LTC - Litecoin
The currency code for Litecoin is LTC, and the currency symbol is Ł. Below, you'll find Litecoin rates and a currency converter. You can also subscribe to our currency newsletters with daily rates and analysis, read the Xe Currency Blog, or take LTC rates on the go with our Xe Currency Apps and website.
Litecoin Information
Litecoin is a peer-to-peer Internet currency that enables instant, near-zero cost payments to anyone in the world. Litecoin is an open source, global payment network that is fully decentralized without any central authorities. Mathematics secures the network and empowers individuals to control their own finances. Litecoin features faster transaction confirmation times and improved storage efficiency than the leading math-based currency. With substantial industry support, trade volume and liquidity, Litecoin is a proven medium of commerce complementary to Bitcoin.
Risks in Using Litecoin
Crypto Currencies are associated with a high level of risk, as they are volatile, not time-tested, and currently under no regulation or legislation. There have been incidents of online Crypto wallets being compromised by hackers leading to large scale theft.
Litecoin History
By 2011, Bitcoin mining was largely performed by GPUs. This raised concern in some users that mining now had a high barrier to entry, and that CPU resources were becoming obsolete and worthless for mining. Using code from Bitcoin, a new alternative currency was created called Tenebrix (TBX). Tenebrix replaced the SHA-256 rounds in Bitcoin's mining algorithm with the scrypt function, which had been specifically designed in 2009 to be expensive to accelerate with FPGA or ASIC chips. This would allow Tenebrix to have been "GPU-resistant", and utilize the available CPU resources from bitcoin miners. Tenebrix itself was a successor project to an earlier cryptocurrency which replaced Bitcoin's issuance schedule with a constant block reward (thus creating an unlimited money supply). However, the developers included a clause in the code that would allow them to claim 7.7 million TBX for themselves at no cost, which was criticized by users. To address this, Charlie Lee, a Google employee who would later become Engineering Director at Coinbase, created an alternative version of Tenebrix called Fairbrix (FBX). Litecoin inherits the scrypt mining algorithm from Fairbrix, but returns to the limited money supply of Bitcoin, with other changes.
Lee released Litecoin via an open-source client on GitHub on October 7, 2011. The Litecoin network went live on October 13, 2011.
Relevant Links
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Litecoin Stats
| Name | Litecoin |
|---|---|
| Minor unit | 1/100 = N/A |
| Minor unit symbol | N/A |