Why is litecoin hyped so much when it doesn't add any value over bitcoin?

[medicine28]

Litecoin is different from bitcoin in following ways, however none of them is particularly useful and on the contrary are only less worthy.

84 million vs 21 millions: since bitcoin is divisible upto atleast 9 decimals and also micro BTC can be used for dealing with low amounts

faster blocks 2.5 minutes vs 10 minutes average: 6 confirmations of bitcoin are not equivalent of 6 confirmations of litecoin, so litecoin payments are usually confirmed after many more confirmations. It also wastes mining power because in litecoin, most of the time miners may start work with non-best blocks.

scrypt vs sha-256: since scrypt can be relatively efficiently run on CPU/GPU which means botnets can easily control a lot of hashing power. Also, scrypt is relatively less analyzed and used than sha-256, so it may not be more secure tha sha-256.

Technically, bitcoin does what litecoin in an equal or better way. Also, bitcoin testnet can be used to experiment with new features.

Why do we need litecoin that actually has monetary value?(around 2.7USD per LTC now) Is it just promoted by a group of people who missed the bitcoin get-rich boat?

Bitcoin is novel concept and early adopters rightly earn their rewards for the risk they have taken.

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[Vladimir]

Litecoin is backed by hopium and jealousy.

[PeeJWeeJ]

My main reason for prefer litecoin (or a faster coin) over bitcoin is simply the confirmation time. When I have to wait over an hour after a transaction is initiated in order to use that amount, it's simply impractical and completely unnecessary. litecoin takes much less time. (though something like worldcoin would be more ideal)

Also, ASIC's will ruin bitcoin mining and all the GPU miners will switch to scrypt coins. I'm not sure that detracts or adds to litecoin's overall value, but it certainly will keep more people interested.

[DeathAndTaxes]

My main reason for prefer litecoin (or a faster coin) over bitcoin is simply the confirmation time. When I have to wait over an hour after a transaction is initiated in order to use that amount, it's simply impractical and completely unnecessary. litecoin takes much less time. (though something like worldcoin would be more ideal).

Why wait an hour then?  You are accepting less security just starting accepting Bitcoin with 2 confirmations.  Tada 66% faster.

[TECHICENINE]

Litecoin is different from bitcoin in following ways, however none of them is particularly useful and on the contrary are only less worthy.

84 million vs 21 millions: since bitcoin is divisible upto atleast 9 decimals and also micro BTC can be used for dealing with low amounts

faster blocks 2.5 minutes vs 10 minutes average: 6 confirmations of bitcoin are not equivalent of 6 confirmations of litecoin, so litecoin payments are usually confirmed after many more confirmations. It also wastes mining power because in litecoin, most of the time miners may start work with non-best blocks.

scrypt vs sha-256: since scrypt can be relatively efficiently run on CPU/GPU which means botnets can easily control a lot of hashing power. Also, scrypt is relatively less analyzed and used than sha-256, so it may not be more secure tha sha-256.

Technically, bitcoin does what litecoin in an equal or better way. Also, bitcoin testnet can be used to experiment with new features.

Why do we need litecoin that actually has monetary value?(around 2.7USD per LTC now) Is it just promoted by a group of people who missed the bitcoin get-rich boat?

Bitcoin is novel concept and early adopters rightly earn their rewards for the risk they have taken.

Chinese scrypt-o?..lol

[PeeJWeeJ]

Why wait an hour then?  You are accepting less security just starting accepting Bitcoin with 2 confirmations.  Tada 66% faster.

I've recently (in the past few days) seen BTC often have over 40 minutes between blocks. LTC rarely approaches 10 minutes. If that's not an advantage, I don't know what is.

[FiiNALiZE]

The biggest downside of BTC that I see is ASICs.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Why wait an hour then?  You are accepting less security just starting accepting Bitcoin with 2 confirmations.  Tada 66% faster.

I've recently (in the past few days) seen BTC often have over 40 minutes between blocks. LTC rarely approaches 10 minutes. If that's not an advantage, I don't know what is.

So using your numbers 2 blocks of Bitcoin = ~80 minutes max (95% of time) and 8 blocks of LTC is ~80 minutes (95% of time).  Why are you assumming security in Bitcoin for X blocks = X blocks for Litecoin given the second network is much smaller, and more vulnerable to low cost botnet attack.  You should be waiting significantly more blocks and if you aren't you are simply holding them to unequal standards "look I don't know why people buy expensive safes, that expensive safe only has 1 lock but my cardboard box has TWO locks and it is faster to unlock".

There is no free lunch.  BTC & LTC blocks are relatively small now however in time they will be much larger and when they are the propogation delay will be larger a higher % of hashpower/security will be lost due to orphans.  The orphan rate for LTC will grow significantly higher, significantly faster given the same transaction volume.

[PeeJWeeJ]

Why wait an hour then?  You are accepting less security just starting accepting Bitcoin with 2 confirmations.  Tada 66% faster.

I've recently (in the past few days) seen BTC often have over 40 minutes between blocks. LTC rarely approaches 10 minutes. If that's not an advantage, I don't know what is.

So using your numbers 2 blocks of Bitcoin = ~80 minutes max (95% of time) and 8 blocks of LTC is ~80 minutes (95% of time).  Why are you assumming security in Bitcoin for X blocks = X blocks for Litecoin given the second network is much smaller, and more vulnerable to low cost botnet attack.  You should be waiting significantly more blocks and if you aren't you are simply holding them to unequal standards "look I don't know why people buy expensive safes, that expensive safe only has 1 lock but my cardboard box has TWO locks and it is faster to unlock".

There is no free lunch.  BTC & LTC blocks are relatively small now however in time they will be much larger and when they are the propogation delay will be larger a higher % of hashpower/security will be lost due to orphans.  The orphan rate for LTC will grow significantly higher, significantly faster given the same transaction volume.

What I'm considering is it's usability as a currency. Obviously if you're making a large transaction, you want to wait a significant amount of time/confirmations. However, if, say, you want to go buy coffee with bitcoins and your local coffee shop, if I were the merchant I would need to wait at least till that transaction had been included in a block. Since the amount used will be pretty small, (like 1-5$) numerous confirmations would generally not be necessary. But if the blocks are at times 40+ minutes apart, who's going to wait that long just to get their coffee? Not me!

[Buffer Overflow]

I believe Satoshi set the block target time to 10 minutes for a very good reason.

[B. Tazed]

Ill give you the answer right here...

 Because Bitcoins are expensive for most people, lets face it, when someone invests or buys something like this, they do not want to have a balance of 0.250304  etc... they want to have whole numbers... why? its just the way it is, we dont want to have a dollar bill that actually reqads .0354 dollars.. we want whole numbers.. I know it sounds stupid, but studies and common sense say thats what we like to see and hold.

 Therefore, Litecoins provide most people who cant afford, lets say 50 or 100 Bitcoins, but they can afford 50 or 100 Litecoins, the silver to Bitcoins gold... People can have a prettier whole number to hold onto with Litecoins.

 

[Buffer Overflow]

Why wait an hour then?  You are accepting less security just starting accepting Bitcoin with 2 confirmations.  Tada 66% faster.

I've recently (in the past few days) seen BTC often have over 40 minutes between blocks. LTC rarely approaches 10 minutes. If that's not an advantage, I don't know what is.

So using your numbers 2 blocks of Bitcoin = ~80 minutes max (95% of time) and 8 blocks of LTC is ~80 minutes (95% of time).  Why are you assumming security in Bitcoin for X blocks = X blocks for Litecoin given the second network is much smaller, and more vulnerable to low cost botnet attack.  You should be waiting significantly more blocks and if you aren't you are simply holding them to unequal standards "look I don't know why people buy expensive safes, that expensive safe only has 1 lock but my cardboard box has TWO locks and it is faster to unlock".

There is no free lunch.  BTC & LTC blocks are relatively small now however in time they will be much larger and when they are the propogation delay will be larger a higher % of hashpower/security will be lost due to orphans.  The orphan rate for LTC will grow significantly higher, significantly faster given the same transaction volume.

What I'm considering is it's usability as a currency. Obviously if you're making a large transaction, you want to wait a significant amount of time/confirmations. However, if, say, you want to go buy coffee with bitcoins and your local coffee shop, if I were the merchant I would need to wait at least till that transaction had been included in a block. Since the amount used will be pretty small, (like 1-5$) numerous confirmations would generally not be necessary. But if the blocks are at times 40+ minutes apart, who's going to wait that long just to get their coffee? Not me!

This argument doesn't hold water. Merchants like this would have to accept unconfirmed transactions with both Bitcoin and Litecoin, as they are both too slow for this sort of transaction.

[FiiNALiZE]

Ill give you the answer right here...

 Because Bitcoins are expensive for most people, lets face it, when someone invests or buys something like this, they do not want to have a balance of 0.250304  etc... they want to have whole numbers... why? its just the way it is, we dont want to have a dollar bill that actually reqads .0354 dollars.. we want whole numbers.. I know it sounds stupid, but studies and common sense say thats what we like to see and hold.

 Therefore, Litecoins provide most people who cant afford, lets say 50 or 100 Bitcoins, but they can afford 50 or 100 Litecoins, the silver to Bitcoins gold... People can have a prettier whole number to hold onto with Litecoins.

 

That was a pretty bad argument.

Bitcoin was hardly worth anything two years ago.

Who knows how high Litecoin can go?

Why wait an hour then?  You are accepting less security just starting accepting Bitcoin with 2 confirmations.  Tada 66% faster.

I've recently (in the past few days) seen BTC often have over 40 minutes between blocks. LTC rarely approaches 10 minutes. If that's not an advantage, I don't know what is.

So using your numbers 2 blocks of Bitcoin = ~80 minutes max (95% of time) and 8 blocks of LTC is ~80 minutes (95% of time).  Why are you assumming security in Bitcoin for X blocks = X blocks for Litecoin given the second network is much smaller, and more vulnerable to low cost botnet attack.  You should be waiting significantly more blocks and if you aren't you are simply holding them to unequal standards "look I don't know why people buy expensive safes, that expensive safe only has 1 lock but my cardboard box has TWO locks and it is faster to unlock".

There is no free lunch.  BTC & LTC blocks are relatively small now however in time they will be much larger and when they are the propogation delay will be larger a higher % of hashpower/security will be lost due to orphans.  The orphan rate for LTC will grow significantly higher, significantly faster given the same transaction volume.

What I'm considering is it's usability as a currency. Obviously if you're making a large transaction, you want to wait a significant amount of time/confirmations. However, if, say, you want to go buy coffee with bitcoins and your local coffee shop, if I were the merchant I would need to wait at least till that transaction had been included in a block. Since the amount used will be pretty small, (like 1-5$) numerous confirmations would generally not be necessary. But if the blocks are at times 40+ minutes apart, who's going to wait that long just to get their coffee? Not me!

This argument doesn't hold water. Merchants like this would have to accept unconfirmed transactions.

This just contradicts your argument that longer confirmations = more security.

One confirmation in LTC is better than none for BTC.

[B. Tazed]

Ill give you the answer right here...

 Because Bitcoins are expensive for most people, lets face it, when someone invests or buys something like this, they do not want to have a balance of 0.250304  etc... they want to have whole numbers... why? its just the way it is, we dont want to have a dollar bill that actually reqads .0354 dollars.. we want whole numbers.. I know it sounds stupid, but studies and common sense say thats what we like to see and hold.

 Therefore, Litecoins provide most people who cant afford, lets say 50 or 100 Bitcoins, but they can afford 50 or 100 Litecoins, the silver to Bitcoins gold... People can have a prettier whole number to hold onto with Litecoins.

 

That was a pretty bad argument.

Bitcoin was hardly worth anything two years ago.

Who knows how high Litecoin can go?

Why wait an hour then?  You are accepting less security just starting accepting Bitcoin with 2 confirmations.  Tada 66% faster.

I've recently (in the past few days) seen BTC often have over 40 minutes between blocks. LTC rarely approaches 10 minutes. If that's not an advantage, I don't know what is.

So using your numbers 2 blocks of Bitcoin = ~80 minutes max (95% of time) and 8 blocks of LTC is ~80 minutes (95% of time).  Why are you assumming security in Bitcoin for X blocks = X blocks for Litecoin given the second network is much smaller, and more vulnerable to low cost botnet attack.  You should be waiting significantly more blocks and if you aren't you are simply holding them to unequal standards "look I don't know why people buy expensive safes, that expensive safe only has 1 lock but my cardboard box has TWO locks and it is faster to unlock".

There is no free lunch.  BTC & LTC blocks are relatively small now however in time they will be much larger and when they are the propogation delay will be larger a higher % of hashpower/security will be lost due to orphans.  The orphan rate for LTC will grow significantly higher, significantly faster given the same transaction volume.

What I'm considering is it's usability as a currency. Obviously if you're making a large transaction, you want to wait a significant amount of time/confirmations. However, if, say, you want to go buy coffee with bitcoins and your local coffee shop, if I were the merchant I would need to wait at least till that transaction had been included in a block. Since the amount used will be pretty small, (like 1-5$) numerous confirmations would generally not be necessary. But if the blocks are at times 40+ minutes apart, who's going to wait that long just to get their coffee? Not me!

This argument doesn't hold water. Merchants like this would have to accept unconfirmed transactions.

This just contradicts your argument that longer confirmations = more security.

One confirmation in LTC is better than none for BTC.

Yes, to most it will sound like a bad argument, and some will not understand it. But it is what it is, for example... people want to invest in precious metals, but people who cannot afford Gold, buy Silver..... same here.

 BTC was cheap, yes, but now its not.. lol, right now LTC is cheap, I dont see it ever going near BTC value, but I dont want to be hasty because people said BTC was going nowhere, and said LTC was a crapcoin. 

[LukePFS]

Ill give you the answer right here...

 Because Bitcoins are expensive for most people, lets face it, when someone invests or buys something like this, they do not want to have a balance of 0.250304  etc... they want to have whole numbers... why? its just the way it is, we dont want to have a dollar bill that actually reqads .0354 dollars.. we want whole numbers.. I know it sounds stupid, but studies and common sense say thats what we like to see and hold.

 Therefore, Litecoins provide most people who cant afford, lets say 50 or 100 Bitcoins, but they can afford 50 or 100 Litecoins, the silver to Bitcoins gold... People can have a prettier whole number to hold onto with Litecoins.

 

That was a pretty bad argument.

Bitcoin was hardly worth anything two years ago.

Who knows how high Litecoin can go?

Hmm, I think that was exactly my point, why I started at Litecoins after a wrong attempt at Bitcoins. I directed my GPU's at bitminter with the easy-to-go Java client an earned something around 0.0001284 BTC. Believe me, that made me not very happy.....the amount is still parked at bitminter, as its not worth to use the payout.
So I changed to LiteCoins and earned a few coins within a few days....TaTa !!!!!

Beware, I'm a late starter in this and may not be aware what was 2 years ago. I just care what is NOW.

Ok, after 3 or 4 Months I'm back at BitCoins, but with much different hardware. And let a few leftover GPU still mine LTC.

[DeathAndTaxes]

What I'm considering is it's usability as a currency. Obviously if you're making a large transaction, you want to wait a significant amount of time/confirmations. However, if, say, you want to go buy coffee with bitcoins and your local coffee shop, if I were the merchant I would need to wait at least till that transaction had been included in a block. Since the amount used will be pretty small, (like 1-5$) numerous confirmations would generally not be necessary. But if the blocks are at times 40+ minutes apart, who's going to wait that long just to get their coffee? Not me!

The same merchants isn't going to wait up to 10 minutes (and 5% chance of longer) either would they?  They would either accept 0-confirm or use off blockchain transactions.

[cebb]

Litecoin is not superior than Bitcoin and Bitcoin is not superior than Litecoin. They are both very similar crypt-coins.

The differences are that Bitcoin came first, has huge media coverage and high public acceptance. But all these can be true for litecoin also in next few years.

So why not invest in litecoin instead where reward/risk ratio is higher than bitcoin.

[smoothie]

The biggest downside of BTC that I see is ASICs.

This is why I believe LTC will be successful in the short term (a couple years).

ASICs and their distribution on the bitcoin network can't be guaranteed to not be centralized at some point.

This is uncharted waters in bitcoin so no one can say for sure that bitcoin will not get attacked via a large asic manufacturer.

Time will tell.

[adamas]

Litecoin could be a safe harbour for (Bit)coiners one fine day.

[diatonic]

As BTC diff keeps going up some of the time between blocks is getting ridiculous. I've seen over three hours between blocks. It's ridiculous. I like transacting in litecoin. Confirmations happen quickly, and I've yet to have that stressful moment where you send someone money and 6 hours later there's still no confirmation.

Also, I'm able to mine scrypt coins much more profitably on my measly 4.5mh scrypt GPU farm.