About Litecoin (LTC)
Litecoin (LTC) is a peer-to-peer (P2P) payments cryptocurrency that was forked from Bitcoin in 2011. As one of the earliest cryptocurrencies after Bitcoin, it is one of the first altcoins and allows users to send payments quickly and easily.
While Litecoin shares many similarities with Bitcoin, it is designed to deliver a more efficient means of sending and receiving P2P payments and is accepted by thousands of retailers and merchants globally.
One of the key differences between Bitcoin and Litecoin is the algorithm the latter uses to secure the its network via proof-of-work (PoW) consensus. Unlike Bitcoin, which uses SHA-256, Litecoin uses the Scrypt algorithm.
Litecoin founder Charlie Lee (a former Google employee) forked Bitcoin’s original source code with a plan to make the newly modified code an enhanced payment alternative to Bitcoin. The current price of LTC is updated and available in real time on Binance.
What Is a Litecoin Halving Event?
The much-anticipated Litecoin Halving event occurred on August 2, 2023 and proceeded smoothly without any technical glitches. The Litecoin halving is a pre-scheduled event that occurs every 4 years on the Litecoin blockchain.
The halving reduces the block reward that miners receive by half, which in turn reduces the total number of new Litecoins that are created each day. The halving is designed to control the inflation rate of Litecoin and to ensure that the total supply of LTC is limited. With the 2023 halving, Litecoin’s block reward structure has now reduced by half from 12.5 LTC down to 6.25 LTC.