Litecoin

Litecoin is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency created by Charlie Lee and launched in 2011 as an open-source project. It is designed as a lighter and faster alternative to Bitcoin, sharing much of Bitcoin's codebase while making different design choices to enable cheaper and quicker transactions.

Technical design: Litecoin uses the Scrypt proof-of-work algorithm instead of Bitcoin's SHA-256. It has a faster block generation time of about 2.5 minutes, resulting in more blocks per day and quicker confirmation of transactions. The total supply is capped at 84 million coins, four times Bitcoin's 21 million. Litecoin's issuance schedule halves approximately every 4 years (every 840,000 blocks), reducing new supply over time. Some features introduced in the broader Bitcoin ecosystem, such as SegWit, have been adopted by Litecoin to improve transaction efficiency, and it has seen integration with Layer-2 scaling solutions.

Economy and usage: LTC trades on most major exchanges and is widely accepted by merchants and wallets, supporting both everyday spending and cross-border transfers depending on user preference. Its liquidity and longer-standing network have contributed to its position as one of the more established altcoins.

Development and governance: Litecoin is maintained by the Litecoin Core development team and stewarded by the Litecoin Foundation. As an open-source project, it relies on community contributions and consensus-based updates, with regular protocol improvements and network upgrades.