What is Litecoin?
Litecoin is a digital currency similar to Bitcoin but with a few key differences. Litecoin is based on a similar to Bitcoin in that it is open-source and not managed by a central authority. Litecoin was released in late 2011, two years after Bitcoin.
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Differences between Litecoin and Bitcoin
On the outside, Litecoin functions in the same way as Bitcoin.

Faster Block generation
Block generation is faster in Litecoin. In Litecoin a new block is generated four times as fast as in Bitcoin. The faster block generation decreases the efficacy of a double spending attack, but also increases orphaned blocks which decreases the predictability of mining.
Amount of coins
There will be in total 84 million Litecoins in circulation.
Different hashing algorithm
Litecoin uses Scrypt rather than SHA 256. The difference here is that Scrypt uses more memory than the SHA 256 algorithm used in mining Bitcoins, meaning that Litecoin mining was more accessible for a longer period of time. Although Litecoin has now come to the point where it is not possible for the individual user to successfully mine, individuals can still pool their resources to mine together collectively.