What is Litecoin Core?
The Evolution of Litecoin
Last week we talked about Bitcoin Core. It’s a cryptocurrency, but also the software that validates Bitcoin transactions and creates actual Bitcoin.
Similarly, Litecoin Core is the official “full node” software program, or client, that validates transactions and blocks on the Litecoin network. Like with Bitcoin, this allows Litecoin to be created through the proof-of-work (PoW) mining process.
Litecoin Core is offered by the Litecoin Project, which is supported by the Litecoin Foundation. The foundation’s goal is to make the world better through blockchain.
The open-source Litecoin Core software supports Windows, MacOS and Linux. It stores, sends and receives Litecoin and its transaction history, with features being updated regularly. If you want to use it to mine Litecoin, you have to download the full Litecoin blockchain on your computer, which obviously will take some time, but it makes the process stable and secure.
Full Node Explained
“A full node is a program that fully validates transactions and blocks,” explains Bitcoin.org. “Almost all full nodes also help the network by accepting transactions and blocks from other full nodes, validating those transactions and blocks, and then relaying them to further full nodes.”
In other words, full node clients supply the ability to create a secure blockchain, verified and validated permanently. In the process, the cryptocurrency is mined, or minted.
The Evolution of Litecoin
Litecoin was created in 2011 by Charlie Lee, an employee of Google at the time. He developed it as a lighter alternative to Bitcoin, or the “silver” to Bitcoin’s “gold”.
While it’s often referred to as a fork of Bitcoin, it’s actually neither a soft nor hard fork of Bitcoin. Instead, it’s a source code fork, or software project fork, which is basically borrowing the open-source code of one cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) and rewriting it into a new and different code. This process allowed Litecoin to be born on its own blockchain, without sharing any of Bitcoin’s blockchain history.
But Litecoin itself has been forked several times, into coins with crazy names like Junkcoin, Luckycoin, Feathercoin, CloakCoin, Monacoin (based on a cartoon cat named Mona), Einsteinium … and some normal names, like Litcoin Cash. Dogecoin (based on a cartoon dog) was a sourcecode fork of Luckycoin. But the original Litecoin is by far the most popular.
Litecoin (LTC) vs Bitcoin (BTC)
Like Bitcoin, Litecoin is a borderless and decentralized peer-to-peer currency that lets you make instant payments to anyone, anywhere. Transactions are carried out through the blockchain network without need for a bank, government or other centralized authority.
But in an effort to make daily purchases more realistic, Litecoin was designed to be four times as fast as Bitcoin (blockchain verification takes only 2.5 minutes instead of 10). There will also be four times as much in existence when it’s maxed out (84 million instead of 21 million total coins). Each coin, however, is worth much less than Bitcoin (one LTC is currently worth about $84 while one BTC is worth $19,000).
Litecoin is only one of the 30 digital currencies available to buy and sell with cash at any Coin Cloud Bitcoin ATM. You can get started with either one for as little as $1 USD.
What is Coin Cloud?
Founded in 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Coin Cloud is the world’s leading digital currency machine (DCM) company. With over 1,800 locations nationwide, in 47 states and Brazil, Coin Cloud operates the world’s largest and fastest-growing network of 100% two-way DCMs, a more advanced version of the Bitcoin ATM. Every Coin Cloud DCM empowers you to quickly and easily buy and sell 30+ virtual currency options with cash. You can find your nearest Coin Cloud DCM here.
