If you want to know what the main Litecoin vs Ethereum differences are, you’ve come to the right place. In this guide, we’ll compare these two coins in terms of their usage, total supply, and transaction costs. We’ll also discuss their average confirmation time, consensus algorithms, limits, and mining standards.

So, which one is better — Ethereum or Litecoin? Keep on reading to find out.

Litecoin vs Ethereum — Main Differences

What’s the main difference between Ethereum and Litecoin? Their value. ETH is currently the second-most valuable digital currency. Its market cap is over $290 billion, while LTC’s is around $4 billion.

Another difference can be noted in their consensus mechanism. LTC uses proof-of-work, which enables its holders to receive mining rewards. On the other hand, ETH has recently switched to a proof-of-stake consensus, which enables its holders to stake their coins for rewards. This makes ETH more environmentally friendly than LTC.

Finally, LTC has a capped supply, while ETH has an infinite supply.

What Is Litecoin?

Litecoin is a digital currency created as BTC’s hard fork. Its developers wanted to create a digital asset that would be faster and cheaper than BTC. LTC uses a Scrypt hashing algorithm that requires less computational power.

Litecoin has several use cases. It can be used for digital payments and cross-border transfers and within the DeFi apps. In addition, LTC can be used as a payment method within the crypto gaming ecosystem.

Like BTC, LTC cuts its mining rewards in half every four years. The last Litecoin halving event took place in 2023. Its initial block reward was 50 LTC, while its current reward is 6.25 LTC per block.

What Is Ethereum?

Ethereum launched in 2015, four years after Litecoin. Although ETH initially used PoW consensus, on September 15th, 2022, it switched to PoS consensus, which is less energy-intensive and more eco-friendly. The transition to the PoS consensus enabled Ethereum to become the first smart contract blockchain.

Smart contracts are automated programs that enable transactions between two parties without needing a middleman. They contain when-and-then statements, meaning they’ll be executed only when the terms and conditions are met. Smart contracts are powered by the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which also enables the creation of dApps.

The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) boosted ETH’s price in 2017. EEA is a global community of blockchain developers whose goal is to leverage ETH for business use.

Litecoin vs Ethereum

Here are the key Litecoin vs Ethereum differences in more detail:

  • Primary use. Litecoin was created as a P2P crypto whose goal is to enable transactions between two parties without the need for a central authority. Its features resemble those of BTC, although LTC enables faster and cheaper transactions. Ethereum is a blockchain that enables its users to conduct transactions via smart contracts. Moreover, developers can use its network to build dApps.
  • Founder. Charlie Lee founded Litecoin in October 2011, while Vitalik Buterin founded Ethereum in July 2015. Both creators’ main goal was to improve BTC.
  • Total supply of coins. Litecoin has a total supply of 84 million tokens, of which 74,838,333 are currently in circulation. On the other hand, ETH has an infinite supply, which increases by about 4.5% every year.
  • Average transaction cost. The average Litecoin transaction fee is about $0.04, while for Ethereum, this figure stands at $0.7247. That said, Litecoin uses a transaction fee structure similar to Bitcoin, while Ethereum uses gas fees. Gas fees will be higher during increased network activity.
  • Average block time. Litecoin creates new blocks every 2.5 minutes, while new blocks on the Ethereum network are created every 15 seconds. This means that Litecoin’s confirmation time will amount to 2 minutes. On the other hand, ETH transactions are usually confirmed within 16 seconds.
  • Proof-of-work algorithm. Litecoin uses PoW consensus, which means that miners will have to solve complex tasks to validate transactions. In contrast, Ethereum uses PoS consensus, meaning validators will be elected based on their number of staked tokens.
  • Limit. As mentioned above, Ethereum has an infinite supply, while Litecoin has a limited supply of 84 million. This means that ETH has its scarcity economy.
  • Mining standard. LTC uses the Scrypt mining algorithm. Before switching to PoS, Ethereum used the Ethash mining algorithm, which was ASIC-resistant. Today, ETH uses the Keccak-256 hashing algorithm.

Conclusion

The key Litecoin vs Ethereum difference lies in their primary usage. The former is a P2P coin whose goal is to enable decentralized transactions. The latter is a blockchain whose task is to enable the creation of dApps and smart contracts.

Moreover, ethereum has a higher value than Litecoin. Its total supply is infinite, while LTC has a maximum supply of 84 million. On the other hand, Litecoin imposes lower transactional fees, $0.04 vs. $0.7247. It also uses the PoW consensus mechanism, which enables its users to mine LTC.

FAQs

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