Will the litecoin ever overtake the bitcoin?

[DM90]

Due to the super competitive nature of mining bitcoins, many beginners to cryptocurrency have been going to the litecoin and the value of the litecoin has increased as a result of more and more popularity. At what point would litecoins become a threat or maybe even a competitor of the bitcoin?

[thefendall]

personally my thoughts are on the adoption for business, we have seen this with bitcoin, but many of the alts currency.  Personally an equal adoption for use could see the LTC match bitcoin, with faster transaction times and a tried and trusted market.  The other coins..... i dont know....  everybody lines up to tell you they are great but thats because they hold large amounts from mining and want to cash out profit.

my 2 cents

[litecoinz]

Personally, I'm betting on Litecoins to eventually overtake Bitcoins.

[RagnarDanneskjold]

No it will not.  Something else might, but it won't be LTC. I guarantee it.

Many liken LTC as silver to BTC's gold.

[greenbandit]

Due to the super competitive nature of mining bitcoins, many beginners to cryptocurrency have been going to the litecoin and the value of the litecoin has increased as a result of more and more popularity. At what point would litecoins become a threat or maybe even a competitor of the bitcoin?

never, bitcoin has a team of developers unlike litecoin!!

[drakahn]

hahaha no

[nebulus]

No

[Russ.Dill@gmail.com]

It is continuing to rise in value...And it does have an advantage over btc wrt mining.

[mixmaster]

Instead of just saying "no" it would really be interesting why you guys think LTC will never overtake BTC.

Isn't it true, that LTC provides faster transactions than BTC?
And isn't it true that there are no disadvantages compared to BTC?

(Before you answer please try to imagine that you dont own any BTC or LTC... What I mean: Try to stay objective.)

[Akka]

Instead of just saying "no" it would really be interesting why you guys think LTC will never overtake BTC.

Isn't it true, that LTC provides faster transactions than BTC?

No, transactions are almost instant in both systems.

Do you mean confirmations?

Yes, this are faster, but this doesn't only introduce advantages, but also new disadvantages.

Confirmation time with a credit card (until it can't be chared back anymore) is about 180 days. the 10min of BTC are fast enough.

And isn't it true that there are no disadvantages compared to BTC?

Basically no, there are no real disadvantages. But I also don't see any real advantages. It's practically the same, only some of the Variables where changed (Number of Coins, Blocktime, Mining Algorithm) but nothing fundamentally.

It's practically the same.

No real disadvantage, but also no real advantage.

[naphto]

Confirmation time with a credit card (until it can't be chared back anymore) is about 180 days. the 10min of BTC are fast enough.

Totally stupid.
If you put 0 fee in a btc transaction and it did not proceed for the last 3 months how can you call that a 10min transaction? huh.

[mixmaster]

No, transactions are almost instant in both systems.

Do you mean confirmations?

Yes, thats of course what I meant. Thanks for clearing that up.

Yes, this are faster, but this doesn't only introduce advantages, but also new disadvantages.

Confirmation time with a credit card (until it can't be chared back anymore) is about 180 days. the 10min of BTC are fast enough.

I think you are trying to say, that it might be a disadvantage because the time until a payment can be charged back should NOT be too short. Well thats true, but in practice it is no problem to artificially prolong this time... On the other hand it is not possible to shorten it, if the network is technically not able to do it faster.

So, I still see an advantage for LTC here. A little one, but still...

[Grover]

YES LTC will overtake BTC.

It will be a while till LTC overtakes BTC.

BTC will get scammed out of its socks with a decent ASIC attack.  The more BTC gains in value to more likely a 51% attack is.  I recall people getting all giddy about BTC passing $100, then $125, ...$200.  I kept on saying cool but tried reminding people that as BTC gains value it is more susceptible to Murphy's Law, and I was proved correct.  Attackers and the pure suckiness of Mt.Gox killed a pretty decent rally.  But who nows maybe the rally getting killed in BTC is good for BTC.

The recent DDOs attacks have been handled pretty well by the market which to me means that soon a pure DDOS attack on Gox will not derive enough benefit for the attackers so they will have to change strategies.  ASIC is the next most likely strategy coupled with DDOS.  Then again noting happening is also a likely possibility.

Once LTC is traded on GOX LTC will begin to slowly siphon value away from BTC and LTC will begin to gain parity with BTC.  Yes Gox is still the first 51% attack on BTC and the only likelihood of a 51% attack on LTC.

I do say that LTC should have been better named, but oh well.  I do still enjoy all the projections about how LTC's coin count being 4x BTC that this fact somehow means LTC's total market cap is 1/4 BTC.

[Akka]

Yes, this are faster, but this doesn't only introduce advantages, but also new disadvantages.

Confirmation time with a credit card (until it can't be chared back anymore) is about 180 days. the 10min of BTC are fast enough.

I think you are trying to say, that it might be a disadvantage because the time until a payment can be charged back should NOT be too short. Well thats true, but in practice it is no problem to artificially prolong this time... On the other hand it is not possible to shorten it, if the network is technically not able to do it faster.

So, I still see an advantage for LTC here. A little one, but still...

No, it's one of the "principles" of Bitcoin that there are no charegebacks. Also a double spend is not that easy. And it will get harder to make on as Bitcoin develops.

What I see as disadvantage of the faster block time is f.e. the propagation time of new block through the network.

If LTC grows in usage and the block size also grows it will take longer until new blocks are propagated through all nodes.

Let's say at some point it takes on average 1 Minute until all nodes have a new found block.
This increases the chance that 2 Miner find the same block and relay it to nodes. Now one of the 2 chains will have to become longer and form the new valid chain, therefore orphan the other block.

This already happens in BTC all the time. But I can see this happening in LTC much more often resulting in a much increased traffic for the network and therefore increasing Bandwidth requirements for LTC.

Also increased cost of securing the network as miners mine more blocks without a reward.

[mixmaster]

BTC will get scammed out of its socks with a decent ASIC attack.

And why shouldn't that happen to LTC once it is big enough?

I do still enjoy all the projections about how LTC's coin count being 4x BTC that this fact somehow means LTC's total market cap is 1/4 BTC.

Why do you think the amount of currency units matters?

[mixmaster]

What I see as disadvantage of the faster block time is f.e. the propagation time of new block through the network.

[...] resulting in a much increased traffic for the network and therefore increasing Bandwidth requirements for LTC.

Ok I see. But this is a problem @ BTC, too. So once BTC gets big enough we need a solution for this problem anyway... For BTC not that early, but that doesn't really matter... Who cares about 3 months or 5 years (or whatever), the problem is there. For BTC and LTC.

[Akka]

What I see as disadvantage of the faster block time is f.e. the propagation time of new block through the network.

[...] resulting in a much increased traffic for the network and therefore increasing Bandwidth requirements for LTC.

Ok I see. But this is a problem @ BTC, too. So once BTC gets big enough we need a solution for this problem anyway... For BTC not that early, but that doesn't really matter... Who cares about 3 months or 5 years (or whatever), the problem is there. For BTC and LTC.

Yes, but you see that basically the backslash of faster confirmation times.

The faster the Blocktimes, the higher the requirements for the network. That's why I don't see it only as an advantage.

And therefore I don't see LTC as better or worse because of this, it's only a difference.

[mixmaster]

The faster the Blocktimes, the higher the requirements for the network. That's why I don't see it only as an advantage.

And therefore I don't see LTC as better or worse because of this, it's only a difference.

Ok, got it.

So we could say:
If there is a solution for the (someday) too high requirements for the network, LTC will have an advantage, because it is faster.
As long as there is no solution, LTC will have a potential disadvantage.

[Atruk]

No it will not.  Something else might, but it won't be LTC. I guarantee it.

Pretty much this is what I believe. If any altcoin overtakes bitcoin, it will be one that hasn't been developed yet and addresses serious issues that have started really wearing on bitcoin at the time the switch is needed.

[eifiug]

litecoin < bitcoin.