Each and every day, there are new folks that are finding new ways to transact using cryptocurrencies. While Bitcoin is leading the cryptocurrency race with its overwhelming market share and brand value, many other alternative currencies are trying to compete.
Litecoin seems to be gaining a lot of momentum in this regard, which is probably one of the reasons why it has recently made headlines for being accepted by two huge online retailers. Low transaction fees, faster confirmation time and more affordable mining are some of the many reasons why Litecoin has been gaining traction over the years.
Here are five reasons why Litecoin is more practical for everyday usage than Bitcoin:
1. Lower Transaction Fees
1 of the paramount issues that people have when it comes to cryptocurrency is transaction fees. It's no secret that Bitcoin transaction fees are high compared to most other digital currencies. However, Litecoin transaction fees are among the lowest in the industry. This is because it uses an algorithm called 'Scrypt'.
Scrypt makes use of SHA-256 cryptographic signatures, but tha tha tis performed parallelly. The process of finding these hashes requires more memory than Bitcoin's SHA-256, which results in greater processing time and lesser power.
2. Faster confirmation times
Bitcoin has a higher market value and transaction fees are relatively lower compared to other cryptocurrencies (looking at you ETH...). Even though they're more than FREE TXs on HIVE However, this also makes Bitcoin transactions take longer because each block takes 10 minutes to be verified. This can become problematic in cases where you have an urgent need to send or receive money.
The average time for Litecoin transactions is 2.5 minutes, which makes it a more viable option for merchants and retailers who want to offer instant transactions.
3. More affordable mining
Mining Bitcoin is not only expensive; it's also becoming increasingly difficult as the blockchain continues to grow in size and value. Litecoin was designed to make mining easier and accessible to everyone since you can effectively run a full node with just a regular PC. Mining Bitcoin, on the other hand, requires more resources and high-end machines, which makes it impractical for people without enough resources to mine Bitcoin at home.
4. Scalability
The Bitcoin community has been witnessing a lot of scalability issues over the past few years. Bitcoin simply does not scale well due to its block size limit. This means that the blockchain can't process transactions fast enough, which results in backlogs and long transaction waiting times.
Litecoin is also designed to have a maximum number of coins at 84 million. However, unlike Bitcoin where all tokens will be mined in just a few decades, Litecoin will continue mining coins for the next hundred years. This makes it a more practical solution for merchants who want to implement long-term payment options without worrying about transaction times or high fees.
5. Additional features
Litecoin offers several additional features that Bitcoin does not, which gives it an upper hand compared to other cryptocurrencies in the market.
Litecoin's block time of 2.5 minutes makes it faster when compared to Bitcoin. This means you will not have to wait for a long time before your transaction is verified and stored into a block on the blockchain. Also, due to its Scrypt algorithm, you will not need specialized mining hardware that is required for Bitcoin mining.
Litecoin also can process smart contracts, which means it can perform tasks that aren't possible with other cryptocurrencies in the market at the moment. This makes Litecoin a valuable cryptocurrency with real-world usage potential.