- Litecoin was created by Charlie Lee in 2011. Today, Charlie is the Managing Director of Litecoin Foundation. A former Google employee, Lee also worked the Engineering Director at Coinbase.
- Litecoin is the Bitcoin derivative, as it was created as a fork of the core Bitcoin source code. A peer-to-peer open source decentralised cryptocurrency, Litecoin enables instant and commission-free payments around the world.
- Litecoin can be mined. Unlike the Bitcoin’s protocol (SHA256), Litecoin uses a scrypt in its proof-of-work algorithm. Due to the scrypt algorithm, Litecoin is considered safer than Bitcoin.
- Litecoin algorithm allows the production of 84 million LTC, which is four times bigger than Bitcoin’s total supply (21 million).
- Litecoin transaction time is 2.5 minutes, which is four times faster than Bitcoin’s 10 minute transaction time. Therefore, Litecoin enjoys the reputation of a perfect cryptocurrency for online shopping and internet transactions.
In terms of Litecoin historical data, the cryptocurrency hit its record high of $375.29 on 19 December 2017. The LTC reached its all-time low of $1.20 on 14 January 2015. According to the latest Litecoin price chart, Litecoin is traded at $58 (as of 19 March 2019).
Litecoin price history makes us think of this crypto as one of the best performing digital currencies. Its trading volume is growing, as more and more people sell and buy Litecoin. Today, Litecoin (LTC) is 4th in terms of trading volume – outplayed only by Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP).
According to Litecoin historical data, the coin gradually reached its all-time high in 2017 after the halving in 2015. The next Litecoin halving is expected in summer 2019. As a result of this event, the mining reward will split twice from 25 LTC to 12.5 LTC. The miners won’t sell the usual amount of LTC that will significantly reduce the supply – and, eventually, will make the price swing upwards. Since the trends tend to repeat themselves, we may end up with a new LTC all-time high by 2021.