Bitcoin Forum

Which do you prefer and why?

BTC

I do not see substantial innovation in LTC.

What I have read so far is that LTC uses a different hashing algorithm, runs faster and will give more coins.

That's a nice experiment but not really a leap forward.

Has anyone here done any DD on XRP (Ripple) by OpenCoin?  Thoughts?

I prefer the one that I am going to be able to mine with my gpu's
So with the current difficulties that means litecoin for me.



Get market data for litecoin and bitcoin at: http://cryptochart.com/

I am debating whether it makes more sense to mine for LTC or BTC, considering that my FPGA can do a max of 104 or so MH/s.

But whats the big deal with LTC? Its easier to mine yes, but its value is pretty shocking?

That depends on what you are using it for. If you are speculating on the value going up, then sometimes LTC is a better bet.  Just compare the two charts and figure out %s.

As far as use as a currency, that's another issue.  But BTC will probalby always be more widespread and popular.

Guessing people trade LTC for BTC? How much LTC for 1 BTC Roughly?

For me its litecoins.  I could mine an equivalent USD/h of mining from either, but Im baking on MTGOX accepting litecoins here soon making LTCs value double if not quadruple at the least.  Thats a bigger short term ROI for my mining time.

Im not a fanboy of Bitcoin

they can and will coexist for some time.
this is all very dynamic, so we can see a complete turnover to other coins, even not LTC

BTC have more liquidity right now, but LTC might be undervalued right now due to the lack of exchanges that trade them.

Personally, I am sticking to BTC for now.

Both IMHO, It's like Silver and Gold.

I would say BitCoin is like Gold and LiteCoin is like silver. :)
Not as rare, but still a valuable commodity nontheless.

I am thinking that when the ASICs and such come out this summer and then all the bitcoin GPU miners move to Litecoin mining that Litecoin's value will take off...

I personally mine LTC because I don't have the equipment to mine BTC, but I am comfortable with both existing, and have one of BFL's 5 gH/s devices on order(fingers crossed :P). One of the core tenets of the Bitcoin concept is the free and open market. There's no moral or ethical reason that Litecoin shouldn't exist alongside of Bitcoin, or, for that matter, any other coin that was started in a fair and open fashion. If someone LIKES bitcoin and prefers it to all others, that's fine. But just because you or any other person prefers coin x, does not mean that coin w, y, and z aren't any good.

I voted both, i think both bring differing dimensions to the table and both have the opportunity to co-exist together. I'm not wholly keen on alt-coins that do not have alternating functionality however.

Litecoin DOES have an alternate functionality, in that it uses a different algorithm which makes it harder to mine with non cpu/gpu devices, although i will not say impossible like some other people have. Not a huge difference, but I think it is still significant enough for it to be valid.

Exactly, i agree with that. Think you misread me. I do think that alt-coins that have alternate functionality, such as Litecoin and PPCoin, do have the potential to long term co-exist with Bitcoin. The other 'forks' that do not, of which i could mention numerous, will not exist long term, IMHO.

Bitcoin. And that's the likely (biased) response you should receive on Bitcointalk, because - surprise! - it's a Bitcoin forum. Bitcoin is the mature "granddaddy" of cryptocurrencies, and is far more mature.

That being said, I'm not hating on Litecoin. Indeed, I have a small position in LTC and see nothing wrong with it, but it's hardly innovative. Bitcoin has the advantage of having gotten there first (network effect or path dependency) and in the real world, that does mean a great deal.

There IS one difference between every new fork and the old one. Specifically, how easy it is to mine. That is the main reason that I do LTC, because it's POSSIBLE for me to mine it at a profit. That's an issue I've seen discussed here many times, but never to a good conclusion. LTC is going to be mined longer than BTC is, because there will be profit in it for a longer time. Which is important, if you ever want to change your coins for anything else.

I tried novacoin for a bit, but backed off when I started noticing all the hostility to it. Not because I think it's not a good and valid idea, but because a lot of the vitrol I saw directed at it gave me concerns that there might be a lot of people who were, perhaps not trying to pull it down, but maybe ready to give it a nudge if it started teetering.

I prefer bitcoins cos at the moment are the most widely accepted. Litetcoin still has way to go... But that may change soon if MtGox starts trading them...

I mine one or other at different times based on whether one or the other converts better to USD at that time. Basiclaly, I calculate a USD/watt figure and I go with the one that pays better until that shifts the other way.

LTC seems to usually have a higher profitability rating than BTC.  I'm mining LTC and plan to exchange them for BTC eventually.

not enough market share for Litecoin to compete. maybe in a few years

i dont think the other cryptocurrenices are going to take off, honestly

the currency that will succeed is the one than can integrate all others, since there are so many nowadays.

What are the challenges people face with Bitcoin mining that pushes them toward mining for Litecoin, like are the hardware requirements really that different?

The biggest issue with Bitcoin mining is that everyone is doing it, the network size is huge, and as a result, the difficulty is very high. That, in addition to the recent reward drop per block makes it harder to find a graphics card that can mine more bitcoins than you would have to spend on your power bill to keep it running. 

Litecoins, on the other hand, can still be easily mined with a lot of the lower end cards at a profit. Of course, if the price of Bitcoins goes up, it could be possible to profitably mine with cards that aren't viable now, but historically, Litecoins tend to follow Bitcoins as far as price changes, and so even if the price of bitcoins went up, it would probably still be more profitable to mine litecoins.

Bitcoin is my choice. Any other cryptocur has to have significant changes to take the crown from btc.

Mining-wise, LTC seems to be easier to jump into now. Mining a single BTC takes forever. with LTC you get them what seems sooner (even if it turns out to be the same in the end).

Plus I feel like LTC is more stable.

Once LTC stops being dependent on BTC in the exchanges it should takeoff, it's more stable than many of the other currencies, including BTC. Also it has better potential for mining since it's immune from ASICs, once ASICs are commonplace, scrypt currencies will be the only profitable ones out there in reach of regular people. BTC is more supported because it was first, but as time progresses, I think we'll see more support for other currencies.

I find it amusing that people still say that litecoin is immune from ASIC mining. When it was originally launched, it was purported to be immune to GPUs, FPGAs, and ASICs. Then, someone figured out how to mine it with GPUs. But everyone still said hey, at least it's immune to FPGAs and ASICs. And then someone started talking about how they're designing an FPGA system for it, and now everyone's saying it's still immune to ASICs. The magic of litecoin is that it's LESS amendable to these types of mining than  bitcoin. Not that it's IMMUNE. As in, you'll get less advantage from them. But you'll still get a boost. What scrypt HAS achieved is the possibility of EXTENDING the low end mining of a coin, not the INABILITY of a coin to be mined by the higher end hardware.

I prefer Bitcoin because of it's higher worth and that it's more common.

Rumour has it that Mt Gox will soon start dealing in Litecoins, and that when that happens the price will go up.  I have converted a couple of bitcoins to LTC on BTC-e inthe hope that the rumour is true.  But I plan to keep a stake in both.

I personally prefer BTC but LTC may rise in price too. Not as much as BTC but it will be higher than what it is currently.

BTC, it rises faster, check simply the LTC/BTC ratio.

I prefer BTC. BTC has got more demand and you can buy more stuff with BTC.

Out of the two? BTC. Mainly because of adoption.

I think people who have invested heavily in the GPU miners will migrate to LTC. 

The problem i have with LTC is that its mostly just mined to buy bitcoins.
I could maybe see a future for it if everything plays out right, as asics flood the marked, and all the gpu miners migrate to LTC.

Both.

The way I see it, having 2 popular crypto coins increases the value of coins in general because it reduces risk for greater adoption.

2 different crypto standards
1 suited for pro/hardcore miners in the near future (BTC with ASIC)
1 continues to have a low barrier to entry with low difficulty/hash rate (LTC with GPUS)

As long as pools and miners stay numerous both coins will prosper.

both and all other cryptocurrencies... we need all of them..

This.

Currencies of ANY type don't exist in a do or die competitive environment. Sure, they can gain or lose value relative to each other, but they aren't at each others throats in a death struggle. In fact, the existence of multiple currencies alongside one another helps to stabilize them both. When the price of one goes up, people sell it and purchase the lower priced one, causing the price of the first to go down and the second to go up. Having two or more currencies that are trade-able helps reduce sudden ups and downs in the value, which reassures outside parties of it's stability, which is good for general acceptance of the currency.

LTC because with the soon to be released ASICs it will mean GPU miners will be put out of business. At this point most will move to LTC so I suspect values will rise.

btc for sure btc

Awesome response!! LTC it is!

BTC is already well established, but LTC is very attractive to me because of it being in such an early stage.. mmm mining! :)

for now, LTC for sure.
after it goes to mtgox, the price will go up, everyone starts mining, and the dificulty will rise (becoming similar to BTC)

of course btc has more popularity in media, so it's price will stay up for some time

Both.
BTC is the orginal, it is the most common, it is the most for per coin.
LTC is more profitable and uses scrypt hashing.

The more the merrier :D

Wouldn't be sell off their GPU rigs and then buy the ASICs instead? They are going to be really cheap

Both of course. But currently I prefer LTC over BTC. :)

I only like LTC as a potential speculation investment.

I don't like knock offs, though if it could become the "silver" everyone speaks of, I think that would be pretty cool actually.

It's always good to have backups of anything digital, I'd just wish they'd put up an SCI that works for LTC already though, haven't found one yet.

Do you guys think any of the other alt-currencies will take off?

they start competing among each other, and that will cause the price of all the coins to go down... a little.

I use

http://dustcoin.com/mining (http://dustcoin.com/mining)

BTC for me for sure...
though in the long run i see LTC being far more prevalent

I like to think not. But I don't like knock offs. BTC is special because of it's programming.

I guess its kinda The utopic ideia that is to have BTC like gold and LTC as silver...

LTC
mainly because of hardware that I have :)
and the price is rising, hope it will be once 1/4 of BTC price

The issue for Litecoin is whether a coin such as ppcoin or another new coin will steal it`s thunder and become the number 2 coin

My preferences:
1) Physical bitcoins, because they look very nice
2) Litecoins, because they will grow
3) Bitcoins, because that is where it all started.

BUT I wouldn't consider 2, and 3 as an investment. seems too risky to me at the moment.
While I have some it will not be fatal for me if both of them drop considerably.

BUT I'll keep casascius (when I get one) for sentimental reasons :)

LTC for sure!

I started mining litecoins because of the higher profitability. I also don't like the idea of buying hardware that can't be used for anything other than mining bitcoin (ASICs). However, feathercoins seem to be where it's at for mining profitability these days, but I have no idea why.

I say BTC as it is more accepted in the Cryptocurrency world. But i'm not throwing LTC under the bus, it has a purpose.

BTC for profit and LTC for mining because still has low difficulty

This thread has helped me understand the purpose of LTC, thanks guys.

This, precisely.

I am hoping though that someday LTC will be worth maybe 1/4 BTC. (trade a little, hold a little) Maybe more??

LTC and a little FTC.

Who has a spare FTC?

Yeah, Feathercoins are really starting to take off.... 3 days ago the Feathercoin network had 400 MH/s now it is up to nearly 600 MH/s and rising.... I think it is becoming popular because of the large block reward (200 coins) and it is still very early on (difficulty is only 14!)

BTC and LTC are both good, like coke to pepsi. But people still want coke.

Considering they were both developed by the same guy I think the programming itself is magnificent on both ends.

LTC has value. LTC is where BTC was at two years ago. The only difference now is that crypto has made it's first step into the world, and the world has noticed (banks and the governments anyways).

I mine LTC and plan on buying with traditional money more LTC and also BTC. I believe these are going to be a very good investment for the long term. They are vastly undervalued right now.

I talked to an investment advisor who is my client (I do some software development for his firm) and he dismissed the whole idea of bitcoin. I was not in an argumentative mood and just smiled. I'm sure when the media will be interested again in the cryptocurrency idea many investors will jump again and the current price of BTC will seem so cheap in comparison.

I would go with BTC, more price changes and good to make money with.

Yes, but a much higher difficulty level and technically less expansion room than for LTC, even though Bitcoin still has a lot of room left.

LTC for Me!

LTC is good for mining and than change it into btc.

Litecoin will never overtake Bitcoin as the largest cryptocurrency. I just don't see it happening due to huge differences in market value.