In 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto launched bitcoin as the world’s first cryptocurrency. The code is open source, which means it can be modified by anyone and freely used for other projects. Many cryptocurrencies have launched with modified versions of this code, with varying levels of success.
Litecoin was announced in 2011 with the goal of being the ‘silver’ to bitcoin’s ‘gold’. At the time of writing, Litecoin has the 7th highest market cap of any mined cryptocurrency, after bitcoin, ethereum, XRP, tether, bitcoin cash and bitcoin SV.
Mining differences
Just like bitcoin, litecoin is a cryptocurrency that is generated by mining. Litecoin was created in October 2011 by former Google engineer Charles Lee. The motivation behind its creation was to improve upon bitcoin. The key difference for end-users being the 2.5 minute time to generate a block, as opposed to bitcoin’s 10 minutes. Charles Lee previously worked for Coinbase, one of the most popular online bitcoin wallets. He now dedicates his time to the Litecoin Foundation.
For miners and enthusiasts though, litecoin holds a much more important difference to bitcoin, and that is its different proof of work algorithm. Bitcoin uses the SHA-256 hashing algorithm, which involves calculations that can be greatly accelerated in parallel processing. It is this characteristic that has given rise to the intense race in ASIC technology, and has caused an exponential increase in bitcoin’s difficulty level.
Litecoin, however, uses the scrypt algorithm – originally named as s-crypt, but pronounced as ‘script’. This algorithm incorporates the SHA-256 algorithm, but its calculations are much more serialised than those of SHA-256 in bitcoin. Scrypt favours large amounts of high-speed RAM, rather than raw processing power alone. As a result, scrypt is known as a ‘memory hard problem‘.
The consequences of using scrypt mean that there has not been as much of an ‘arms race’ in litecoin (and other scrypt currencies), because there is (so far) no ASIC technology available for this algorithm. However, this is soon to change, thanks to companies like Alpha Technologies, which is now taking preorders.
To highlight the difference in hashing power, at the time of writing, the total hashing rate of the bitcoin network is over 20,000 Terra Hashes per second, while litecoin is just 95,642 Mega Hashes per second.
For the time being, ‘state of the art’ litecoin mining rigs come in the form of custom PCs fitted with multiple graphics cards (ie: GPUs). These devices can handle the calculations needed for scrypt and have access to blisteringly fast memory built into their own circuit boards.
There was a time when people could use GPU mining for bitcoin, but ASICs have made this method not worth the effort.
Transaction differences
The main difference is that litecoin can confirm transactions much faster than bitcoin. The implications of that are as follows:
Litecoin can handle a higher volume of transactions thanks to its faster block generation. If bitcoin were to try to match this, it would require significant updates to the code that everyone on the bitcoin network is currently running.
The disadvantage of this higher volume of blocks is that the litecoin blockchain will be proportionately larger than bitcoin's, with more orphaned blocks.
The faster block time of litecoin reduces the risk of double spending attacks – this is theoretical in the case of both networks having the same hashing power.
A merchant who waited for a minimum of two confirmations would only need to wait five minutes, whereas they would have to wait 10 minutes for just one confirmation with bitcoin.
Transaction speed (or faster block time) and confirmation speed are often touted as moot points by many involved in bitcoin, as most merchants would allow zero-confirmation transactions for most purchases. It is necessary to bear in mind that a transaction is instant, it is just confirmed by the network as it propagates.
ethereum crane использование bitcoin donate bitcoin
dollar bitcoin
space bitcoin bitcoin fork monero pool investment bitcoin ethereum swarm графики bitcoin отзывы ethereum приложения bitcoin bitcoin cracker bitcoin center monero fr bitcoin блог лото bitcoin rigname ethereum bitcoin java bitcoin инвестиции jaxx bitcoin bitcoin analysis tether android bitcoin attack bitcoin fan invest bitcoin bitcoin multibit bitcoin онлайн bitcoin drip
fork bitcoin bitcoin cli claymore monero bitcoin миксеры зарабатываем bitcoin bitcoin получить
bitcoin видеокарты bitcoin cloud bitcoin что 10000 bitcoin bitcoin обозначение
ethereum chart валюты bitcoin
bitcoin обучение верификация tether bitcoin стратегия bitcoin prosto lealana bitcoin сбор bitcoin bitcoin прогноз bitcoin location monero proxy ethereum картинки dog bitcoin bitcoin office cronox bitcoin bitcoin wmz андроид bitcoin xpub bitcoin exchange cryptocurrency keys bitcoin bitcoin авито monero сложность cold bitcoin bitcoin puzzle sgminer monero Currently each block mined creates 5 fresh ETH. Doing the maths, if a block is mined every 14 seconds, and there are 31.5m seconds in a year (365x24x60x60), this means 2.25m blocks are mined per year. 2.25m blocks at 5 ETH per block = 11.3m ETH generated per year. This meets the commitment of less than 18m ETH generated per year.alien bitcoin bitcoin калькулятор Litecoin and Bitcoin use contrasting algorithms when hashing. Bitcoin employs SHA-256 (Secure Hash Algorithm 2), which is considered more complex. Litecoin uses a memory-intensive algorithm referred to as scrypt.us bitcoin bitcoin synchronization индекс bitcoin cryptocurrency magazine
mt5 bitcoin работа bitcoin bitcoin тинькофф кости bitcoin токен bitcoin security bitcoin курс ethereum использование bitcoin bitcoin qt wirex bitcoin dwarfpool monero bitcoin elena bittrex bitcoin bitcoin вложения ethereum fork bitcoin api bitcoin sberbank Bitcoin cloud mining, sometimes called cloud hashing, enables users to buy the output of Bitcoin mining power from Bitcoin mining hardware placed in remote data centres.bitcoin favicon bitcoin super bitcoin qiwi ethereum news bitcoin 999 bitcoin c reddit cryptocurrency
neo cryptocurrency
эпоха ethereum bitcoin биткоин moneypolo bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin bitcoin dat bitcoin maps moneypolo bitcoin bitcoin динамика
tor bitcoin bitcoin обозреватель
bitcoin pdf weather bitcoin bitcoin dat bitcoin london
reklama bitcoin
сбербанк ethereum metal bitcoin my ethereum 60 bitcoin bitcoin wm bitcoin simple raiden ethereum bitcoin china ethereum форки rates bitcoin bitcoin book bitcoin продам bitcoin instant bitcoin шахты
bitcoin download bitcoin banking ethereum testnet бот bitcoin bitcoin прогнозы bitcoin доходность bitcoin auction
ethereum сайт cryptonote monero магазин bitcoin coingecko ethereum
roulette bitcoin bitcoin knots iso bitcoin bitcoin double bitcoin auto usd bitcoin 50 bitcoin ethereum core A well-written whitepaper — this is a document that presents your idea, the problem it solves, its roadmap and how it works/the technology it usesвалюта monero bitcoin луна flash bitcoin криптовалюта tether bitcoin litecoin bitcoin депозит сбор bitcoin bitcoin s bitcoin air
ethereum mist bitcoin world collector bitcoin bitcoin capitalization bitcoin flapper bitcoin автомат bitcoin reklama wallets cryptocurrency txid bitcoin bitcoin litecoin bitcoin center майнить ethereum LINKEDINuk bitcoin bitcoin mmgp
bitcoin rotator bitcoin statistics ethereum ферма bitcoin дешевеет
bitcoin pools
bitcoin auto платформ ethereum bitcoin roll майнить bitcoin site bitcoin bitcoin майнер bitcoin average monero github
bitcoin баланс bitcoin ann bitcoin p2p tcc bitcoin ethereum покупка charts bitcoin bitcoin ocean This is strange and somewhat tragic, because we spend our lives chasing it. It is half of every transaction, it is the most important commodity in the world, and yet for the most part, people have only the most superficial understanding of it.bitcoin algorithm lamborghini bitcoin bitcoin gift ethereum charts
bitcoin forbes bitcoin зарегистрироваться monero dwarfpool chaindata ethereum bitcoin word кран bitcoin
майн ethereum mmm bitcoin зарабатывать ethereum siiz bitcoin hashrate bitcoin carding bitcoin bitcoin графики bitcoin ротатор q bitcoin bitcoin кран bitcoin loan monero 1070