Bitcoin is getting all the attention these days. But, there are many alternatives to Bitcoin if you’re looking to put money into a cryptocurrency. I’m going to be talking about Litecoin. This will be fun!
But first, I’m going to start with a couple of assumptions.
Assumption #1 – You’re interested in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies but you feel like you’ve missed out. Is there another potential speculation opportunity?
Assumption #2 – You’re willing to accept that any alternative to Bitcoin could be even more volatile, unstable and mysterious. Or, maybe some alternatives just aren’t as well understood by the market providing an opportunity.
What Is Litecoin?
How is Litecoin better than Bitcoin?
There are some other potential advantages such as Litecoin’s Scrypt algorithm versus Bitcoin’s SHA-256 algorithm. In theory, because Scrypt is more memory intensive than SHA-256, there should be fewer large mining pools and overall concentration. However, I’m not entirely convinced of this based on data I’ve seen. Perhaps there are reduced mining concentration risks. The jury is still out on that.
On the surface, this seems to be a paradox since so many people new to crypto think of Bitcoin as being the entire universe of cyrptocurrency. Obviously this isn’t true and Litecoin provides investors with a release valve. You can easily move money from Bitcoin to Litecoin, and vice versus. In short, Litecoin is a simple diversification opportunity.
Please note that Coinbase currently only has three cryptocurrencies: BTC, ETH and LTC. In other words, one of the giants in the space only supports three coins and Litecoin is one of the chosen few. Also, Coinbase probably feels pretty good about ongoing support and updates to Litecoin because of their relationship with Charlie Lee, who left Coinbase to go full time on Litecoin. Again, I think it would be foolish to ignore the Coinbase Effect on Litecoin.
Advantages: In total, I’ve provided seven advantages of Litecoin:
- Litecoin has cheaper transaction fees than Bitcoin
- Litecoin confirmation times are significantly faster than Bitcoin
- There’s clear human leadership behind Litecoin
- Litecoin has a significant market capitalization
- Each Litecoin is “cheaper” than each Bitcoin
- Free marketing for Litecoin in Coinbase
- Litecoin is a simple diversification opportunity
There are certainly more advantages that I haven’t discussed that are more technical, or more opaque. What matters is that there are many reasons to consider Litecoin. I believe that most investors should first invest in Bitcoin. But, Litecoin should probably be on the shortlist after an initial crypto position in Bitcoin is established, for the reasons I’ve outlined above.
For what it’s worth, Bitcoin has gone up 1,300% in one year whereas Litecoin is up 2,400%. In other words, if you invested in LTC you’d be in better shape than if you invested in BTC by a significant margin. LTC was under $10 back in April 2017 and as I’ve pointed out, it’s now around $100.
Assuming Bitcoin isn’t destroyed, or cryptos killed off, I think speculating into Litecoin is rational. To be perfectly clear I’m not saying investing in crypto is rational. I’m saying that if you’re going to put “real money” into crypto, you might as well exploit the advantages offered by Litecoin.
