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Will Litecoin Ever Climb To Where Bitcoin Is Now? Why Is It Worth It To Invest In Litecoin At All?

Will Litecoin Ever Climb To Where Bitcoin Is Now? Why Is It Worth It To Invest In Litecoin At All?

 

Will Litecoin ever climb to where Bitcoin is now? Why is it worth it to invest in Litecoin at all?

This question originally appeared on Quora, the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.

Answers below are by Alex Lieberman,Christopher Brookins,Brian Schuster and Min Park.

Alex Lieberman, CEO at Www.morningbrew.com (2016-present)

Answered December 13th 2017
Short answer: No, I don’t think so.If cryptocurrencies are here to stay, I think there will be one pretty ubiquitous winner that is first to become a trusted storer of value much like gold. Could Litecoin become a trusted storer of value? Yes. But I find it way more likely that three other possible scenarios happen first: Crypto-currency bubble pops and Litecoin settles in low single-digits
Bitcoin is closest to being the trusted storer of value and only grow. Another alt-coin that’s more in vogue passes Bitcoin first. My vote is Ethereum. But for argument sake, if Litecoin passes Bitcoin, I think it will be because of the superior transaction speeds to a Bitcoin. I’ll break it down for you:

Litecoin vs Bitcoin

Litecoin’s just like any other decentralized cryptocurrency that runs on a public ledger (aka a blockchain). There are a few differences from Bitcoin: Transaction speed: Bitcoin transactions can be mined (verified by creating a new block on the ledger) every 10 minutes. Litecoin? 2.5 minutes. Ease of mining: Bitcoin might be slower, but the technology for solving transactions (which consists of answering a series of complex math problems) is a lot more widespread. Here’s a little more on that.
Number of coins: Because Litecoins can be verified 4x faster, it means more coin creation (miners get paid in newly issued coins everytime they verify a transaction). While Bitcoin will cap at 21 million coins, Litecoin will reach 84 million coins.
The Takeaway

Litecoin’s faster transaction speed is more scalable with cryptocurrency adoption spreading like a virus. But as of now, the mining infrastructure isn’t as widespread as it is for Bitcoin, which is why it got off to a slow start.

We don’t talk about crypto every day, but at least once per week we cover Bitcoin/Ethereum/Litecoin in addition to other major business stories. Our newsletter is called Morning Brew and it’s a free, quick and conversational daily business read.

Christopher Brookins, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Pugilist Ventures

Answered December 2nd, 2017
I think LTC has a potentially bright future for two main reasons. They are solving a problem which needs solved, i.e. how to scale cryptocurrency payments to be used in everyday life for purchases via faster transaction speeds.
They have a solid team. Thus, LTC may rival BTC’s market cap someday. However, the one thing that may aid their price appreciation, but inhibit their long term utility are speculative expectations and limited supply (deflationary). Let me explain.

First, what should be driving LTC’s price up from a fundamental perspective is the coin’s utility for processing payments faster, thus expediting the adoption curve for mainstream users to utilize it for everyday payments, i.e. medium of exchange. However, given current economic systems are inflationary via economic growth, having a deflationary coin such as LTC or BTC would plunge the global economy into contraction.

Second, as long as the speculative hype runs for crypto-assets, the expectation will be that LTC will appreciate over time. Whenever you couple investor expectations (lofty ones at that) for appreciation with a limited supply of coins, you create a hyper-deflationary scenario which is currently happening with BTC. A hyper-deflation environment (see more via my firm’s advisor, Steve Keen) promotes hoarding coins rather than spending them as a medium of exchange, i.e. why spend 1 LTC today when it will be worth 10x as much in the near future?

I’m bullish LTC but in order to rival BTC’s market cap (in LTC’s current form), it would need to become a speculative instrument for storing wealth, i.e. its original notion of being Silver to BTC’s Gold, rather than a real medium of exchange.

Brian Schuster, Blockchain Advisor and Entrepreneur

Answered December 2nd, 2017
It’s hard to answer the first question, due to the uncertain nature of cryptocurrency prices and dynamics. The most I can say is that the only way I can see Litecoin over taking Bitcoin is if the Bitcoin ecosystem completely collapses (possibly due to politics or a security breach).

However, this doesn’t mean that Litecoin has no value in the ecosystem. On the contrary, I think it’s the only non-BTC fork cryptocurrency that even has the potential to become the BTC replacement. And that’s an incredibly privileged position.

In addition, Litecoin is an incredibly stable ecosystem compared to Bitcoin. Litecoin has strong leadership from Charlie Lee, and has executed it’s roadmap for Segwit flawlessly, something Bitcoin has struggled to do. It doesn’t have the ups and downs of Bitcoin, but it’s a lot more stable.

This is Bitcoin’s game to lose. If Bitcoin fails for one reason or another, then I believe that Litecoin has a stronger case for being the ‘top’ cryptocurrency than any BTC-alt. And for that reason, I think Litecoin has potential.

Min Park, Blockchain Marketing Specialist (www.krown.io)

Updated December 10th, 2017
Original question: Will Litecoin ever climb to where Bitcoin is now? Why is it worth to invest in Litecoin at all”

Bitcoin came well before Litecoin’s time and because of this, it has a great advantage over alternative cryptocurrencies. It is hard to believe that someday Bitcoin could lose its number one position in the crypto market. Steady in second place behind Bitcoin is Ethereum, although it has some fundamental differences in comparison to Bitcoin, mainly in its structure. Litecoin is, as a network, very similar to Bitcoin. It is hard to predict whether Litecoin could ever come near Bitcoin, but it is certain is that Litecoin has a bright future.

Litecoin has a great team of developers that are constantly attacking the most important issues when it comes to their network’s development. Also, Litecoin has a feature called “atomic swaps” which is extremely useful considering the fact that it allows its users to switch without having to exchange. Without third-party involvement, it will become even more dynamic and in constant fluctuation, which is very important for the growth of the currency.

The price of Litecoin is on the constant rise and it will continue to rise even more in the future. This is one of the reasons Litecoin is a really worthy investment. If we compare it with Bitcoin we can see that Litecoin is practically a spendable version of Bitcoin. Also, we must take into account that Bitcoin did not rise only because it is useful and became widely adopted, but also because of the fact that it is a great method of storing value. With limited supply, it makes the currency very deflationary and it is one of the prime reasons for the frequent booms in Bitcoin’s price. In order for Litecoin to become number one, it must focus more on storing value. However, Litecoin shouldn’t do that because it’s already a great concept. Litecoin offers a real service to its users and it has great inherent value. Litecoin is already a great coin to invest in and it will continue becoming an established and recognized cryptocurrency.
-R

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