Litecoin vs Bitcoin: Which is better?

In the first month of the year 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence with Satoshi Nakamoto‘s mining genesis block of Bitcoin. Ever since then, Bitcoin has expanded to become the most extensive decentralized trading system in the whole wide world, with shares per Bitcoin rising from a few dollars back in 2009 to around $7588 currently. 

Bitcoin is the only asset individuals look upon and rely on when it comes to cryptocurrency. Various cryptocurrencies have been released in the market ever since the launch of Bitcoin. Litecoin, released back in 2011, has been able to garner interest from crypto investors in its period.

Unlike its competitors, the developers of Litecoin claim Litecoin to be a complementary asset for Bitcoin rather than being its competitor. Here we’ll talk about the differences in Litecoin vs Bitcoin to figure out the better cryptocurrency out of the two. 

 

Litecoin vs Bitcoin – The Difference

Litecoin, despite being claimed to be the ‘silver coin’ of Bitcoin’s ‘gold coin’, both Litecoin and Bitcoin run around a particular set of differences in spite of having the same foundation. 

1. Birth: Bitcoin was launched back in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, while Litecoin was launched in 2011 by Charlie Lee.
2. Concept: Bitcoin has been established as the leading ‘digital currency’. Whereas, Litecoin has been developed as an alternative coin or Altcoin for Bitcoin. 
3. Purpose: Both the cryptocurrencies serves the system of serving as a secure and decentralized medium of exchange for trading through peer-to-peer networks. 
4. Block Time: Bitcoin, on average, takes around 10 minutes to record a transaction, whereas Litecoin takes only 2.5 minutes to confirm the transaction.
5. Proof-of-Work Algorithm: Bitcoin uses the SHA-256 algorithm for Bitcoin mining, whereas Litecoin uses the ‘scrypt algorithm’ for Litecoin mining. Litecoin can be used as a great source to learn Litecoin mining on your PC as the ‘scrypt algorithm’ can work on less powerful computers. 
6. Coin limit: Bitcoin offers a total coin limit of 21 million coins, whereas litecoin has a coin limit of 84 million. 
7. Block Rewards/ block: The reward for bitcoin mining is 12.5 BTC per block, whereas for Litecoin mining is 25 LTC per block.
8. Price per coin: Currently, 1 LTC costs $49.82, whereas 1 BTC costs around $7,495.69. 

 

Bitcoin vs Litecoin – Better?

Despite having Bitcoin as the leading cryptocurrency, it lags behind in various aspects when compared to Litecoin, like transaction time, reward per block, etc. Nonetheless, in my opinion, in the Bitcoin vs Litcoin battle, Bitcoin is a better cryptocurrency to invest. If we see the trend, Bitcoin’s value has risen over 100 times in the last couple of years, and experts believe it has the potential to multiply furthermore in the future. 

Although, when it comes to investing in cryptocurrencies, it is always suggested to do your own set of thorough research to select a cryptocurrency to invest in. Cryptocurrencies can be beneficial, especially during the time of recession as its value is independent of the dip & rise in the fiat currencies & traditional market. Nonetheless, if you have plans to start mining, Litecoin mining might serve you better due to its simpler proof of algorithm & less expensive setup required for mining.