Lightcoin (LTC) is a decentralized cryptocurrency based on bitcoin. It was one of the first altcoins – alternative BTC cryptocurrencies. Roughly speaking, lightcoin is a slightly recycled bitcoin, that is, its fork – using a single blockchain to create new networks.

History of litecoin

LTC appeared in 2011, when the first cryptocurrency was only two years old. The project was created by a former Google engineer Charlie Lee, who became interested in cryptocurrencies while working for the corporation.

Initially, LTC was one of the major competitors to BTC, largely due to the fact that there were very few cryptocurrencies at that time. At the peak of its popularity, Litecoin was called “digital silver” (similarly to bitcoin, “digital gold”), while it reached the third position in the list of cryptocurrencies by capitalization.

However, with the growth of other altcoins, LightCoin gradually faded into the background. In recent years, the cryptocurrency has lost a lot in popularity, and now it occupies the 19th position in the ranking of all cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

How lightcoin works

As mentioned above, lightcoin is a fork of bitcoin. Therefore, it is based on bitcoin’s source code and works on similar principles. Accordingly, the principle of LTC does not differ much from BTC.

The LiteCoin network is based on blockchain, decentralization and the Proof-of-Work (PoW) principle. The latter means that all transactions are written to the blockchain using miners, which perform a complex cryptographic task

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Differences between litecoin and bitcoin

Bitcoin and litecoin are similar in many ways. Which is not surprising, since LTC is made on the basis of BTC. That’s why they have the following things in common:

• The principle of operation – both networks record transactions using the Proof-of-Work principle;
• Mining is required to keep the networks running;
• Both networks have halving – this is when mining rewards are halved after a certain period of time;
• The issuance of both cryptocurrencies is limited, but more on that below;
• Source code. Since litecoin is a modified bitcoin, you can find many fragments in the LTC code that are the same for both cryptocurrencies.

But at the same time, there are significant differences between BTC and LTC:

• LightCoin has a higher issuance limit – the maximum number of coins in the system is 84 million, four times that of bitcoin (21 million);
• Halving in LTC network happens every 840,000 blocks. In BTC it happens every 210,000 blocks;
• LightCoin adds new blocks to the blockchain faster. According to the idea of the project’s founder, a new block in the LTC network is created every two and a half minutes. While adding a block to BTC happens about once every ten minutes;
• LightCoin processes transactions in the network faster. While BTC processes about seven transactions per second and ETH about fifteen, LTC is able to process 56 transactions even during high load times;
• The Proof-of-Work principle in the lightcoin network works somewhat differently. While bitcoin mining uses SHA256 encryption, LightCoin uses Scrypt, an algorithm that relies more on memory rather than CPU power. Scrypt is designed to combat large-scale attacks on the cryptocurrency.

LightCoin’s exchange rate history

Predicting whether litecoin will rise in the near future is very difficult. The cryptocurrency updated a new value record in May 2021, when the entire digital asset market was actively growing, the exchange rate of litecoin reached $386. But since then, the cryptocurrency’s value has plummeted: by December 16, it was $154.6.

When litecoin first started trading on exchanges, its value ranged from $2 to $4. The first jump in value occurred at the end of 2013, when the price of lightcoin reached $44.73. This growth was followed by a decline, and until the spring of 2017, the value of the coin was less than $10.

Until the end of 2017, LTC grew steadily, but in December, the cryptocurrency price skyrocketed from $98 to $358.34 in a few days. For a long time, this mark remained a record for the cryptocurrency. But, as it usually happens, the rapid growth was followed by a sharp decline.

The next time the value of LiteCoin went above $100 was in May 2019, but in July it was back below that mark. Since then, the coin’s price has fluctuated between $40 and $70. But in November 2020, lightcoin began to rise again – in four months it added 307% in value. If LTC was trading at $76 in mid-December, by April 16 its price was $310.61. The growth of LiteCoin did not stop there. On May 9, 2021 the cryptocurrency updated its historical record at $365.27. And the next day LTC set the current high of $401.82. But by May 22 the value of the coin fell 65% – to $137.2.

The fall was followed by two periods of growth – in August-September and in October-November 2021. The first time, the cryptocurrency peaked at just over $231 and the second time, the cryptocurrency reached $278. After that, however, the price of LTC went down again.

Projections for litecoin in 2022

Some analysts suggest that investing in litecoin could bring profits in the near future – thus, Wallet Investor believes that the value of LTC will rise to $104 in a year. The site predicts the cryptocurrency’s price will reach $238 in five years.

Coin Price Forecast also agrees with them. The site predicts that the growth will be about the same – by the end of December 2022, LTC will cost $105, that is, the annual increase of 29%.

Less optimistic forecast offered by Digital Coin Price – in their opinion, Litecoin will not exceed $90 in 2022. According to their forecast, by the end of the year, the maximum price of LTC will be $86 and the average will be $80.

Anyway, keep in mind that investing involves the risk of losing the whole amount of your investment. And the history of asset’s movement cannot be a reliable basis for predicting future growth or decline. Therefore, do your research before investing in a particular cryptocurrency.