Bitcoin and Litecoin are two major components of the cryptocurrency world. Since its inception, Bitcoin has become the most valuable cryptocurrency, and Litecoin has significantly influenced the industry. Litecoin was founded by Charlie Lee, a former Google employee who became the managing director of the Litecoin Foundation. The prime objective of Litecoin itself shows how it supports Bitcoin. Litecoin was founded to address Bitcoin’s limitations and become an optional alternative to the most precious cryptocurrency in the world.
This article is designed to equip the readers with how Litecoin supports Bitcoin and becomes a complementary component that completes each other. Before moving on to the details, you need to have a comprehensive awareness of Litecoin and Bitcoin, let us take a look at what is Bitcoin and Litecoin.
What Is Litecoin (LTC)?
Litecoin is a cryptocurrency created from the fork of the Bitcoin blockchain. The project was launched in 2011 by Charlie Lee, a former Google employee. It is referred to as the younger sibling of Bitcoin and was created to address the limitations of BTC and facilitate easy and fast payments. Litecoins can be mined via a proof-of-work mechanism, a consensus mechanism used by various cryptocurrencies to verify and validate transactions on their blockchains.
What Is Bitcoin (BTC)?
Bitcoin will not be an unfamiliar name to those who follow DeFi (Decentralized Finance) and blockchain systems. It is the world’s first widely adopted cryptocurrency and currently the most precious cryptocurrency in the world. Bitcoin was created in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonymous individual or group. A large number of cryptocurrencies have been introduced to the market by following Bitcoin’s pathway, but it remains on the throne of cryptocurrencies with the largest market capitalization and trading volume.
How Litecoin Supports Bitcoin?
“I’ve been working on a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party.” The realm of digital cryptocurrency originated from this famous dialogue from Satoshi Nakamoto. Litecoin, an altcoin that originated from the fork of Bitcoin supports and addresses its limitations in multiple ways. They both share some similarities like the usage of the Proof-of-work consensus mechanism, SHA-256, etc.
We have already discussed that Litecoin was created to address the limitations of Bitcoin and provide support to it. Litecoin and Bitcoin appear like they are in some kind of competition, but Litecoin helps and supports Bitcoin in various ways. Litecoin was never a competitor to Bitcoin, it was designed to improve the functionality and totality of Bitcoin. Let us look at how Litecoin supports Bitcoin.
Integration Of SegWit Protocol Adopted By Litecoin
The implementation of SegWit is the first thing we need to discuss, SegWit is a Bitcoin protocol upgrade that helps reduce the size of transactions by moving apart signature data from the main transaction data. The first cryptocurrency to introduce and implement SegWit was not Bitcoin, but Litecoin. Bitcoin inspired this scaling solution from Litecoin on August 24, 2017, whereas Litecoin adopted this method on May 10, 2017. The implementation of SegWit helped Bitcoin to improve the Bitcoin network by fixing transaction malleability and enhancing the block capacity. SegWit helped to reduce the blockchain size limitation that stagnated transaction speed. SegWit plays a major role in the Litecoin network as well, it significantly increases the block capacity and security.
Segwit has brought significant upliftment to the entire Bitcoin network and it cannot be neglected since it provided a foundation for the current state of Bitcoin. In a way, Litecoin inspired and helped Bitcoin to adopt SegWit into its network so the support Litecoin provided is too cannot be neglected when we address the unparalleled growth of BTC in the cryptocurrency arena.
Implementation Of Lightning Protocol Inspired By Litecoin
Litecoin implemented Lightning Protocol in 2017 following its SegWit upgrade. Litecoin network has displayed an improvement in transaction speeds and fee structure since Lightning protocol integration. Bitcoin adopted the Lightning protocol from Litecoin, they integrated it in 2018 and it helped the Bitcoin network to reduce the time and cost required for their cryptocurrency transactions. They reduce the transaction fees and make it cheaper because payments using the Lightning network don’t go through the Bitcoin blockchain. The lightning network addresses and solves the scalability problems of the Bitcoin network and can process billions of transactions per second. Lightning protocol enhanced the Bitcoin network and this cannot be done with the support of Litecoin.
Bitcoin And Litecoin: Supportive Siblings In The Crypto Ecosystem
Litecoin and Bitcoin share collaborative efforts to become the best versions of themselves. We can see it when we analyze the stand of both Bitcoin and Litecoin networks in the Taproot protocol. Taproot protocol was initially implemented in the Bitcoin network and later adopted by Litecoin.
The mutual understanding between Bitcoin and Litecoin enables them to provide better and more advanced services to the users. The crypto ecosystem is a place where collaborative efforts are inevitable and inspirational. The combined functioning of multiple blockchain projects is not a new thing there. Bitcoin and Litecoin are not rivals but supportive siblings in the crypto ecosystem.
The Bottom Line
Litecoin and Bitcoin are two significant participants in the crypto ecosystem. There is a consensus that they are rival competitors, but it is not completely true, they support each other and help to become the best in the business. The adoption of the SegWit and Lightning protocols from the Litecoin network indicates how supportively they are working with each other. The adoption of Taproot from the Bitcoin network helped Litecoin to address its major issues and provide enhanced services.
