC every time a new block is produced, approximately every 2.5 minutes. Initially, miners get 50 LTC as a reward for verifying and adding a transaction to the blockchain. After mining 840,000 blocks (or approximately every 4 years), the block reward is cut in half (similar to Bitcoin halving). The reward is 12.5 LTC per block, decreasing to 6.25 LTC after the next scheduled halving.
• Since the blockchain is open-source and decentralized, any changes to the rules requires the agreement by consensus.
• Litecoin is faster than Bitcoin. Bitcoin uses the proof-of-work (PoS) consensus algorithm and the SHA-256 to find the hash value. Bitcoin's approach promotes a thorough verification process before each transaction is added to the blockchain. However, the issue with this approach is that the process is slow, as Bitcoin's blockchain records only 5 TPS. Also, Bitcoin has a transaction finality that starts from 10 minutes and lasts up to an hour. To address this issue, Litecoin uses the modified Scrypt hashing algorithm that's faster, with up to 54 TPS with a transaction finality of 2.5 minutes.

Popular use cases for Litecoin

Like Bitcoin and the other leading altcoins, Litecoin also boasts a few use cases. Here's a look at what you can do with Litecoin:

• Litecoin is digital cash. Yes, you can use your Litecoin to pay for products and services online. Transactions are completed in real-time, with near-zero fees.
• A store of value. Many in the industry see Litecoin as a great alternative to Bitcoin and hold since it's portable and impossible to counterfeit.
• Helps give opportunities to the 'unbanked'. The developers behind Litecoin see the blockchain and its coin as benefitting a large part of the population with no access to traditional banking services. With Litecoin, anyone with access to the internet can create a crypto wallet, use the network, and pay for products and services online.
• An 'asset' that can be traded. For many in the industry, Litecoin is a good coin to buy and trade. Litecoin has displayed longevity and relative strength in a highly volatile market. Of course, just like most cryptocurrencies, Litecoin's value is highly volatile, and it's always important to practice due diligence before buying or investing.

What to expect from Litecoin moving forward?

Litecoin remains a popular crypto in the market, largely due to its being a Bitcoin fork and because of its longevity in the business. Its founder, Charlie Lee, initially promoted Litecoin as a complement to Bitcoin, like a silver to gold. Throughout its colorful history, Litecoin and the blockchain have had their share of negative press. Some observers say that Litecoin is a 'less sophisticated copy' of Bitcoin and that it has few use cases.

Also, during the bull market run in December 2017, Lee sold all his Litecoin holdings. Although Lee defended the decision as a way to address a conflict of interests, many observers say that this move was a signal that Lee was no longer confident in the blockchain, and this pessimism remains today.

Today, Litecoin remains in the Top 20 cryptos by market cap, with a value of over $5 billion. The coin's value and volume has spiked in recent weeks, suggesting that it's an attractive option for many.

But like other cryptos for trading and investing, holding Litecoin has risks, since it can eventually become worthless. Adding to holders' woes is the perceived lack of clear use cases. When it was introduced in 2011, Litecoin was seen as a viable alternative to Bitcoin since it offers cheaper and faster transactions.

But in recent years, many cryptos have been launched that are also faster, cheaper, and with plenty of use cases not just for payments, but for other purposes, including decentralized finance and smart contracts.

Owen Verga

I write about Bitcoin and cryptos, the latest news on AI and tech, and follow the latest trends in online gambling, including provably fair games. Educator by profession, with a passion for writing.