How is bitcoin better than litecoin?

[ajun96]

I think almost everyone would choose bitcoin, almost the same reasons, the price of bitcoin bitcoin larger or more popular

[1714576196]

1714576196

[1714576196]

1714576196

[1714576196]

1714576196

[1714576196]

1714576196

[1714576196]

1714576196

[Agestorzrxx]

Most of people may heard about bitcoin, but they never know litecoin/
                                                                                               

[HeroCat]

BTC is much more popular than LTC and much more in daily use 

[Kazimir]

So we've heard plenty advantages of Bitcoin over Litecoin.

How about the opposite, is there any advantage of Litecoin over Bitcoin? Honestly, I'm not against Litecoin per se but I can't think of any.

[thebenjamincode]

well i don't know about it but i prefer bitcoin more than litecoin since bitcoin is more established than litecoin in my opinion

[fairglu]

How about the opposite, is there any advantage of Litecoin over Bitcoin? Honestly, I'm not against Litecoin per se but I can't think of any.

Same as Euro vs USD, Gold vs Silver, etc?

Once/if both are widely accepted, then the advantage is diversification. If BTC hits a snag you can fall back to LTC, and vice-versa.

Having alternatives is preferable to having no alternatives.

[eternow]

okey because Litecoin, however, uses the scrypt algorithm – originally named as s-crypt, but pronounced as 'script'. This algorithm incorporates the SHA-256 algorithm, but its calculations are much more serialised than those of SHA-256 in bitcoin. Scrypt favours large amounts of high-speed RAM, rather than raw processing power alone. As a result, scrypt is known as a 'memory hard problem'.

The consequences of using scrypt mean that there has not been as much of an 'arms race' in litecoin (and other scrypt currencies), because there is (so far) no ASIC technology available for this algorithm. However, this is soon to change, thanks to companies like Alpha Technologies, which is now taking preorders.

[ummina]

Market Capitalization and Popularity

At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s market capitalization sits at roughly $4 billion. Whether this figure strikes you as either high or low will depend largely on your historical perspective. When we consider that Bitcoin’s market capitalization was barely $42,000 in July 2010, its current figure seems staggering. When, however, we consider that it has declined by roughly 66 percent since its all-time high in December 2013, its current figure seems comparatively modest. What is clear is that Bitcoin remains by far the most highly valued player in the cryptocurrency space.

Litecoin, however, has also made significant progress in recent years. An analysis of Google search data shows that public interest in both currencies have been highly correlated since the launch of Litecoin in 2011.

litecoin trends

Based on market capitalization and public interest alone, the characterization of Litecoin as the silver to Bitcoin’s gold seems warranted.

Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/042015/bitcoin-vs-litecoin-whats-difference.asp#ixzz3hrShPRKS
Follow us: @Investopedia on Twitter

[QuintLeo]

The REAL reason there has been little of an "arms race" for Scrypt-based mining hardware is that the market is TINY compared to SHA256 hardware.

 I am sometimes supprised there's been any sort of an arms race at all for Scrypt.


 That is the SAME reason no other algorythm has ever had ASIC hardware sold for it - X11 (think X13/X15 were also covered by that project) had one company say they were working on it, but they "didn't get enough preorders" to finance the actual development of the chip and appear to have dropped the project entirely.

[Ilove-Obama]

Well? Let's hear it.

Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency it as the gold standard

[Westin Landon Cox]

So we've heard plenty advantages of Bitcoin over Litecoin.

How about the opposite, is there any advantage of Litecoin over Bitcoin? Honestly, I'm not against Litecoin per se but I can't think of any.

Eh, I'm also pro-Bitcoin over Litecoin, but I can give one important advantage of Litecoin over Bitcoin:

Litecoin is less likely to fork into two coins within the next year.

[QuintLeo]

Too late, there's already been a "Litecoin splitoff" - using a different algorythm IIRC.

[thebenjamincode]

One factor that makes litecoin lower in value compared to bitcoin is that there are only a total of 21 million bitcoins available while litecoin can reach up to 84 million based on its mining algorithms. With this, some analysts believe that litecoin can offer a psychological advantage to bitcoin, as consumers often prefer to have transactions in whole units instead of fractions. Litecoin also enjoys a faster speed of transaction compared to bitcoin, as the former takes only 2.5 minutes while the latter needs 9 minutes. But at the end of the day Bitcoin is much better than Litecoin since the number of crowd who use Bitcoin is greater. And cryptocurrencies live only because of the population who used it, if the population drops the currency will drop. But with Bitcoin as the founder of all the currencies, the integrity and stability is much stronger than litecoin. It earn the trust of lots people and it will surely live longer.  It can still be a future currency of the world, and many believe of that.

[QuintLeo]

 as consumers often prefer to have transactions in whole units instead of fractions

 ROFLMAO - you do realise that appx. 1% of ALL retail transactions happen in "whole units" in the USA - dollars are COMMONLY split into fractions, it's why we HAVE coints.


 cent is short for "1% of a dollar", by the way.


 I don't see this "whole units" argument as being more than a strawman argument at best.



 The one REAL advantage that Litecoin has over Bitcoin, IN THEORY, is faster confirmations - but even there it's bloody SLOW compared to cash or credit/debit cards, which limits it a TON for retail usage. I doubt that ANY cryptocoin will ever overcome that issue for retail sales, but given the trend towards online sales taking a larger percentage of all sales it leaves a rather LARGE niche for cryptocoins to get a piece of.

[zeraTunerse]

well i don't know about it but i prefer bitcoin more than litecoin since bitcoin is more established than litecoin in my opinion

Yeah and bitcoin has more market acceptance as compared to litecoins, and the adoption level of bitcoin is increasing day by day and as it is the first crypto currency, people have more faith in it as compared to any other crypto currency.

[Totscha]

 as consumers often prefer to have transactions in whole units instead of fractions

 ROFLMAO - you do realise that appx. 1% of ALL retail transactions happen in "whole units" in the USA - dollars are COMMONLY split into fractions, it's why we HAVE coints.
 cent is short for "1% of a dollar", by the way.
 I don't see this "whole units" argument as being more than a strawman argument at best.

...

Actually this not a bad argument. Let's say you buy something worth $10. You pay 0.0357 BTC or 2.5 LTC.

That's what they mean by fractions. It's easier to remember compared to zero point zero something

okey because Litecoin, however, uses the scrypt algorithm – originally named as s-crypt, but pronounced as 'script'. This algorithm incorporates the SHA-256 algorithm, but its calculations are much more serialised than those of SHA-256 in bitcoin. Scrypt favours large amounts of high-speed RAM, rather than raw processing power alone. As a result, scrypt is known as a 'memory hard problem'.

The consequences of using scrypt mean that there has not been as much of an 'arms race' in litecoin (and other scrypt currencies), because there is (so far) no ASIC technology available for this algorithm. However, this is soon to change, thanks to companies like Alpha Technologies, which is now taking preorders.

I had to look at the timestamp of this message just to be sure it's from 2015 There were quite a few companies that sold scrypt ASIC devices. Gridseed, KNC Titan, Alcheminer... That started about a year ago, btw

But the arms race has come to a halt as most of them have stopped making new ones. But you can get a limited quantity of used ones on Ebay etc... Expect a lot more after the halving

Alpha Tech are either scammers or utterly incompetent. They should have shipped over a year ago, but so far nothing

[Totscha]

To get back on topic. How is bitcoin better? It has a bigger user base and that's about it.

Litecoin is essentially indeed a fork with some modifications/improvements. The number of coins and the hash algorithm are not really very important.

What makes it an improvement is 2.5 minutes per block and anti-spam filters. Meaning it can handle much more transactions than BTC before the block size becomes an issue. And we all know how hard it is to get people to agree on that.

An explanation from Warren (lead LTC dev):

It is mathematically 4x that of Bitcoin, however in practice we benefit over Bitcoin in a different way..  Due to our anti-spam rules the majority of transactions on the Litecoin network are economically "meaningful".  Historically many millions of transactions on the Bitcoin network have been for the express purpose of spamming.  The Bitcoin network makes it too cheap to send large quantities of outputs that are highly unlikely to be spent because doing so would cost more in fees than their value.  Litecoin is different in that it punishes sending outputs that are too small by requiring yet another minimum fee per output that is uneconomically small.  When the majority of transactions are forced to be meaningful the network in practice can handle a lot more transactions because it is not competing with worthless spam.

[Andy4.4]

To get back on topic. How is bitcoin better? It has a bigger user base and that's about it.

Litecoin is essentially indeed a fork with some modifications/improvements. The number of coins and the hash algorithm are not really very important.

What makes it an improvement is 2.5 minutes per block and anti-spam filters. Meaning it can handle much more transactions than BTC before the block size becomes an issue. And we all know how hard it is to get people to agree on that.

An explanation from Warren (lead LTC dev):

It is mathematically 4x that of Bitcoin, however in practice we benefit over Bitcoin in a different way..  Due to our anti-spam rules the majority of transactions on the Litecoin network are economically "meaningful".  Historically many millions of transactions on the Bitcoin network have been for the express purpose of spamming.  The Bitcoin network makes it too cheap to send large quantities of outputs that are highly unlikely to be spent because doing so would cost more in fees than their value.  Litecoin is different in that it punishes sending outputs that are too small by requiring yet another minimum fee per output that is uneconomically small.  When the majority of transactions are forced to be meaningful the network in practice can handle a lot more transactions because it is not competing with worthless spam.

So litecoin is a type of crypto that is useful in buying coffee and pizza.

[Jace]

but even there it's bloody SLOW compared to cash or credit/debit cards, which limits it a TON for retail usage. I doubt that ANY cryptocoin will ever overcome that issue for retail sales, but given the trend towards online sales taking a larger percentage of all sales it leaves a rather LARGE niche for cryptocoins to get a piece of.

You seem to be confusing transaction time with confirmation time. Maybe this clarifies things:

Transaction time (the time it takes to process a payment)
Bitcoin: 1-2 sec
Litecoin: 1-2 sec
Credit card: 5-10 sec
Paypal: 3-5 sec

Money arrival time (the time at which the merchant actually receives the money and can spend it)
Bitcoin: 1-2 sec
Litecoin: 1-2 sec
Credit card: several business days
Paypal: several minutes to several weeks (depending on payment method of customer)

Confirmation time (the time at which the merchant can be sure the payment won't be reversed)
Bitcoin: 10 minutes
Litecoin 2½ minutes
Credit card: 6+ months
Paypal: 3+ months

So.. exactly what was the problem with cryptocoins, again?

[Kazimir]

So litecoin is a type of crypto that is useful in buying coffee and pizza.

Well yes, but not just limited to coffee and pizza. Why would Litecoin not be useful to do donations, micropayments, or large expenses such as cars or real estate?