Ethereum (ETH) vs Litecoin (LTC): What Is The Difference?
Ethereum is the leading platform for all things smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps).
Litecoin on the other hand is known as the silver to Bitcoin, because it is a faster and more scalable version of Bitcon. Both cryptocurrencies are however among the top and oldest existing projects.
In this guide, we will explore some of the major differences between the two and help you to distinguish them better. We will also help you to decide on which may be a better choice for investment.
What Is Ethereum (ETH)?
Ethereum is the leading PoS network in the crypto space. The network is known for its support for smart contracts and decentralized applications. Though initially a proof-of-work (PoW) network, it changed to PoS consensus recently and has maintained its status as the largest platform for smart contracts and dApps.
The transition to PoS was necessitated by the need to solve lingering problems on the network, including low scalability, slow transactions and high transaction fees. Despite the change to PoS, the network’s problems still remain.
Several upgrades have been done on the network to solve these problems, but there has been no change, although there are more upgrades scheduled to be implemented in the future, which experts believe could make Ethereum better than Bitcoin.
However, Ethereum has already established a reputation as the top network for web3. The network uses ETH or ether as the native currency. It is a utility token used to power the network, and is used to pay for transaction fees.
The token is also used for staking, which is what validators do to secure the network and are in return rewarded with more ETH. ETH also serves as a governance token, that is holders have the right to vote on proposals for the growth of the network.
ETH is currently the second largest crypto asset by market capitalization after Bitcoin. It has a total supply and circulating supply of 120 million premined tokens. This means they don’t need to be mined.
What Is Litecoin (LTC)?
Litecoin is a PoW cryptocurrency fondly referred to as the silver to Bitcoin. It was created as an option to Bitcoin when the Bitcoin network started getting congested resulting in slow transactions and high fees.
This is a similar problem to what is facing Ethereum currently. Litecoin has improved parameters such as a shorter block time of 2.5 minutes which is only a quarter of the time it takes to finalize transactions on Bitcoin.
This makes the network four times faster than Bitcoin and costs much less to carry out transactions. Litecoin creator Charlie Lee says it is an alternative currency that serves as the peer-to-peer electronic cash that Bitcoin could not be used for.
LTC is the coin for the network and is currently the 21st largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. It has a total supply of 84 million coins, but a circulating supply of 74 million coins.
Because it is a PoW network, the coins are mined rather than being premined like Ethereum. Like Bitcoin, miners have to solve complex mathematical problems to verify transactions and are then rewarded with new LTC coins, and that is how more of them come into circulation.
Litecoin is used mainly as a cryptocurrency for making payments at stores all over the world, and also as an investment asset.
Which Is Better?
If you’re looking for a reliable network for smart contracts and decentralized applications, Ethereum is the network. However, for fast transactions, Litecoin is the better choice.
As an investment asset, it is difficult to choose between Ethereum and Litecoin. They both have low total supply, which makes both of them potentially valuable. However, Litecoin has a smaller supply than Ethereum which ideally should make it more valuable.
Conversely, Ethereum has a lot more real world use cases than Litecoin, which could explain why it is worth much more currently and possibly in the future.
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