Litecoin is a cryptocurrency derived from Bitcoin, but it has some important differences:
- Blocks are added to the block chain more quickly (24/hour vs. 6/hour).
- The hash algorithm is designed to favor a CPU (and now GPU) over an ASIC or FPGA. One result of this is that people with GPUs that are no longer mining bitcoins, are now mining litecoins.
- Though it is a distant 2nd place to Bitcoin in terms of total value, it is far ahead of all the other cryptocurrencies.
The Litecoin forum is here:
http://forum.litecoin.net/