In the world of cryptocurrencies, there are many different currencies. Bitcoin is one of the most well-known and popular, but it is not without its competitors.
Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash are two alternatives that have been gaining popularity in recent months. Each has their pros and cons, so which should you invest in?
In this post I will go over some of the features Litecoin vs Bitcoin Cash that set these coins apart from each other as well as provide my opinion on which coin is better investment opportunity for investors at this time.
Litecoin
Litecoin has a market cap of $3.4 billion, with individual coins being valued at just over $120 USD. Litecoin is said to reach speeds up to four times faster than Bitcoin and uses much less memory space in the blockchain ledger’s mining algorithms.
This makes for more scalability and transaction throughput capability which could scale as needed on-demand in case of increased demand on existing cryptocurrency exchanges going into 2018.
You can get LTC by buying or trading them for other cryptocurrencies like BTC or ETH, through an exchange service or a trading platform like Coinbase, LocalBitcoins or Kraken
Litecoin was created by Google employee Charlie Lee in 2011 to create a lighter solution that would be able to handle more transactions easily than Bitcoin.
Litecoin is a cryptocurrency that offers cheap and quick transactions with low fees. In addition, unlike most cryptocurrencies, it has successfully adopted the lightning network to allow for even faster scalability.
Something you should note is that Litecoin doesn’t have the same level of security as older cryptos like Bitcoin or Monero because there are more known vulnerabilities discovered in its codebase.
Some other things to know about Litecoin: Litecoin is one of few cryptocurrencies with lower transaction fees than bitcoin; similarly, it takes only 2 minutes for any litecoins sent anywhere around the world to be confirmed; and if you’re not sure how they work yet, here’s your chance!
Pros of Litecoin
Below, are several reasons why you should invest in Litecoin. Let’s take a look at them.
Speedy transaction time: Litecoin is incredibly faster as it completes transactions within 2.5 minutes, compared to the BCH’s 10 minutes it takes to perform a similar task.
Low Transaction Fees: Litecoin offers significantly cheaper transaction fees which are an obvious advantage when compared to other cryptocurrencies, thus making it a digital coin to adopt.
Atomic and Submarine Swaps: There are atomic and submarine swaps between LTC/BTC. With these swaps, a merchant can get paid with a Litecoin Invoice or Litecoin on-chain and they will automatically receive a Bitcoin Invoice.
Reliability: Litecoin is reliable and trustworthy because it was created by Charlie Lee who was an engineer at Google and Coinbase and an MIT grad.
Ease of Use: Making purchases with Litecoin is easy when compared to most other cryptocurrencies because it is supported by a growing number of crypto wallets and debit cards.
High Supply: As the silver to Bitcoin’s gold, Litecoin raises the 21 million limit of BTC by a large number, a total supply of 84 million coins, thus, making it enough to mine and also to invest in.
Security: The faster transaction processing with the help of the Lightning Network makes Litecoin less susceptible to double spending attack.
Source: cryptorunner.com
Cons of Litecoin
Litecoin is not perfect. Here, we take a quick look at the major challenges Litecoin faces:
Centralization: Litecoin mining is centralized – three mining pools are in control over 50% of the hash power making it vulnerable to a 51% attack.
Litecoin Founder Sold All of His LTC Holdings: Due to a conflict of interest, the founder of Litecoin, Charlie Lee announced that he has sold all of his Litecoin holdings on December 20, 2017, through the exchange and donations.
Security: As mentioned above, Litecoin is less susceptible to double spending attack; however, it is not as secure as some other cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin Cash, because of its short block times.
Litecoin Uniqueness Declines: While it prides itself in efficiency and speed, Litecoin lost one of the values when Bitcoin added the SegWit update to its catalog of offerings.
What if Bitcoin Solves Its Scalability Issue? If Bitcoin’s scaling problem is improved upon, the Litecoin market will be negatively impacted as investors have always preferred Bitcoin in the cryptocurrency trade.
Source: cryptorunner.com
Bitcoin Cash
Bitcoin Cash is an excellent trading opportunity because it’s inexpensive and easy to buy. Those who use Bitcoin Cash are taking advantage of a digital currency cheaper than bitcoin, with fast transaction times, low fees, and high security aspects that users love.
Bitcoin Cash is the most often used digital currency in the world for those seeking peer-to-peer cash.
It was created as a result of a hard fork on August 1st, 2017 to solve some scalability issues with Bitcoin and it has quickly attained success from miners around the globe because of its proof-of-work difficulty adjustment system against hash rate attacks.
You can secure your private keys offline and have limited transactions before they are published online.
Another great feature about Bitecoin Cash is that you can set up air gaps or install TOR if you wish to keep your IP address safeguarded (though TOR may be slowing down transaction times).
And with little fees associated to mining this currency, it is easy to do so!
Pros of Bitcoin Cash
Let’s start off on a positive note first by having a look at all the pros of Bitcoin Cash and why you can add it to your portfolio:
Block Size & Speed: Unlike Litecoin, which limits the maximum block size to 1MB, Bitcoin Cash has scaled to 32MB block size. This makes BCH transactions get validated, processed quickly with significantly lower fees.
BCH Is Listed on Major Crypto Exchanges: Almost every top cryptocurrency exchanges support Bitcoin Cash. This ensures that buying and selling of these digital coins are done with ease and convenience.
Mining Difficulty Adjustments: The Bitcoin Cash community has developed a new algorithm known as the DAA to stabilize difficulty fluctuations, and to make blocks mining regular. The DAA algorithm protects BCH from timestamp attacks.
Source: cryptorunner.com
Cons of Bitcoin Cash
Despite the advantages we have considered, Bitcoin Cash also has its fair share of demerits. Have a look:
Centralization: The major disadvantage of Bitcoin Cash is centralization which contradicts the overall principle of blockchain. Four mining pools are in control over 50% of the hash power and this may result in a 51% attack.
Large Blockchain: While a huge block size can be seen as advantageous, as it helps in processing transactions speedily, the downside is that larger blocks miners are required to have a lot more data storage space which comes with a cost.
Low Adoption Rate: High adoption increases the investment potential of any cryptocurrency. At the moment, the low adoption rate is plaguing Bitcoin Cash despite the backing of Roger Ver and Jihan Wu.
Source: cryptorunner.com
Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash have a lot in common. They both market themselves as faster alternatives to the other, but given Litecoins lower transaction fees, higher hashrate, better price action (as of late), and Charlie Lee’s aggressive promotion of LTC versus Roger Ver promoting BCH – I think it has more going for it than its counterpart.
Whether you’re interested in investing or using crypto, the choice is yours. This article has given a comparison of Litecoin vs Bitcoin Cash that should help make your decision easier and more informed.
Which coin will have your support? Let us know by commenting below!