What is the point of Litecoin if Bitcoin is THE cryptocurrency?

[infoporter]

The coin envy in this thread is outrageous. I mean really guys, we are changing history here, let's all get along at least... The more cryptocoins the better if you ask me. Decentralize the decentralization.

I believe in a world full of different levels of computing power, other cryptocoins such as Litecoin will remain very viable alternatives to Bitcoin, as the difficulty level for mining and cost of Bitcoins will continue to rise. Perhaps smaller less popular cryptocoins will become popular in less developed nations where not everyone is running 2+ AMD video cards, or ASICs to mine coins, and they can actually mine for or invest in those coins. I could even foresee other cryptocurrency being developed in the coming years, possibly not even a fork of Bitcoin that will further challenge fiat currencies around the globe.

Honestly, if the Bitcoin developers did not want to see alternative coins being created from Bitcoin, then they shouldn't have released the source code. That defeats the whole purpose though right? Very simply put, continuing to bash other alternatives to Bitcoin is not helping the cryptocurrency movement as a whole at all. It makes it look very immature and childish as a community, and defeats the purpose of open source software. Some people don't like certain aspects of Bitcoin, so they change something and release it as XCoin. That's how open source works!

I believe the true nature of the original Bitcoin software was an "experiment" right? The experiment seems to be very successful, as it has not only created a currency worth $90+ USD per Bitcoin currently, but it has also spawned a whole subset of emerging alternative cryptocurrencies on top of that. Why don't we all just sit back, enjoy the damn ride already, and PLEASE quit whining about who's coin(dick) is the biggest. Who is to say that Bitcoin will be the first and the last successful cryptocurrency? That would be a very narrow-minded viewpoint, especially coming from technically savvy individuals.

Long live all cryptocurrencies and the freedom to choose which one you want to use!

[Wekkel]

The coin envy in this thread is outrageous.

[..]

People are fighting Internet Explorer-Netscape Navigator wars here 
Fully agree with your post!

[nobbynobbynoob]

Very well said, infoporter.

+litecointip infoporter Ł0,50

[rugard]

Some people here didn't get the message that should make them at least a bit nervous.

Litecoin's source hasn't been updated for > 8 months now (except for some minor little things). The current litecoin-core contains vulnerabilities which have to be fixed as soon as possible. At the same time we have no sign of life from the only person who seems to be capable of doing this (coblee). Is he still interested in maintaining and updating the source? If not: who will do that work instead?

[markm]

Presumably whoever wants to collect the bounty or bounties?

Which reminds me, what exactly are the current bounties for such things?

-MarkM-

[coblee]

Litecoin will be updated to 0.8.1 soon. Like wtogami said, I had originally planned to stay 1 major version behind Bitcoin so that we don't get bit by a bad release. But as it turned out, the 0.8 hard fork just made it clear that there was an issue with old releases that could cause a hard fork even without 0.8. So wtogami and pooler will be helping me with rebasing the Litecoin code to 0.8.1. I do want to wait til May 15 to make sure that Bitcoin is able to handle the potential hard fork. Since the Litecoin community is much smaller, we should have even less of a problem. But it's better to be safe.

[mr_random]

Litecoin will be updated to 0.8.1 soon. Like wtogami said, I had originally planned to stay 1 major version behind Bitcoin so that we don't get bit by a bad release. But as it turned out, the 0.8 hard fork just made it clear that there was an issue with old releases that could cause a hard fork even without 0.8. So wtogami and pooler will be helping me with rebasing the Litecoin code to 0.8.1. I do want to wait til May 15 to make sure that Bitcoin is able to handle the potential hard fork. Since the Litecoin community is much smaller, we should have even less of a problem. But it's better to be safe.

Nice one. 

[wizzardTim]

Litecoin will be updated to 0.8.1 soon. Like wtogami said, I had originally planned to stay 1 major version behind Bitcoin so that we don't get bit by a bad release. But as it turned out, the 0.8 hard fork just made it clear that there was an issue with old releases that could cause a hard fork even without 0.8. So wtogami and pooler will be helping me with rebasing the Litecoin code to 0.8.1. I do want to wait til May 15 to make sure that Bitcoin is able to handle the potential hard fork. Since the Litecoin community is much smaller, we should have even less of a problem. But it's better to be safe.

Grats!! So glad to hear this

[zero3112]

I hear 0.8 and 0.8.1 are faster then 0.7.2 and nicer on your hard drive is this true and if so how much faster is it when you sync the whole blockchain?

[allthingsluxury]

Litecoin will be updated to 0.8.1 soon. Like wtogami said, I had originally planned to stay 1 major version behind Bitcoin so that we don't get bit by a bad release. But as it turned out, the 0.8 hard fork just made it clear that there was an issue with old releases that could cause a hard fork even without 0.8. So wtogami and pooler will be helping me with rebasing the Litecoin code to 0.8.1. I do want to wait til May 15 to make sure that Bitcoin is able to handle the potential hard fork. Since the Litecoin community is much smaller, we should have even less of a problem. But it's better to be safe.

Very nice. Thanks for the update.

[kano]

Litecoin will be updated to 0.8.1 soon. Like wtogami said, I had originally planned to stay 1 major version behind Bitcoin so that we don't get bit by a bad release. But as it turned out, the 0.8 hard fork just made it clear that there was an issue with old releases that could cause a hard fork even without 0.8. So wtogami and pooler will be helping me with rebasing the Litecoin code to 0.8.1. I do want to wait til May 15 to make sure that Bitcoin is able to handle the potential hard fork. Since the Litecoin community is much smaller, we should have even less of a problem. But it's better to be safe.

Um ... isn't current = pre release 0.7.0? ...

[bitcool]

...
I believe the true nature of the original Bitcoin software was an "experiment" right? The experiment seems to be very successful, as it has not only created a currency worth $90+ USD per Bitcoin currently, but it has also spawned a whole subset of emerging alternative cryptocurrencies on top of that. Why don't we all just sit back, enjoy the damn ride already, and PLEASE quit whining about who's coin(dick) is the biggest. Who is to say that Bitcoin will be the first and the last successful cryptocurrency? That would be a very narrow-minded viewpoint, especially coming from technically savvy individuals.

Long live all cryptocurrencies and the freedom to choose which one you want to use!

Speaking of  "experiment", it's not always about technical innovation.  p2p crypotcurrency is such a revolutionary idea, there are many other aspects need to be tested as well.  For instance, in coin generation (a.k.a money creation) process, there are 3 models being used:
  1. Ripple -- 100% centralized
  2. Bitcoin -- increasing moving toward capital-intensive, wealthy miners
  3. Litecoin -- mostly smaller, non-dedicated mining participants.  

I guess a few years from now, we'll know which model works best, this is an experiment demonstrating the (non)importance of the perceived "fairness" of mining process in people's minds, and how it will affect a cryptocurrency's adoption.

Changing sha256 to scrypt may not be that innovative; but to answer the above question, it can only be known by real-world "experiment".  

Yes, people need to keep their minds (and eyes) open.

[flound1129]

The coin envy in this thread is outrageous.

[..]

People are fighting Internet Explorer-Netscape Navigator wars here 
Fully agree with your post!

Fuck you!  NCSA Mosaic 4 eva!

[MaGNeT]

Time will prove if coins remain or not.

Only if you don't believe in Bitcoin, you open topics like this one.

[zero3112]

Has there been any litecoin updates?

[RustyShackleford1950]

Taking it away from technical considerations and on to tangible commodities, can the same thing be said of silver?

"Why is there a point to silver if gold turns out to be THE precious metal?", would sound like a strange question to ask.

For me, Litecoin is to Bitcoin as silver is to gold.

Gold and silver have different properties and uses that make them desirable in their own way.

i.e If I have gold, I might require silver to do something I can't do with gold.

BUT if I have bitcoin, what would I require litecoin to do?

[markm]

Taking it away from technical considerations and on to tangible commodities, can the same thing be said of silver?

"Why is there a point to silver if gold turns out to be THE precious metal?", would sound like a strange question to ask.

For me, Litecoin is to Bitcoin as silver is to gold.

Gold and silver have different properties and uses that make them desirable in their own way.

i.e If I have gold, I might require silver to do something I can't do with gold.

BUT if I have bitcoin, what would I require litecoin to do?

Lets change tack a little here, change emphasis, change "subject" as in who is the principle.

If you have bitcoin, what would I require something that I have to do?

Well for starters, I might require it to be useful in convincing you to give me some of your bitcoin!

Similarly if I have bitcoin, what would you require something that you have to do?

Aren't you the slightest little bit interested in obtaining some of this stuff that I have, this "bitcoin" stuff?



Or are you proposing that everyone buy bitcoin with bitcoin rather than coming up with some other thing they can do or sell in order to obtain some bitcoin?

-MarkM-

[RustyShackleford1950]

Taking it away from technical considerations and on to tangible commodities, can the same thing be said of silver?

"Why is there a point to silver if gold turns out to be THE precious metal?", would sound like a strange question to ask.

For me, Litecoin is to Bitcoin as silver is to gold.

Gold and silver have different properties and uses that make them desirable in their own way.

i.e If I have gold, I might require silver to do something I can't do with gold.

BUT if I have bitcoin, what would I require litecoin to do?

Lets change tack a little here, change emphasis, change "subject" as in who is the principle.

If you have bitcoin, what would I require something that I have to do?

Well for starters, I might require it to be useful in convincing you to give me some of your bitcoin!

Similarly if I have bitcoin, what would you require something that you have to do?

Aren't you the slightest little bit interested in obtaining some of this stuff that I have, this "bitcoin" stuff?



Or are you proposing that everyone buy bitcoin with bitcoin rather than coming up with some other thing they can do or sell in order to obtain some bitcoin?

-MarkM-

I don't know is english is your first language, but that was very hard to read and it didn't really make sense.

I'm a supporter of litecoin, I'm simply saying that the gold and silver analogy is rubbish.

[markm]

I cannot buy gold using gold as my thing with which I do my purchasing.

What I buy and what I use to buy it with usually in general need to be different.

I cannot buy dollars with dollars.

So, if I am interested at all in dollars, I need something other than dollars to buy dollars with.

Euros, Yen, Francs, anything that is not the same dollars I want to buy.

Same with bitcoins and litecoins. To buy bitcoins I need something other than bitcoins.

Litecoins are particularly suitable because they have similar means of transmission, can be handled using similar tools and so on.

Using litecoins to buy bitcoins sure beats trying to use fiat to do so!

Maybe it was similar with silver and gold. If you wanted to buy some gold you needed something other than gold.

So the search was on to find something that is not gold but which people who like gold, and have gold, might find tempting enough that they might be willing to sell some gold for it...

-MarkM-

[kano]

You missed the important point that you need to have something to buy it with that you can acquire ...

Would it make sense if you has US $ and needed CN RMB and bought FR Francs to do that?