What is Litecoin (LTC)?
- Author
- CRYPTO PORT Editorial
- Published
- Updated
- Reading time
- 5 min
In short
Litecoin is a payment blockchain released in 2011, derived from Bitcoin's code. Shorter blocks and a different hash function were meant to make it a lighter means of transfer. It is one of the longest continuously running networks in the space.
Key points
- Forked from Bitcoin's code with block times shortened to about 2.5 minutes
- Proof of Work using the Scrypt hash function
- Historically adopted Bitcoin improvements such as SegWit early
- Added MWEB, an optional confidential transfer feature, in 2022
Definition
A Proof of Work blockchain based on Bitcoin's design, with a shorter block time and a different hash function to suit payments.
Litecoin was released in 2011 by Charlie Lee, a former Google engineer. Bitcoin confirmations were slow and felt heavy for small payments, so Litecoin cut block times from roughly ten minutes to about two and a half. Its creator's framing — Bitcoin as gold, Litecoin as silver — is widely quoted.
It uses Scrypt rather than SHA-256. Scrypt is memory-intensive, which at the time was thought to make specialised mining hardware less dominant. ASICs for Scrypt arrived anyway, and today the chain's hashpower is largely sustained by merge-mining with Dogecoin.
Litecoin has also served as a proving ground for Bitcoin improvements. SegWit, which separates signature data, and Lightning Network support arrived at or before Bitcoin's own adoption. In 2022 it added MimbleWimble Extension Blocks (MWEB), an opt-in feature that hides amounts and addresses.
In practice it is used to move funds between exchanges and for lower-fee transfers. Long uptime and broad wallet support make it a common alternative rail to Bitcoin.
Watch out for
- · Some jurisdictions and exchanges have reconsidered listing it because of the MWEB privacy feature
- · It is payment-focused and is not used as a platform for smart contract applications
- · It has far less hashpower than Bitcoin, so the same number of confirmations does not imply the same security
Frequently asked questions
Are transfers traceable without MWEB?
MWEB is optional. Ordinary transfers are recorded on the public ledger just as on Bitcoin and are visible to anyone. You choose per transaction.