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litecoin is the 1st successful clone of bitcoin with a shorter 1/4 block production time window, and 4x the number max coins (10min/4 = 2.5min, and 4 x 21 million = 84 million), and many variants and improvement later a smaller hash cost.

In summary, because litecoin is successful bitcoin clone (instead of a btc hardfork), it has became the preferred test ground on new updates to the bitcoin family, for example lets say there is a rapid growth of transaction (say it goes 10x for ltc and btc) and litecoin may be force to hf and upgrade it's blocksize to say 2Mb and when successfully done so, perhaps bitcoin will follow later.

honestly @littleboy i though you were a crypto expert by now, i think you're just asking to test out @musing ya?

Bitcoin is the virtual currency used for payments. Bitcoin is also called crypto currency which is a digital payment tool. while Litecoin is a crypto currency created in 2011 using open software (Open-Source Software) under the MIT / X11 license. Mining can be done using a GPU graphics card with a Scrypt-based PoW (Proof-of-Work) algorithm. Meanwhile, according to Litecoin.org's official website, Litecoin is the P2P (Peer-to-Peer) Internet currency that allows instant payment payments close to zero to anyone in the world.

Litecoin is Open-Source (open for general development), and is a fully decentralized global pay network without central authority. Compelling mathematical algorithms secure networks and empower individuals to control their own finances. Litecoin has faster transaction confirmation times and better storage efficiencies than other leading cryptographic currencies. With substantial industry support, trading volume and liquidity, Litecoin is a proven commercial medium with Bitcoin.

There are lots of visible differences between litecoin and bitcoin..Litecoin was created by Charles Lee in an attempt to create an improved crypto that is similar to bitcoin in essence but without all the excessive bits . Some comprehensive differences between Litcoin and bitcoin are as follows.( I am using data from coindesk.com)

Algortihm- Bitcoin uses a SHA-256 which has great capabilities of parallel processing. Litecoin uses an algorithm named SCRYPT which has similar patterns to SHA-256 but hash processing are more serialised.

Transaction Time- Litecoin is more faster than bitcoin which allows litcoin to handle more blocks in the same amount of time bitcoin needs.

Coin limit- Bitcoins limit is 21 milliin where litecoin has a limit of 84 million.

Block time- Litecoin takes 2.5 minutes to confirm a block where Bitcoin needs 10 minutes.

Market cap- Bitcoins marketcap is over 10 billion USD where litecoins cap is more than 540 million.

Block reward details- Bitcoins are halved around 0.21 million blocks and litecoins has a halve ration of 0.84 million blocks..

There are plenty other differences between them but these are more notable.. If you want to invest or anything don't take ideas from this answer.. Do a more in-depth analysis..

One of the main differences is Litecoin has a shorter average block time of about 2.5 minutes, while Bitcoin's average block time is 10 minutes. This essentially means that transactions are sent on average every 2.5 minutes and 10 minutes respectively. Blocks, when mined, contain some of that currency to pay the miners, and that's how the crypto is mined.

Litecoin also uses the scrypt algorithm, as opposed to Bitcoin using SHA-256. Bitcoin is more suited for ASIC mining, while scrypt is generally very memory intensive, and normally better suited for GPU mining.

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