Unlike Bitcoin, which is something we will mention quite a lot during this review, Litecoin (LTC) is a cryptocurrency you can bet on when it comes to costs, speed, and scale. Regardless, it continues to be volatile, just like other tokens.
The question is, why are people investing in it when it continues to bring some risks? Because its market cap and potential are growing each day because of how it directly competes with Bitcoin and blockchain and network technology.
There are many details to cover, just like with usual networks and tokens, but if we have to start somewhere with Litecoin, we would mention its actual cost, how you can buy and store it, and the different benefits it has shown in this market.
But for it, we need to go over the basics as well and learn more about the currency slowly but surely with the details below.
What Is Litecoin?
Litecoin is similar to other cryptocurrencies that you’ve heard of. It was created by an ex-Google engineer called Charlie Lee.
As of the date of writing this article, Litecoin is ranked ninth in market capitalization.
Back in the day, Litecoin was initially a strong competitor to Bitcoin. Still, its popularity has been declining over the years because there have been many new offerings on the cryptocurrency market.
To put it simply, Litecoin is just another decentralized digital currency available in the market. It works independently of any centralized financial institution.
It takes advantage of blockchain technology for processing and recording transactions, which at the same time add more information to the specific currency chain.
Litecoin can be bought, traded, and used to make a purchase with certain merchants.
Most holders of Litecoin use apps and exchanges to buy or sell cryptocurrency. These are just some examples:
- Coinbase.
- Gemini.
- PayPal Holdings.
Behind Litecoin: What You Must Know About Its Founder & Background
While researching a certain cryptocurrency, you will often find a specific founder or creator. This is true for Litecoin as well, which has one in particular: Charles Lee.
Charles Lee is a computer scientist who is the founder and also the current Managing Director of the currency. He was born on the Ivory Coast but moved to the USA when he was 13.
He graduated from high school in 1995 and attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received his bachelor’s degree in computer science and master’s in 2000.
Many people don’t know this, but Lee’s brother, Bobby C. Lee, was the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange BTC China.
Lee is a genius who worked first for Google to create code for Chrome OS. While working at Google, he wrote the blockchain technology-based upon Bitcoin.
He released Litecoin after mining just 150 coins and left Google in July 2013 to start working at Coinbase. This was before Coinbase adopted his coin.
In December 2017, Lee posted on Reddit that he had sold nearly all of his Litecoin holdings because of a conflict of interests.
Lee is currently employed full-time by the Litecoin Foundation and focuses on Litecoin adoption.
How Does It Actually Work?
Before trying to understand how Litecoin works, it is important to have basic knowledge and understanding of blockchain technology.
This is actually a must, even if you are interested in a cryptocurrency other than Litecoin.
First, information is stored in blocks, creating an associated chain. The transaction record for Litecoin is the chain of information.
Then to ensure the safety of the transactions, the information contained in these blocks and chains is fully encrypted.
Blockchain is essentially an open-source distributed ledger. It can efficiently record transactions between two parties, and it does so in a permanent, verifiable way.
So, these are the key points that you need to keep in mind:
- The ledger can be programmed to trigger transactions by itself.
- To protect the information in a blockchain system, encryption techniques are used.
- Users can mine Litecoin and other cryptocurrencies to get currency in return for the coin.
Since miners can verify transactions, create new blocks and use complex mathematical equations, Litecoin belongs to the math-based currency group.
Litecoin has a total of 84 million coins. This is four times as much as Bitcoin, and for every block mined, miners get 25 new Litecoin.
The amount of Litecoin is approximately halved every four years. Lee created Litecoin so that the majority of coins could be mined within the first 20 years.
There were over 60 million Litecoin at the time of writing.
What Is Litecoin Used For?
It is essentially another cryptocurrency designed to make payments directly without the need for a bank or other intermediaries.
Litecoin is pretty similar to Bitcoin in terms of technology, but it can do transactions much quicker.
The difference between both of them may not be obvious for those who are not familiar with cryptocurrencies or are just starting to learn about them. So here are some details.
Official sources at Litecoin claim that it takes just two and a half minutes to “process a single-block” compared to Bitcoin’s ten minutes.
The currency is four times faster than Bitcoin. Transactions in Litecoin may not be as secure, however.
Many people are looking for Litecoin as a long-term asset and not as a means of making transactions.
This is because it is hoped that the new currency will be more valuable than the base cryptocurrency.
They believe in this fact, even though Lee stated that Litecoin was designed to complement the original cryptocurrency and not compete with it.
As a fun fact, Litecoin is sometimes called “Bitcoin’s little brother,” as Lee stated that he wanted this cryptocurrency to be the “silver” in Bitcoin’s “gold.”
However, in the eyes of many speculators, Litecoin is a top currency. They believe it will bring relative wealth.
Last but not least, Litecoin can be used to purchase products and articles as long as you can find merchants that accept it.
Benefits and Drawbacks of Litecoin
Not everything is perfect, and as much as we would like to tell you to invest in LTC and use the ecosystem without worries, that’s not how things work. Fortunately, you do have pros to consider, but along with the cons that come with the token and network all along:
Advantages
- Transaction Processing Time: Litecoin works at a faster speed than Bitcoin.
Confirming a Bitcoin transaction takes around 10 minutes, while it only takes 2.5 minutes with Litecoin. This allows purchases to be made much faster.
- More Coins: Bitcoin can only produce up to 21 million coins. Litecoin has increased its cap to 84 million coins. This allows users to purchase a full coin rather than a fraction of it.
- Mining Requirements: Litecoin was created using the Scrypt algorithm, which was created to be less susceptible to ASIC attacks.
It also makes mining easier for everyday users in comparison with Bitcoin.
- Transaction Cost: Litecoin is middlemen-free. Transactions are cheaper than other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and in some cases they can be done without incurring any fees.
Disadvantages
- Not widely recognized: At the moment, there aren’t many retailers who accept Litecoin.
Well, this is true for all cryptocurrencies. - Subject to regulation: Litecoin is subject to regulations like any other cryptocurrency. This could restrict its use and lead to a steep fall in prices.
- Not fully ASIC-resistant: While it is still simpler to mine Litecoin than Bitcoin for everyday use, Scrypt ASIC miners were recently introduced on the market.
This has made it more difficult to mine Litecoin with ASIC mining hardware.
- Competition: Litecoin aims to compete with Bitcoin even though they share the same goal.
Its potential will be limited if more people continue to use Bitcoin as their primary currency.
Things You Should Know
We want to make sure every detail about Litecoin is clear even when some of them will either change, be removed, or maybe you will need to consider more aspects the longer the token remains in the market.
However, as of 2021 and early 2022, you can keep these factors in mind since they will remain to be true:
Litecoin Is Lighter and More Efficient Than Bitcoin
Litecoin is a digital currency that follows the lead of Bitcoin, which is the first decentralized digital currency in the world.
Bitcoin allows people to make payments without any intermediaries, such as banks or governments. But this crypto giant is not perfect. Transactions can be slow and energy-intensive.
Taking advantage of this, those weaknesses are addressed by Litecoin.
Litecoin uses the same blockchain technology but processes transactions four times quicker. This makes the currency more attractive to retailers.
As we already mentioned, there will be 21 million bitcoins and 84 million Litecoin. This makes Litecoin more suitable for small transactions.
To Avoid Conflict of Interest, Litecoin’s Founder Sold All His Coins
Charlie Lee founded Litecoin with one goal in mind, to encourage the adoption of digital currencies, especially Litecoin.
Thanks to this line of thought, he became an influential figure in the crypto world. But unfortunately, this also led to accusations that there was a conflict of interest.
People said that Lee was just trying to increase the price of Litecoin by promoting it on social media. He had to choose between promoting Litecoin and owning it.
So, to stick to his principles, he sold all of his coins in 2017 and donated the proceeds to the Litecoin Foundation. However, Lee was also criticized for selling.
Despite the rollercoaster ride of the Musk effect this past year, cryptocurrency investors should be thankful for the actions of responsible and thoughtful “influencers.”
Govcoins Could Be Coming Soon
Before thinking about investing or purchasing cryptocurrencies in the digital payment space, you should be aware of the development and use of “GOVCOINS.”
Right now, more than 60 countries are looking at launching their own digital currencies that the government runs.
China, Cambodia, and the Bahamas are just a few countries that have made great strides in this direction.
Authorities worry that cryptocurrencies will make it harder for them to manage their economies and are now looking for ways to reverse this trend.
These coins would have the benefits of the blockchain system, including fast, secure, and cheap transactions.
In simple terms, they would be centrally backed by banks and governments, but they wouldn’t be unaffected by the changes.
On the other hand, both Bitcoin and Litecoin face challenges in gaining businesses to accept them as currency. Their value can fluctuate wildly, which is one of their biggest problems.
Companies have to manage their supply chain and payroll. Stablecoins or Govcoins (cryptocurrencies pegged to the dollar or gold price) can solve this problem.
Both coins may significantly impact digital currencies such as Litecoin since its growth could encourage more shoppers and merchants to use digital payments.
They could, however, force decentralized coins off the market if they introduce stricter crypto regulations.
Litecoin Can Be Found All Over the World
Litecoin is a well-known cryptocurrency. You can obtain it through most major cryptocurrency trading platforms.
Even though Litecoin has been around for more than ten years, it has not seen the same dramatic price rises as Ethereum (ETH) or Bitcoin (ETH).
As an example, a three-year-old purchase of $1,000 of Litecoin would have given you $1,540 today, an increase of 54%. Bitcoin rose by more than 500% during the same period.
But don’t be discouraged; this is a good return considering that many currencies have disappeared completely.
As for advice, if you consider purchasing Litecoin or any other cryptocurrency, be ready for volatility.
There are substantial potential gains and huge losses with all cryptocurrencies, so don’t invest money that you can’t afford.
Although the Litecoin team has made a significant effort to grow and promote cryptocurrency, it is not guaranteed to succeed.
Keep in mind that there is a possibility that Litecoin could become obsolete by other coins or even Govcoins.
How to Buy Litecoin
Litecoin is a popular cryptocurrency that is readily available and supported by the larger cryptocurrency community.
It’s almost identical to buying Bitcoin. However, you will need to search for LTC in your trading app instead of BTC.
Major cryptocurrency exchanges, such as eToro and BlockFi, support Litecoin transactions.
Transaction Times
Litecoin network offers near-instant transaction confirmations. However, it takes a bit longer for transactions to be confirmed on a cryptocurrency exchange.
To transact LTC, for example, Kraken and Gemini both require 12 confirmations.
Other Ways to Invest in Litecoin
Even if you don’t wish to hold it directly, you may still be able to invest in Litecoin. Grayscale offers ETFs-like trusts to cryptocurrencies like the Grayscale Litecoin Trust.
Three Key Selling Points of Litecoin (LTC)
Still, need some info about going for LTC? Some will be repeated as of the information so far, but we found them good to set as the key parts of the token and even network for you to make a well-informed decision:
Transactions quickly settled
Litecoin is able to process more transactions per second than Bitcoin due to its shorter block generation time. This is due to the incorporation of the Scrypt algorithm.
Near-zero fees
Charlie Lee referred to Litecoin as “Bitcoin lite” because it offered the same services as bitcoin but would charge lower fees and allow for faster transaction speeds.
Users usually pay just 1/1000 LTC regardless of how large a transaction is. This is a huge discount, considering Bitcoin charges around $40.
Private transactions
Litecoin is the most popular blockchain network based upon the Scrypt algorithm. This algorithm speeds up to block generation and makes the Litecoin Blockchain more secure.
On the other hand, Litecoin, unlike other networks like Bitcoin, has private ledgers that allow users to make private payments.
Is Litecoin Worth the Investment?
After the 2018 cryptoverse crash, Litecoin was one of the few coins that did well. Coins like Bitcoin lost nearly 80% by the end of the crypto winter.
Litecoin was also affected by the crypto-crash, but its price dropped to a lower level.
There was lots of activity in 2019 as more investors wanted to own LTC. However, this didn’t bring the price for LTC back to its peak in early 2018.
Litecoin has increased by 45% over the past year, with much of this growth occurring after the threat of severe recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
As mentioned before, this just means that people see cryptocurrencies such as Litecoin as more than just currency. They also view them as safe assets.
Litecoin has already demonstrated its ability to facilitate online transactions, so an additional shift to the digital economy will likely increase its appeal.
This sudden increase in its appeal could possibly cause its value to skyrocket.
LTC could be argued to be undervalued given its support by a strong payments project that could transform the global financial system in the coming years.
This logic concludes that investing today in Litecoin is a smart decision.
Which Is Better: Litecoin Or Actual Businesses?
Litecoin’s prices fluctuate wildly every day, just as other coins. This is actually normal, considering the volatility and difficulty of forecasting in the cryptocurrency industry.
You could make hundreds of thousands or even thousands of dollars in investments one day and lose it all the next.
This is a risk that all investors are fully aware of. If you’re up for the challenge, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t invest in cryptocurrency.
If you’re looking at Litecoin specifically, we have doubts because of how volatile it’s been in the past few months.
The price of the coin was $154.50 at the time this article was written, but it has fluctuated quite a bit over the past four months.
We recommend that you invest in Litecoin but not diversify your cryptocurrency portfolio if you decide to take the plunge.
If you still feel unsafe and don’t want to risk it, try searching for other options and put in the effort to make them as profitable as possible.
Local lead generation is more profitable than trying to make it big with cryptocurrencies.
Local lead generation can be easier and more effective than you think. You can make thousands of dollars if you work hard and are patient.
The money will come to you passively after a few months or weeks.
It is faster to invest in cryptocurrency, but it is safer to earn money with this line of business.
Take your time and search for small businesses in your area. Save their contact information, and then reach out and build their websites.
Once you have built their websites, there is no need to think about them anymore. Instead, forget they even exist. These are the main benefits of local lead generation:
- You don’t have to spend much money to make your business profitable.
- If you work hard and put in the effort, your investment will not be lost.
- Lead generation is an excellent way to grow your company. You can use it for your main income stream or as your own business venture.
- You don’t have to worry about market saturation and competition. There are always new local businesses opening, so there is always a steady stream of deals.
The Local Lead Generation Process for Your Business
All right! So, everything is about building properties and generating leads. But how does the process actually take place? Are there other steps I need to know?
The steps I mention below are what students from our local lead generation program follow to generate leads for businesses like yourself. So I’ll help you see what we do. And how if you join our program, you can simply generate leads for your own business (unless you want to start a side hustle and build a laptop lifestyle business).
Essentially, our lead generation can be divided into four steps:
The first is prospecting. You need to take the time to do market research on a niche (industry) and determine how many phone-driven businesses are there.
Keep in mind that this is local research as you need to know how many companies need leads. For example, you may search for “plumbing services Youngstown OH.”
You will find dozens or even hundreds of businesses trying to get themselves in front of the customers by ranking on Map Listings, organic results, and even Ad.
The second step, building. When you find a niche (plumbing, tree services, a software company, real estate…), you will need to start building your digital properties. You don’t need to be an expert in HTML or coding. It can be easy with the right tools.
The third step is now taking time to rank your lead gen website. With the site done, you need to work on SEO strategies and start dominating those Google search results. If you’re new to SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization.
To keep it simple, it consists of the entire process of growing a company’s visibility on search engines like Google and generating organic traffic. And remember this, local lead generation is part of the strategies.
Moving on to step four, once you rank the site, you will start getting your ROI and profits. You only need to rent it out to a local business interested in the leads the site generates. You can offer a couple of free leads to their move on with the actual pay per lead.
To review steps 1-4 above, I described it to a normal student who is building a lead gen business to help local service providers generate more calls. But replace the student with you as the business owner. And replace sending the leads to a business to simply siphoning the leads to your personal business.
By the way, fun fact, about 20% of our students in our local lead gen program are actually business owners who went through the program. And they use the skillsets we teach to generate leads for their own business.
An Example of Lead Generation: Home Advisor
You must be thinking, “if lead generation sounds so good so far, how come I haven’t seen any company?” That’s the thing; there are many out there. You just don’t know they are dedicated to it.
HomeAdvisor is one of the best examples you can find on the Internet as it is a top lead generation company that has spent millions building its brand but also earned even more zeros for this same reason.
They started small as everyone else but invested in building their brand awareness to make people who are looking for home services go to their website and find what they need. They are over 75% of people’s first choice when they need those services.
If you don’t get HomeAdvisor that much or need a refresh, users need to submit their information to request a service and get a professional or expert who can provide it.
HomeAdvisor’s job is to share your information, which makes you a lead, with local companies so they can contact you and offer the service you’re requesting. For sharing this lead information, HomeAdvisor gets paid by the companies. This happens for every single lead they send to multiple businesses.
Business owners who don’t have marketing skills or don’t even know how to have any online presence will always rely on those pages to list their services. They will save time and effort, but companies like HomeAdvisor can make them spend lots of money as leads aren’t exclusive (one lead is sent to multiple companies after all).
Using Facebook Ads aka Paid Ad Platforms: Do They Generate Leads?
They DO generate leads. If not, no one would use them.
However, you need to remember two facts:
- Paid ads or platforms can be expensive.
- They don’t generate “natural” leads.
Whenever someone sees or clicks in one of those ads, over 80% of them did it by accident or are trying to close/report it.
Why? Because they aren’t looking for those services. At least not at the moment.
What those ads do instead is interrupt their time on the platforms. Users aren’t there to find companies or businesses unless they are searching for a specific company’s user, and for that, there’s a search bar. This is why it is hard to convert them to actual customers who will show interest in the companies’ services. Also, you’re limited by a budget.
When using lead generation, everything is organic. You aren’t forcing others to pay attention to your business but rather being there when they need you. This is why Google’s organic traffic will always beat paid ads, and the reason companies continue investing in it, which is a lot cheaper as well.
What Is Local SEO?
Don’t worry… I didn’t get it at first either. Following the short explanation, local SEO focuses on scaling businesses’ visibility on search engines. However, this is only for those who serve their communities face-to-face.
What does this mean?
Experts and professionals like painters, plumbers, and dentists (but not only them) offer their services to their local customers. Why? Because they can’t deliver them unless they are located in the same area of their customers.
To make sure those businesses get more leads, you need to rank them locally by claiming the business listing on Google to place them on Map Listings. Local SEO also involves online reviews, citation management, and how you manage your entire online presence in the local area.
If you are going to bet on lead gen, you need to adapt yourself to today’s world: The Internet.
Keep in mind that although traditional channels and methods like billboards, warm calls, and pamphlets still work, they aren’t part of your tools. Whenever someone needs a service, they go to Google and search for it.
“Dentist in Miami” or “plumbing services in Orlando,” etc. And you can keep coming up with services or professionals people need and look for. Thus, you need to make sure you’re using Google to get the companies in front of their clients.
Users will always click on the first search results (those near the top), and many of them will be either Ad links (people paid to place their websites there), Map Listing, and then you get websites. Almost all of them are your goal and where you should always aim to place yourself.
Can My Business Utilize a Local Lead Generation Strategy?
If you want customers, you better know you need it. Following the previous explanation, lead gen is all about placing businesses in front of their customers, choosing them over their competitors.
Put it simply – it’s all about closing deals and having clients for those companies to make money. The main difference with the usual methods companies use for this is how lead generation approaches different channels to get them in the right place of the market to get customers.
Those channels are all focused on the Internet as most people are searching for products but also services across the net. The issue is that the Internet is way too broad, and businesses don’t know how to place themselves. They usually try, but they get one common result: losing money and time.
How Powerful Are Organic Leads from Google?
For companies looking for customers, it’s everything. For you? Pretty much the same. When you build a business with digital properties, you get to make thousands of dollars a month.
This isn’t a “get started today and get rich tomorrow” thing, but it is HIGHLY scalable, and ROI + positive results are guaranteed. Learning a fairly decent and very needed set of skills to create your digital properties and start ranking them on Google is required.
I have invested in several online businesses over the years, and if there’s something uncertain, whether you will get your ROI or not, even more than the actual profit.
However, this business moved my earnings from five figures a year to a month in ONLY passive income while sitting comfortably at home.
On my laptop. Anywhere. Anytime.
You can look at one of the first sites I built back in 2016, and it continues making me over $1.000+ every month. The best part is that I don’t need to touch it or the rest I’ve built over the years, just like this digital property.
What Makes Lead Generation SO Alluring?
Here it goes: you can work from home.
The main issue with regular business opportunities is how much you need to invest in staff, equipment, or rent to have a place to sell your products or offer your services.
We all know the hassles of traditional businesses that involve regular expenses, which are extremely high. Can you afford it? I don’t think so, and even if you can, is it worth it? Now, it isn’t only about the money. You also need to put in a lot of work, and it isn’t only during the first couple of months or years. Usually, it is as long as you continue running it.
You can save yourself those headaches and bone-breaking tasks and expenses with lead gen since it is more about generating leads with digital channels—mainly websites.
Websites can be VERY cheap to build, and with many tools online, you get to do it in a couple of hours instead of days. Any virtual or digital business is scalable and won’t need constant maintenance.
So, let’s summarize this:
- You save money in regular expenses with traditional and most online businesses as what you need is yourself and digital properties (websites).
- You can bet on passive income.
- There’s no need to hire more people to get started.
- You can generate leads in multiple industries, which allows you to work on any niche you want.
How Can I Get Started in the Local Lead Generation Program?
Anyone can start and learn. That’s the beauty of this business model. I knew nothing about SEO, Map Listing, and everything I’ve mentioned so far. It is all about learning the skills, gaining experience, and deciding to take the step.
Remember that this business model will never get old as business owners are always looking for leads. They need to do business and scale their companies. Why not do the same while helping others and still making money?
You can start with this local lead generation course highly recommended for anyone wanting to grow in the business. It is a close training that will take you through each step and make sure you are able to get your ROI, profits and take control of your life.
You will be added to an incredible lead generation family ready to help you 24/7 when asking questions on the group. Anyone is welcome who’s willing to put in the work. Click here to watch the lead gen webinar.