Litecoin (LTC) is a cryptocurrency that makes possible a faster payment confirmation schedule and has a different cryptographic algorithm than Bitcoin.
The cryptocurrency is the native coin of the Litecoin blockchain that went live in October 2011. The creator, Charlie Lee, a former Google employee, and his colleagues created Litecoin as a software fork of the Bitcoin core client.
In this article, we’re discussing the difference between Litecoin and Bitcoin, as well as where you can spend your Litecoin and how to sell it.
Where Can You Spend Your Litecoin?
Litecoin is perfect for payments and has collaborations with multiple debit card providers, which give you access to many merchants and ATMs all over the world.
You need to transfer your Litecoin onto your debit card, and when you buy something, the issuer will make an instant exchange into the local currency. However, ensure that you understand the basic fee structure, as you’ll need to pay a conversion fee each time you use the card.
How to Sell Litecoin?
If you’re looking to sell your Litecoin, you’re in for a seamless process. First and foremost, you have to find a cryptocurrency exchange that supports bank accounts, which is how you will be withdrawing your funds.
Once you’ve found the exchange platform, you will need to transfer the funds from your Litecoin wallet into the website. Then, exchange Litecoin for your chosen fiat currency – also know that the conversion will attract a small fee. Finally, you’ll be able to withdraw the money to your bank account, and make sure you’ve gone through the KYC (Know Your Customer) verification process before trying to withdraw the funds.
Litecoin vs. Bitcoin – What’s the Difference?
Even though Litecoin is a forked protocol from the original Bitcoin blockchain, there are actually a few remarkable differences between the two projects.
- Transaction Times – while Bitcoin takes around ten minutes to confirm a block of transactions, Litecoin only takes 2.5 minutes
- Transactions per Second – Litecoin can confirm 56 transactions per second, while Bitcoin is taking seven
- Fees – Both projects use a changeable fee structure, which means that transaction fees change in accordance with the network demand
- Decentralization – Litecoin and Bitcoin both use a decentralized blockchain, meaning no person or authority can take control over the network
- Supply – Bitcoin has a total of 21 million coins, which will be all out in the year 2140, while Litecoin has around 84 million coins
- Leadership – Even though Bitcoin has been running for many years, the identity of its founder, ‘Satoshi Nakamoto,’ is not known. On the other hand, Litecoin was created by Charlie Lee, who is still the protocol’s public face and de-facto leader
- Miners – Although there is a difference in the basic algorithm, both Litecoin and Bitcoin use the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism
- Use Case – Bitcoin and Litecoin were both created for the purpose of sending and receiving payments. In this regard, both projects have a similar use case.
The Bottom Line
So, what can you do with Litecoin? Basically, much the same as you can with Bitcoin. This short article should have given you an idea of the case uses of Litecoin, its differences and similarities against Bitcoin, where to use it, and how to sell it.
It only remains to be seen what the future holds for Litecoin. Many experts from within the industry claim that the protocol could become useless if Bitcoin is able to solve its issues around scalability and speed. However, the chance of this to happen is close to zero, so it only remains to be seen how Litcoin develops further.