Litecoin was one of the good guys in cryptocurrencies with few bad news in circulation, exactly the opposite. He recently partnered with UFC, becoming the first cryptocurrency to sponsor UFC and has future plans for their project that could directly help cryptography in terms of mass adoption.
Litecoin is a currency created exclusively for the purpose of making cryptography use as a global payment network. Just like Bitcoin, the currency focuses on transactions, unlike other networks like Ethereum etc. The question that arises is that because we need Litecoin when the world has Bitcoin as a network. The director of Litecoin, Franklyn Richards, explained that the vision was to provide the world an alternative to bitcoin with better transactions per second, cheaper transaction costs and other progress in mining procedures. After asking why we needed Litecoin when Bitcoin was already available, Franklyn told BlockPublisher,
As a cover and a balance to provide alternative options for users in the market and help drive competition in this space as has happened with some technological advances and political situations.
Explaining also the distinguishing feature of Litecoin from the rest of the currencies made exclusively for global payments, he said,
This is another option with faster boarding options for the level 2 network (this will only be valuable and interesting later)
Litecoin has also changed mining, modifying Bitcoin hashing algorithms from SHA-256 to Scrypt. It is said that this hashing algorithm makes PoW easier for miners. All the power to add blocks is not given in the hands of a handful of miners, which makes it more centralized than the decentralized one in the case of Bitcoin. In the case of Litecoin, cryptographic puzzles are easier to solve because of the great availability of circulation, so the required power is less and the extraction is simpler and decentralized. Explaining why the fork changed mining procedures, Franklyn stated,
Litecoin also uses POW just like a different hashing algorithm, which means it does not directly compete for the efforts of the miners with Bitcoin. This also means that Litecoin is extremely safe as it is the number 1 for scrypt mining.
Further elaborating the hashing algorithm and clarifying whether the Litecoin team believed that Bitcoin mining procedures were flawed, he said,
The data mining algorithm is different from the consensus model. POW is the consensus that we all agree on this. The algorithm is scrypt because it means that it does not compete for miners with bitcoins. It is not that the bitcoin is defective, it is not. Litecoin is just safer with his.
Not only is the mining sector different, but Litecoin also offers a better TPS than BTC with a clear difference. LTC also aims to improve its TPS in the event of a network jam incident. According to Franklyn, the network is working quite well with the current TPS, but the platform can be made scalable and it is working to do so by introducing the Lightning network on Litecoin. Explaining the scalability of Litecoin, Franklyn said:
We are pursuing level 2 solutions, including the Lightning network, but the market will be the one that will decide if they want to use this solution and currently the level one's experience is working well, so it's not so much a problem. But yes, we are ready for when the networks will come back again.
The project has recently shown great growth in terms of partnerships and the introduction of Level 2 solutions and, according to Franklyn, there is much more to come.
SEE ALSO: Litecoin (LTC) – Introduction to lighter Bitcoin