Launched in 2011 by former Google engineer Charlie Lee, Litecoin (LTC) is one of the oldest and most established cryptocurrencies, frequently referred to as the "digital silver" to Bitcoin's "digital gold."Created as a "lite" version of the original Bitcoin protocol, it functions as a peer-to-peer payment system designed for faster and cheaper transactions.While it shares much of Bitcoin's code, Litecoin differentiates itself with a larger maximum supply of 84 million coins, a quicker block generation time of 2.5 minutes (compared to Bitcoin's 10 minutes), and the use of the Scrypt hashing algorithm, which was originally intended to be more resistant to specialized mining hardware.In recent years, the network has enhanced its utility by adding privacy features through the MWEB (MimbleWimble Extension Blocks) upgrade.
