Litecoin was born on October 7, 2011 as a new type of decentralized cryptocurrency, with the goal of delivering on the original promises of cryptocurrencies and avoiding some of the pitfalls. In addition, Litecoin is meant to have strong consumer adoption through its use as a common currency for online purchases. Despite its recent birth, LiteCOIN (Litecoin’s ticker symbol) is already eight years old. While it may seem like this is nothing more than an echo from the past, it represents how long Litecoin has existed and that it has undergone many transformations over time. It all began with a simple Google Doc by Cambridge based software engineer Charles Lee back in 2011. In fact, Litecoin was inspired by Bitcoin but had different objectives in mind. The digital currency needed to be faster and more accessible to the masses if it wanted to succeed where Bitcoin had failed; becoming a mainstream payment system. With this in mind, let’s take a look at how Litecoin started, how it evolved over time and what its current goals are today…
How to Start Mining Litecoin
The first step involves mining Litecoin. This is a process where people use supercomputers, or GPUs, to solve complex algorithms and generate new Litecoin. You can’t mine Litecoin with just a normal computer. In fact, Litecoin’s network is only open to specific hardware that can process the high-end cryptography that is essential for the network to function. For the rest of the world, mining Litecoin is only accessible to those who access the network using special hardware that are then rewarded with a small portion of the total supply of new coins. While mining Litecoin can be fun and rewarding, it’s not something that most people do and it’s not the best way to get involved in the network. The most common way to get involved in Litecoin is by holding some of the cryptocurrency. You can do this by purchasing LTC on an exchange or holding some LTC in an online wallet.
Also Read- What is Litecoin and how can I earn from it?
The Genesis Block and The Currency’s History Updates on a Regular Basis
The first block of Litecoin was mined on October 13, 2011, and the coin was called “Litecoin” for the first two weeks. The next step was getting the software out to the world. Lee and his team did this by releasing open-source code for the Litecoin network. Anyone could then download the code and participate in the network. The project also launched a website for the currency so people could learn more about it and start using it. Over the next year, Lee’s team kept working to improve the software and to work on marketing the network. They also started working with businesses to promote the use of Litecoin. This was key because Lee, who was the primary developer, believed that consumer adoption was the key to the network’s success. Lee and his team released several improvements to the network over the next year including a protocol upgrade in February of 2012 and a new hashing algorithm in August of 2012.
Wallet for Holding Litecoins Completed
The next big milestone for Litecoin occurred in April of 2013 when the Litecoin Foundation was established as a non-profit organization. This meant that the development team could now receive funding from the public to continue working on the network. It also meant that the network would have a legal entity behind it for public relations purposes. The Foundation also released a new wallet in the summer of 2013 which was a major improvement over the original code released by Lee. The wallet was called “litecoin-qt” and is still used today. At the same time, Litecoin was slowly getting more attention from the media and from investors. The reason for this was that the price of the coin was rising in relation to the value of Bitcoin. This meant that people were buying Litecoin when it was relatively cheap and selling it when the price was higher.
Lightning Network
The technology behind Litecoin’s rising popularity began to come to light in 2014 when an inventor named Steven Bennet published a paper on the Lightning Network. This paper described a software protocol that could handle large numbers of transactions between two parties without having to put all of the transactions on an exchange. The paper was an important development for the network and it’s one that helps make Litecoin’s current success possible. Lightning Network is a technology that enables a group of people to conduct multiple, small transactions between each other without having to publish them to the public blockchain. This means that individuals don’t have to publish thousands of transactions to the main blockchain. Instead, they can publish just one transaction that splits it into thousands of pieces. This process is called “off-chain” and it’s similar to how exchanges work.
Also Read-How To Make Money With Ethereum: The Beginners Guide to Cryptocurrency Investing
Where to Buy, Sell and Trade Litecoin?
Litecoin is trading on a few exchanges, including Binance and Huobi, but it’s also available to trade on many online wallets. The best way to buy LTC is to find an exchange where you can buy LTC using USD, Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. Once you’ve bought LTC, you can store it in any online wallet. The best way to store LTC is in a wallet that’s connected to the network like a desktop, online, online or mobile wallet. You can also store LTC on a hardware wallet like a Trezor or Ledger Nano S.
Also Read- How To Make Money With Ethereum: The Beginners Guide to Cryptocurrency Investing
Summary
Litecoin was first mined back in 2011, and it was created as a faster, cheaper version of Bitcoin. The technology behind Litecoin’s rise in popularity began to come to light in 2014 when an inventor named Steven Bennet published a paper on the Lightning Network. The Lightning Network allows individuals to conduct small transactions off-chain and it’s one of the network’s major innovations. The best way to store LTC is in a wallet that’s connected to the network like a desktop, online, online or mobile wallet. The best exchanges to buy and sell LTC include Binance, Huobi and other popular exchanges.
