What is Litecoin?
Litecoin is a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. Litecoin and Bitcoin both share the same revolutionary idea, that of a decentralized, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) electronic currency system, where trust in central authorities is not required to conduct transactions. These two cryptocurrencies are both derivatives of the original Satoshi Nakamoto design for Bitcoin , which uses a proof of work (POW) algorithm to ensure security.
Litecoin was developed in 2011 by former Google engineer Charles Lee . Litecoin is an open source software project, not unlike Bitcoin , and comes with its own free currency protocol which operates on a cryptographic protocol that facilitates the transfer of funds between peers without the need for a central clearing house. In reality, Litecoin can be best described as silver to Bitcoin's gold, with its major distinctions lying in the fact that it has a faster block generation rate and hence offers a faster transaction confirmation - Four times as fast , to be precise. Furthermore, Litecoin mining uses an algorithm called Scrypt which is believed to be computationally (memory) hard, which means that miners cannot simply increase their mining processing power to obtain a large proportion of Litecoin's coin supply.
The main reason why Litecoin was developed as an alternative cryptocurrency is due to the fact that Bitcoin mining had become too competitive and expensive for user-level participants, hence leading to the creation of Litecoin .
The development of Litecoin resulted in several significant changes from the Bitcoin protocol. For instance, the Litecoin Network aims to produce 84 million currency units , compared to Bitcoin's 21 million. The advantage is that Litecoin network is expected to generate a block much more frequently than every 10 minutes like Bitcoin's, which means that more blocks will be generated in a given timeframe, allowing for faster confirmation of transactions.
Litecoin offers three key differences that may make it more attractive to users compared to Bitcoin: Faster transaction confirmation - Four times as fast. Lower fees for transferring funds across the network and lower risk of double spending (the act of performing a fraudulent transaction) by users due to the increased speed.
What is a Litecoin Faucet?
A Litecoin faucet is a reward system, in the form of a website or app, that dispenses rewards in the form of a satoshi, which is a hundredth of a millionth LTC (a Litecoin), for visitors to claim in exchange for completing a captcha or task as described by the website. There are also faucets that dispense alternative cryptocurrencies, known as altcoins. Rewards are dispensed at various predetermined intervals of time. Faucets usually give fractions of a single coin, but the amount will typically fluctuate according to the value of the cryptocurrency .
Whereas Litecoin can be used for transactions and purchases , at the time of this writing, chances are that a visitor to a Litecoin faucet is looking to obtain some free digital coins from another user. Perhaps they are interested in learning about cryptocurrencies, or maybe they heard somewhere about how owning "digital currency" could be an investment option.
Advantages of Litecoin Faucets:
Litecoin faucets have several advantages for users. First and foremost, it allows newbies to enter the cryptocurrency space with more ease and familiarity. For a regular person who has no idea about what Bitcoin is, let alone wallets or addresses, participating in faucets will introduce them to cryptocurrencies through a more familiar medium - Free coins in exchange for solving a captcha.
Aside from allowing users to obtain their first bits of cryptocurrency, there are several other advantages that Litecoin faucets provide:
A means of sharing cryptocurrency with others - Users can share the currency they own by visiting a Litecoin faucet and "paying it forward." Many websites also award visitors with bonuses for inviting their friends to claim a reward from the faucets.
A source of passive income - Some websites offer referral commissions or bonuses based on how much time users spend at particular faucets. There are even browser plug-ins that can automatically redirect a user to a faucet each time they visit a particular website.
Litecoin faucets provide an opportunity for newbies to learn more about cryptocurrency and potentially earn free coins in the process.