Forged in the fires of the early days of the crypto industry, Litecoin was created in 2011 from the efforts of Charlie Lee. A prominent figure in the crypto space, Lee’s resume includes work for Google and Coinbase. Lee, a computer scientist, created Litecoin from Bitcoin’s code, although Litecoin uses an open-source blockchain that is separate from Bitcoin and has alternate features.
LTC came on the scene roughly two years after BTC hit the market in 2009, in the infancy of an industry that has since blossomed into a bustling sector of technology and monetary innovation. The Litecoin Foundation, a nonprofit entity, oversees Litecoin’s technology.
As far as the purpose of Litecoin’s existence and value, one potential draw to the asset is its generally faster speed and lower fees compared with on-chain Bitcoin transactions, while still having a strong history in the crypto space. Litecoin has also served as a sort of testnet for Bitcoin on a number of occasions in the past. For example, Segregated Witness (SegWit), a blockchain scaling initiative, was used on Litecoin prior to the Bitcoin network implementing it.