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Bitcoin or Litecoin? Charlie Lee’s thoughts

Bitcoin or Litecoin? Charlie Lee’s thoughts

Charlie Lee is the founder and CEO of Litecoin. He previously worked for Google as a software engineer and early on he became interested in Bitcoin and blockchain technology. Lee sees Litecoin as an alternative to Bitcoin rather than a competitor. 

Starting off an interview released a short time ago on CNBC, Charlie Lee was asked to describe the difference between BTC and LTC for newcomers to the cryptocurrency space. He gave a response in “layman’s” terms which has been used for a number of years now. He said that investors should see Bitcoin as digital gold, and Litecoin as digital silver. 

When asked about the fundamental differences in how they operate, Lee talked about the mining algorithm. He also alluded to how Litecoin was four times faster than Bitcoin and had four times as many coins. 

He went on to explain how Bitcoin transactions happen every ten minutes while Litecoin transactions happen every two and a half minutes. 

He said that the Bitcoin blockchain was really congested, and that Bitcoin fees were really high and that Litecoin fees were in “pennies”. 

He was asked to elucidate on what he meant by congestion, so Lee responded by explaining that the Bitcoin blockchain was full. He said that transactions were competing to be added to the new block, and that the ones that would succeed would be those selected by the miners that had paid the highest fees. 

This huge competition on the Bitcoin blockchain was leading to fees averaging around $10 while those on Litecoin were still in the pennies.  

The interviewer used his own analogy when comparing the two cryptocurrencies. He asked if the Bitcoin blockchain was like a ship paying higher fees in order to be able to jump the queue and enter the Suez Canal. 

Lee agreed and said that if people weren’t paying the highest fees, then it would be some time before their transaction could get included in a block. He likened Litecoin to another canal built alongside the Suez Canal. This canal had higher “bandwidth” so that more ships would be able to sail through it than could sail through the Bitcoin one. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. 

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