Litecoin (LTC) is a P2P (peer-to-peer) cryptocurrency launched by Charlie Lee (ex Google employee) in 2011. Litecoin (LTC) has similarities with Bitcoin and is based on the original source code of Bitcoin.
Just like Bitcoin, Litecoin is a cryptocurrency that can be used to transfer funds directly between individuals or companies thanks to blockchain technology without any intermediaries.
The upper limit of LTC's market capitalization is a lot higher than Bitcoin. The mining process is faster. This leads also to faster and cheaper transactions compared to Bitcoin.
Just like Bitcoin, Litecoin uses the proof-of-work consensus algorithm.
An important difference is the cryptographic algorithm that is used: Bitcoin uses the SHA-256 encryption algorithm, while Litecoin uses Scrypt, which is far less complex and time-consuming than SHA-256.
Litecoin offers features such as Segregated Witness and the Lightning Network which allows for faster processing at lower cost.
