Like many of the best online casino platforms are trending today, cryptocurrencies have grown in popularity over the years, and many people have taken an interest for several beneficial reasons. Bitcoin is one of the leading cryptocurrencies to take the crypto market by storm, which has been the case since its launch in 2009.
Ever since the success of Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies have emerged, and one of these happens to be Litecoin. Unlike many other cryptocurrencies, Litecoin has remained in the race and become a worthy competitor to Bitcoin. So, as a trader looking to invest in either one of them, here are key differences and similarities to know about the two.
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An Overview
Because more and more people realize the convenience and potential reward that comes from investing in cryptocurrencies, these digital currencies have grown in popularity. Because Bitcoin remains crypto to dominate the market, it’s no surprise to find most investors opting for it as a first option worth investing in.
But Bitcoin isn’t the only cryptocurrency to exist on the market, as thousands of other cryptocurrencies have launched. Despite this, not every crypto will carry the same status and reputation as Bitcoin, as the market is already heavily crowded. However, you’re still able to find worthy competitors like Litecoin, which has also grown in popularity.
Bitcoin And Litecoin Similarities
Bitcoin and Litecoin are digital currencies that serve different purposes. However, they do have a few things in common. One example of this would include the fact that they’re both decentralized cryptos.
When it comes to fiat currencies, these use the central banks to support their value, circulation control, and legitimacy. But with these cryptocurrencies, this isn’t the case as they both aren’t influenced by centralized authorities but are rather reliant on the cryptographic integrity of the network.
Storage And Transactions
When you’re transacting with Litecoin or Bitcoin, both cryptos are similar as it’s straightforward to get them through mining if you’re purchasing them through the exchange or using mining rings. To store them safely, you can keep them in a wallet, and both these cryptos have highly volatile prices.
Proof Of Work
Both Litcoin and Bitcoin are proof of work ecosystems. Therefore, the processes involved here allow the two digital currencies to be mined similarly.
Bitcoin And Litecoin Differences
Transaction Speed
With Bitcoin and Litecoin, both these cryptos allow for instant transactions in most cases. But despite this similarity, times may differ when it comes to when the other participants in the network can confirm the transactions.
With Bitcoin, on average, transaction confirmation times can take less than nine minutes. However, since Litecoins were created to make transactions faster, these transactions can take an average of two and a half minutes to do. This is one of the reasons why Litecoin is growing in popularity.
Market Capitalization
Market capitalization between Bitcoin and Litecoin differs. In March 2021, Bitcoin had a value of roughly $1 trillion, whereas Litecoin had a total value of roughly $13.7 billion.
When it comes to Bitcoin, its market has exploded in value because it had a market capitalization value of $42,000 in July 2010. This makes Bitcoin’s network much larger than any other cryptocurrency, including Litecoin.
When looking at a cryptocurrency that’s close to that of Bitcoin in terms of market capitalization, that would be Ethereum since it has a market cap of roughly $212 billion.
Algorithms
Both Bitcoin and Litecoin use different algorithms. Bitcoin uses SHA-256, whereas Litecoin uses Scrypt. Both these algorithms have a different effect on how the mining process of these new coins unfolds, despite a lot of computing power being needed to confirm transactions on both cryptos.
It’s worth noting that SHA-256 is a lot more of a complex algorithm to work with in comparison to Scrypt.
Distribution
Both these cryptocurrencies produce different coin amounts. With Bitcoin, the coin amount will never exceed 21 million.
On the other hand, Litecoin can go up to 84 million coins. While this may seem like an advantage at first, the consequences of this may lead to negligence in the real world.
Also Read: Seven Applications For The Blockchain Beyond Bitcoin
