Does mining litecoin make sense?

[Drizzle]

I've been looking at mining litecoin, but it seems to me that the exchange rate between BTC and LTC depends on relative difficulty so that mining litecoin with my AMD card will give me the same dollar value whether I mine BTC or LTC. If the exchange rate continues to behave the same, then once ASIC miners raise the BTC difficulty a lot, LTC value will drop significantly, so it would make more sense to keep BTC, and therefore to simply mine BTC.

(I understand it's more nuanced than this, and I can see how short term and long term strategies may differ, but I'll let you correct me if you think this is wrong.)

[Jackin Jill]

one word, yes.

But it's somewhat complicated. You'll need long term vision and decent hardware.

[Kennji]

Absolutely.

[manifest23]

If you believe that bitcoin is going to be the best coin to hold, then you can always convert your litecoins into bitcoins right after you're done mining them. Just mine whatever is the most profitable as shown on http://dustcoin.com/mining.

[btcmcdizzle]

OP has it correct.  LTC price should stay pegged to BTC as a function of difficulty.  So everyone hoping to cash in on LTC once "asics ruin btc" will have a surprise when the exchange rate changes to reflect the new difficulty delta.

[dKingston]

I believe litecoin is still undervalued. The correct value for litecoin is one fifth of that of bitcoin. Watch litecoin price skyrocket after mtgox added it.

[Tribus]

To me it would come down to what's coming down the line with ASIC's.  Most of the first ASIC's mine only Bitcoin not Litecoin. 

[Majormax]

To me it would come down to what's coming down the line with ASIC's.  Most of the first ASIC's mine only Bitcoin not Litecoin. 

ASICs won't mine LTC. The development of a custom built LTC miner is completely different , because the chip/memory/caches/ would have to be recast. Not impossible, but a long way off at present

[reannypleas]

I believe litecoin is still undervalued. The correct value for litecoin is one fifth of that of bitcoin. Watch litecoin price skyrocket after mtgox added it.

What coin give true value is merchant support / media coverage. LTC is overvalued now imho

[Drizzle]

Just mine whatever is the most profitable as shown on http://dustcoin.com/mining.

Thanks for the link.

[medUSA]

My view is that everyone mining/buying LTC wants to swap for BTC in the long run. So if LTC does shoot up, people are going to sell their LTC for BTC until the rate goes back down. There is no upside for LTC in the long run.