Litecoin had an amazing run in 2017 gaining a whopping 6,700% picking up to around $400 up $396.00 from where it began the year around $4.00. This isn't saying much given some of the numbers surrounding other alt-coins cough shit coins cough none the less, there was gains to be made in 2017 from a percentage perspective, but what is important to remember here is the true underlying value of what you're investing in...although at the end of the day none of us really know how all this will end up, and its just a massive speculation..I do believe strongly in the underlying technology some of these currencies present, which offers real value moving forward and will not only provide a store a value, but methods of payment.
With that being said, the best "alt-coin" in my opinion is Litecoin, and no I don't see it having 50,000,000% returns in the next week but as a long term investment option in this new space, its really not a bad choice...Lets look at some of the positive points
Faster Transaction Times Than Bitcoin
Lower Transaction Fees Than Bitcoin
An Active Face(Charlie Lee) And Development Team
Closest Thing To Bitcoin Other Than....Well, Bitcoin.
Full disclosure, I love Bitcoin and I think Ethereum has real value as an application and utility, I also see value in other few other projects but we'll stick to Litecoin here.
To my first point, yes Bitcoin is the original, the pioneer, that cake your grandma used to make. It has a special place in mine and all of our hearts, but damn it can be a little slow sometimes to verify transactions. Now granted this is never an issue when I'm simply sending it to friends, family etc but from a business perspective I can understand why you'd want a faster approval time. In todays growingly impatient world the market will demand faster transactional speeds.
As for my second point, I must give credit where it is due, as of lately I have noticed network fees coming down slightly, not sure if this is due to more adoption of LN or what, but the underlying issue will remain there as adoption grows over the years. I encourage you not to believe the news when they say, "it costs $30 in transaction fees to buy a $4 cup of coffee". This is simply not the case of always. But, once again it advocates for my point where the average cost per Litecoin transaction is around .001 of the Bitcoin network.
Charlie Lee has been an active and vocal voice for Litecoin and is the founder and key developer behind it. Many will argue he simply copy and pasted Bitcoins code and made a few adjustments, I don't personally see a problem with that as Bitcoin will always have value in my opinion. Back in December Charlie sold all of his Litecoin when the market hit all time highs. This either sat well with you or sent red flags your way. Its up to everyone to interpret things their own way, personally, I believe Charlie Lee selling all his LTC makes the coin even that much more decentralized, which is a plus to me. No I am not a socialist who believes equal LTC distribution for everyone, but more coins in the hands of many is good for many reasons as well as price stability. Given Litecoin as most others has seen a price drop I think this is very healthy for the market.
The team has a vision for where they see the coin going in the future and recently they announced a possible merger with Monero, now I think there would be benefits to this,but I don't see how you can merge two separate block chains. Time will tell on that one I guess!
There is also speculation in the community of Facebook accepting Litecoin soon and all sorts of other projects, either way, I like what Charlie Lee and his team are doing.
Now the last and maybe most important point here. Lets remember that Bitcoin is the first, the original, the horse leading the carriage, even today BTC leads in market cap, transactions per day and volume traded daily. Litecoin is a faster and more abundant coin which allows the price to be cheaper(people always forget no matter if its $.04 or $40,000 if it moves up or down 1000% you lost or gained the same dollar amount, so invest in what you believe has underlying long term value) but people like that it cheaper so hey why not throw it on here!(bad joke I know).
To the title, I believe the crypto market as a whole will grow by 10x over the next 5 years(which would blow my mind seeing the growth we've already seen) Today LTC sits around $220.00, so if Litecoin maintains down its current path and it remains a strong and viable coin, there should be no reason it wouldn't keep its current percentage of the overall market cap or even grow it. Today LTC is #6 with a market cap of $23-$26 Billion USD, in 5 years if it stays on pace it could grow to $200+ Billion which would be a $2,000 coin. As probable as this may be, so may the chances it goes to $0, we just don't know yet.
I guess thats why HODL, right?
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