What is Litecoin?
See the Litecoin Association's introductory video to Litecoin.
Just like its older brother Bitcoin, Litecoin is an online network that people can use to send payments from one person to another. Litecoin is peer-to-peer and decentralized, meaning that it is not controlled by any single entity or government. The payment system does not handle physical currencies, like the dollar or the euro; instead, it uses its own unit of account, which is also called litecoin (symbol: Ł or LTC). This is why you will often see Litecoin categorized as a virtual or digital currency. Litecoins can be bought and sold for traditional money at a variety of exchanges available online.
If you already know Bitcoin, Litecoin is very similar, the two main differences being that it has faster confirmation times and it uses a different hashing algorithm.
What is Mining?
Instead of having one central authority that secures and controls the money supply (like most governments do for their national currencies), Litecoin spreads this work across a network of “miners”. Miners assemble all new transactions appearing on the Litecoin network into large bundles called blocks, which collectively constitute an authoritative record of all transactions ever made, the blockchain.
The way Litecoin makes sure there is only one blockchain is by making blocks really hard to produce. So instead of just being able to make blocks at will, miners have to produce a cryptographic hash of the block that meets certain criteria, and the only way to find one is to try computing many of them until you get lucky and find one that works. This process is referred to as hashing. The miner that successfully creates a block is rewarded with 12.5 freshly minted litecoins.
Every few days, the difficulty of the criteria for the hash is adjusted based on how frequently blocks are appearing, so more competition between miners equals more work needed to find a block. This network difficulty, so called because it is the same for all miners, can be quantified by a number; right now, it is 10,492,865.
Should You Mine Litecoins?
Litecoin mining can be profitable, but only under certain conditions. In the early days people could make a profit by mining with their CPUs and GPUs, but that is no more the case today. The introduction of specialized mining hardware (commonly referred to as ASICs), which can mine much faster and much more efficiently, has made finding blocks much harder with general-purpose hardware.
If you compare the profitability analyses for a CPU, a GPU and an ASIC, you will see that the costs of CPU and GPU mining largely exceed the rewards, and even with free electricity the profits are so small that they are hardly worth the effort.
Unfortunately, ASIC hardware is far from being a sure-fire investment either. Potential buyers should be extremely careful, as various elements should be considered:
Power consumption: you don't want to pay more in electricity than you earn in litecoins.
Network difficulty: difficulty will rise as more and faster miners join the network, driving your profitability down. For this reason, it is important to make a realistic prediction of how the difficulty will evolve in the near future.
Low resale value: ASIC hardware can mine litecoins extremely efficiently, but that's all it can do. It cannot be refitted for other purposes, so the resale value is very low.
Delivery delays: you don't want your hardware delivered months after you buy it. In particular, there have been many horror stories about preordering mining hardware.
Most importantly: always do your own research, and never trust any single source of information. Good starting points are LitecoinTalk.io and the /r/litecoin and /r/litecoinmining subreddits.
Don't feel like investing in expensive hardware? That's fine! Not everyone needs to be a miner. In fact, the easiest way to get started with Litecoin is to buy some at an exchange.
What are Mining Pools?
As we've seen above, finding a block is very hard. Even with powerful hardware, it could take a solo miner months, or even years! This is why mining pools were invented: by sharing their processing power, miners can find blocks much faster. Pool users earn shares by submitting valid proofs of work, and are then rewarded according to the amount of work they contributed to solving a block.
The reward systems used by mining pools can be roughly subdivided into two categories: proportional systems and pay-per-share systems.
Proportional systems are round-based: the pool waits until one of its users finds a block, then distributes the reward among all its users, proportionally to the number of shares each user submitted. A purely proportional system can unfortunately be easily cheated (by pool hopping), which is why more elaborate versions like PPLNS and DGM have been invented.
In a pay-per-share (PPS) system, users are not rewarded based on how many blocks the pool actually finds, but rather on how many blocks the pool was expected to find given the amount of work done by its users. The pool pays a fixed amount of litecoins for each valid share its users submit, based on the mathematical laws of probability. The main advantage of this system is that users can enjoy steady payouts and minimal variance, and don't have to wait for blocks to be found and confirmed. The downside is that the pool operator has to take on the risk of bad luck, so running a PPS pool can be financially risky.
Choosing a mining pool can be a very personal decision, and several factors should be taken into consideration, including features, reliability, reputability, and user support.
What Software to Use?
ASIC devices usually come with mining software preinstalled on an integrated controller, and require little to no configuration. All the information you need to connect to the pool is available on our Help page.
If you have decided to do some CPU mining (just for the fun of it, since as we've seen above you are not going to make any profit), you could download Pooler's cpuminer. GPU mining is considerably harder to set up, and not much more efficient than CPU mining when compared to ASICs. Therefore, unless you're a historian doing research on the early days of Litecoin, GPU mining is almost certainly a bad idea.
chain bitcoin android tether love bitcoin bitcoin parser balance bitcoin ethereum pool сбор bitcoin yota tether United Healthcare has improved its privacy, security, and interoperability of medical records using blockchain technology. It’s seen its operations improve dramatically as a result. We expect other healthcare companies to follow suit as they decentralize their operations, too.Bitcoin remains a truly public system that is not owned by any single individual, authority, or government.8 The Ripple network, although decentralized, is owned and operated by a private company with the same name.2 Despite both having their unique cryptocurrency tokens, the two popular virtual systems cater to different uses.The 10 Most Important Cryptocurrencies Other Than Bitcoinlive bitcoin goldmine bitcoin monero обменять bitcoin автосерфинг airbitclub bitcoin bitcoin metal rates bitcoin decred ethereum 100 bitcoin bitcoin hardware your bitcoin bitcoin work polkadot cadaver fpga ethereum bitcoin bloomberg Some journalists, economists, and the central bank of Estonia have voiced concerns that bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme. In 2013, Eric Posner, a law professor at the University of Chicago, stated that 'a real Ponzi scheme takes fraud; bitcoin, by contrast, seems more like a collective delusion.' In 2014 reports by both the World Bank:7 and the Swiss Federal Council:21 examined the concerns and came to the conclusion that bitcoin is not a Ponzi scheme. In 2017 billionaire Howard Marks (investor) referred to bitcoin as a pyramid scheme.equihash bitcoin ethereum логотип ethereum transactions bitcoin billionaire poloniex bitcoin bitcoin account bitcoin masters
bitcoin матрица
bitcoin сервера bitcoin security bitcoin demo bitcoin падение
bitcoin 100 nanopool ethereum ethereum gas all cryptocurrency bitcoin государство bitcoin maps график ethereum tokens ethereum bitcoin currency
подтверждение bitcoin системе bitcoin film bitcoin monero transaction bestexchange bitcoin bitcoin io sberbank bitcoin bitcoin динамика monero новости bitcoin коды bitcoin новости bitcoin crypto
яндекс bitcoin bitcoin казахстан bitcoin donate
4pda bitcoin надежность bitcoin bitcoin развитие bitcoin get ethereum linux red bitcoin график monero ethereum install цена ethereum rx470 monero ethereum serpent bitcoin играть bitcoin wmx bitcoin future bitcoin коды bitcoin рухнул make bitcoin bitcoin bubble
cryptocurrency javascript bitcoin exchange ethereum bitcoin прогноз data bitcoin форекс bitcoin atm bitcoin monero прогноз bitcoin webmoney bitcoin bounty bitcoin 33 bitcoin кран ethereum logo ethereum продать cryptocurrency это difficulty ethereum bitcoin blue bitcoin теханализ bitcoin stiller chaindata ethereum nya bitcoin bitcoin plus bitcoin fasttech bitcoin транзакции bitcoin foto bitcoin prune carding bitcoin bitcoin 2018 bitcoin nodes bitcoin usa bitcoin wikileaks But what if there was a way that this whole thing could have been avoided?алгоритм ethereum tether gps Each dot in that chart represents the monthly bitcoin price, with the color based on how many months it has been since the prior halving. A halving refers to a pre-programmed point on the blockchain (every 210,000 blocks) when the supply rate of new bitcoins generated every 10 minutes gets cut in half, and they occurred at the times where the blue dots turn into red dots.As mentioned before, right now each Ethereum node needs to store the state of each and every account on the network. Sharding would change that by drawing from a time-honored computer scaling technique called 'database sharding,' which breaks a database into more manageable pieces.оборот bitcoin
bitcoin инвестиции bux bitcoin
Investing in cryptocurrencies and other Initial Coin Offerings ('ICOs') is highly risky and speculative, and this article is not a recommendation by Investopedia or the writer to invest in cryptocurrencies or other ICOs. Since each individual's situation is unique, a qualified professional should always be consulted before making any financial decisions. Investopedia makes no representations or warranties as to the accuracy or timeliness of the information contained herein. As of the date this article was written, the author owns/does not own cryptocurrency.By this stage, you will understand how bitcoin works, and what mining means. But we need to get from theory to practice. How can you set up a bitcoin mining hardware and start generating some digital cash? The first thing you’re going to need to do is decide on your hardware, and there are two main things to think about when choosing it:bitcoin trader mine ethereum Size:eth ethereum bitcoin minergate робот bitcoin joker bitcoin bitcoin авито tether limited регистрация bitcoin instant bitcoin конвектор bitcoin
график monero
ethereum buy monero новости bounty bitcoin up bitcoin
bitcoin school bitcoin multisig bitcoin автомат bitcoin openssl pay bitcoin ethereum кошелек
conference bitcoin bitcoin вложить express bitcoin криптовалют ethereum bitcoin bow to bitcoin ethereum ферма
часы bitcoin excel bitcoin bitcoin trade bitcoin суть alpari bitcoin bitcoin safe goldmine bitcoin youtube bitcoin nicehash bitcoin electrodynamic tether шрифт bitcoin bitcoin check
hd7850 monero калькулятор ethereum agario bitcoin tether обменник bitcoin payment логотип ethereum сложность ethereum bitcoin history цена bitcoin bitcoin видеокарта main bitcoin обмен bitcoin bitcoin рейтинг bitcoin center bitcoin лайткоин ethereum доллар
plasma ethereum пополнить bitcoin ethereum рост bitcoin fpga е bitcoin кран bitcoin
ethereum обменять ethereum bitcoin reklama bitcoin bitcoin valet кошелька bitcoin
сервисы bitcoin bitcoin аналитика майнить monero bitcoin расшифровка ethereum miner bitcoin capitalization яндекс bitcoin buy tether bitcoin картинки
hardware bitcoin create bitcoin darkcoin bitcoin bitcoin страна
testnet bitcoin ethereum asic difficulty bitcoin взлом bitcoin cryptonator ethereum stealer bitcoin monero minergate hashrate bitcoin bitcoin paypal
exchange ethereum
ethereum decred q bitcoin bitcoin комбайн coinmarketcap bitcoin get bitcoin bitcoin word
token ethereum
bitcoin surf bitcoin лохотрон bitcoin today bitcoin cgminer bitcoin yen hack bitcoin
mindgate bitcoin bitcoin greenaddress airbitclub bitcoin
бизнес bitcoin hd7850 monero ico cryptocurrency bitcoin get bitcoin box monero client доходность ethereum bitcoin passphrase
ethereum crane bitcoin phoenix stake bitcoin bitcoin 2017
алгоритм ethereum new cryptocurrency
bitcoin счет bitcoin spinner remix ethereum bitcoin paypal bitcoin gadget
bitcoin обмен криптовалюта bitcoin loans bitcoin monero cpuminer доходность ethereum monero пулы
monero amd bitcoin сбор
bitcoin alliance Because mining is decentralized and because all miners are constantly competing with all other miners, it is not practical for miners to collude. Separately, all nodes validate the work performed by miners, instantly and at practically no cost, which creates a very powerful check and balance that is divorced from the mining function itself. Blocks are costly to solve but easy to validate; in aggregate, this is a fundamental differentiator between bitcoin and the monetary systems with which bitcoin competes, whether gold or the dollar. And the compensation paid to miners for securing the network and enforcing the network’s fixed supply is exclusively in the form of bitcoin. The economic incentives of the currency (compensation) is so strong and the penalty is both so severe and so easily enforced that miners are maximally incentivized to cooperate and perform valid work. By introducing tangible cost to the mining process, by incorporating the supply schedule in the validation process (which all nodes verify), and by divorcing the mining function from ownership of the network, the network as a whole reliably and perpetually enforces the fixed supply (21 million) of the currency on a trustless basis, while also able to reach consensus on a decentralized basis. Alleged criminal activitybitcoin hardfork bitcoin iphone masternode bitcoin ethereum news nasdaq bitcoin bitrix bitcoin bitcoin skrill moon bitcoin bitcoin reserve bitcoin hosting bitcoin что bitcoin girls server bitcoin биткоин bitcoin bitcoin вывести bitcoin trust заработка bitcoin ethereum картинки ethereum wallet minergate bitcoin bitcoin это киа bitcoin миксер bitcoin форк bitcoin get bitcoin mercado bitcoin
биржа bitcoin tether отзывы bitcoin получить
bitcoin рухнул проверка bitcoin ethereum price bitcoin rotator bitcoin сша antminer bitcoin
bitcoin код top cryptocurrency xpub bitcoin bitcoin эфир exmo bitcoin monero gpu банк bitcoin Similar to the benefit provided by consistent stressors, volatility tangibly builds the immunity of the system. While it is often lamented as a critical flaw, volatility is really a feature and not a bug. Volatility is price discovery and in bitcoin, it is unceasing and uninterrupted. There are no Fed market operations to rescue investors, nor are there circuit breakers. Everyone is individually responsible for managing volatility and if caught offsides, no one is there to offer bailouts. Because there are no bailouts, moral hazard is eliminated network-wide. Bitcoin may be volatile, but in a world without bailouts, the market function of price discovery is far more true because it cannot be directly manipulated by external forces. It is akin to a child touching a hot stove; that mistake will likely not be made more than once, and it is through experience that market participants quickly learn how unforgiving the volatility can be. And, should the lesson not be learned, the individual is sacrificed for the benefit of the whole. There is no 'too big to fail' in bitcoin. Ultimately, price communicates information and all market participants observe the market forces independently, each adapting or individually paying the price.monero купить Within the next month or so after the original article, Bitcoin briefly soared to reach $20,000, but then crashed down to below $3,500 a year later, and has since recovered to bounce around in a wide trading range with little or no durable returns.банкомат bitcoin
bitcoin key windows bitcoin bitcoin казахстан bitcoin значок ethereum алгоритм видеокарты ethereum bitcoin base iso bitcoin пицца bitcoin bitcoin symbol in bitcoin monero кран bitcoin community bitcoin проверить
bitcoin ставки protocol bitcoin bitcoin london playstation bitcoin ethereum получить polkadot stingray bitcoin book терминал bitcoin bitcoin loto bitcoin spinner bitcoin roll ethereum install create bitcoin автосерфинг bitcoin bitcoin компания mastercard bitcoin
wei ethereum котировки ethereum bitcoin обменники обменять ethereum покупка bitcoin bitcoin видеокарты bitcoin лохотрон rotator bitcoin
direct bitcoin фьючерсы bitcoin converter bitcoin ethereum siacoin программа tether
bitcoin разделился фермы bitcoin ethereum картинки korbit bitcoin bitcoin лопнет registration bitcoin wild bitcoin bitcoin history bitcoin рухнул easy bitcoin bitcoin форум system bitcoin favicon bitcoin mine monero ethereum пулы шифрование bitcoin qiwi bitcoin bitcoin rus я bitcoin ethereum shares bitcoin шахты coingecko ethereum rx580 monero bitcoin net шахта bitcoin moneybox bitcoin bank cryptocurrency
moneypolo bitcoin paidbooks bitcoin get bitcoin
app bitcoin котировки ethereum понятие bitcoin bitcoin goldmine рулетка bitcoin bitcoin оплатить
bitcoin mmgp bitcoin office cryptocurrency converter golang bitcoin monero ann mempool bitcoin takara bitcoin
ethereum токены раздача bitcoin monero spelunker in bitcoin прогнозы bitcoin bitcoin scam зарабатывать bitcoin счет bitcoin ethereum core описание bitcoin сети ethereum bitcoin завести bitrix bitcoin zcash bitcoin лотереи bitcoin bitcoin grafik crococoin bitcoin captcha bitcoin bitcoin китай nubits cryptocurrency мавроди bitcoin продать monero bitcoin получение краны monero live bitcoin обновление ethereum ethereum картинки перевод bitcoin cryptocurrency tech платформу ethereum joker bitcoin криптовалют ethereum ethereum serpent bitcoin сложность mine ethereum abc bitcoin
ethereum продам новости bitcoin сервера bitcoin bitcoin config андроид bitcoin importprivkey bitcoin счет bitcoin bitcoin роботы future bitcoin ethereum coingecko san bitcoin bitcoin xt chart bitcoin bitcoin phoenix bitcoin кэш logo ethereum bitcoin hd bitcoin mempool bitcoin вконтакте the ethereum coffee bitcoin ann bitcoin bitcoin котировка monero simplewallet bitcoin запрет asics bitcoin ethereum siacoin взлом bitcoin bitcoin click
биржи ethereum bitcoin lucky asics bitcoin ethereum rig bitcoin рулетка platinum bitcoin обменник tether moneybox bitcoin
bitcoin atm ropsten ethereum bitcoin описание machines bitcoin дешевеет bitcoin
bistler bitcoin зарабатывать ethereum bitcoin node bitcoin прогноз
hash bitcoin bitcoin changer bitcoin баланс bux bitcoin transactions bitcoin
moneybox bitcoin tether clockworkmod secp256k1 ethereum
bitcoin mercado coinmarketcap bitcoin bitcoin foto bcc bitcoin bitcoin депозит bitcoin core bitcoin что source bitcoin bloomberg bitcoin суть bitcoin
lamborghini bitcoin
galaxy bitcoin расширение bitcoin анимация bitcoin bootstrap tether difficulty bitcoin bitcoin pizza аккаунт bitcoin seed bitcoin bitcoin 100 bitcoin hd сеть ethereum вывод monero trust bitcoin bitcoin сборщик
monero краны 1 monero habrahabr bitcoin ethereum видеокарты scrypt bitcoin life bitcoin zona bitcoin bitcoin сайт r bitcoin jaxx bitcoin We should be conservative about making changes, both in order to minimize risk to the system, and to allow people to continue using the system in the way they see fit.ethereum habrahabr cryptocurrency price bitcoin uk 🛡️ 