How to Buy Litecoin?
Most of the time, people have described Litecoin as silver to bitcoin’s gold. Litecoin is the third biggest cryptocurrency after bitcoin in terms of market cap, having Ripple at the second place.
Litecoin was created as an alternative of bitcoin to address some of that currency’s perceived deficiencies. It was introduced as a cryptocurrency which would be more ‘lightweight’ and abundant than bitcoin. It also uses scrypt as the proof-of-work algorithm that was intended to make it immune to ASIC mining; however, many companies are preparing to launch scrypt ASIC miners shortly.
A total – 84 million Litecoins can be generated on the network, which is quite more than 21 million BTC. Such a concept was designed to make the process of the block faster than bitcoin.
Some elements to consider before buying Litecoin
- Litecoin has proved to be a growing magnet for speculators after a significant surge in bitcoin’s pricing in November 2013, yet prices have decreased in parallel since then. You can expect the prices of both the cryptocurrencies to mainly move in exactly the same direction, although the value of Litecoin is by far the lesser from the two.
- Accomplished bitcoin investors should have been facing no issues while adapting to Litecoin, but novice investors may possibly consider it as easy as the infrastructure is less developed than that of bitcoin.
- Another way of getting Litecoins is by mining them through standard computing equipment.
- Always prefer to research on your own before investing funds and don’t risk amounts you can’t bear to lose.
If you know all the associated risks and have done your part of the research, there are many more problems and issues required to be considered.
Bitcoins/Cash for Litecoins?
Purchasing Litecoins is not as simple as purchasing bitcoins because the Litecoin infrastructure isn’t that developed enough. One amongst the most convenient ways to buy Litecoins is to buy them through bitcoins – this method also proves to be the fastest, and for many of the users, it will be the cheapest alternative available.
Any interested individual having a stash of bitcoins can conveniently use them to buy Litecoins on some of the exchange platforms, like:
- Cryptsy
- Kraken
- BTC-e
Many more such exchanges are described on the Litecoin Wiki.
Recently, one of the significant issues regarding Litecoin is the lack of exchanges willing to trade in it.
There are rarely only two dozen Litecoin exchanges, but most of them only allow conversions through BTC/LTC, making the purchasing process troublesome.
BTC-E, Kraken, Crypto-Trade, and Bitfinex sell Litecoins for euros, roubles, and dollars, but availability would be based on your location. As an example, we can consider; UK investors who can purchase Litecoins directly from BitBargain and Bittylicious with a domestic banking transfer, but this is not the same in other countries.
The exchanges that let you purchase Litecoins using fiat:
- BTC-e
- Kraken
- Bitfinex
- Bittlylicious UK
- BitBargain UK
You may consider that the simplest way to purchase Litecoin would be via fiat wire transfer through an exchange, but this can prove to be a complicated process for several reasons. Some popular bitcoin exchanges such as Coinbase and BTC China don’t handle Litecoin transactions till now.
Speed is the main reason why bitcoin is used to buy Litecoin. In may look like that it takes just a few minutes, but international wire transfers may take days to get clear and, in turn, incur additional costs. Only some limited number of Litecoin exchanges means that the majority of potential investors have to depend on international transfers.
Another way is to purchase bitcoin locally, to avoid the long procedure of wiring money abroad, and changing it into Litecoin. The advantage is that you’ll have your bitcoin faster and may get a better price when you convert it, having Litecoin’s value going up. The drawback is – you may have to pay more for bitcoin if you are confined to the local market.
Litecoin wallets can be cumbersome
Many exchanges offer online Litecoin wallets, but they are possibly not good solutions. Most of the users will wish for something safer, such as cold wallets. Fortunately, Litecoin enables built-in encryption that you can use to secure your wallet in a few clicks only.
The choice of Litecoin wallets is somewhat limited in comparison to those present for bitcoin. Many users opt for the official Litecoin-Qt desktop client, but its fair share includes foibles, with reported syncing problems.
Some of the online wallets charge users for transactions and everyday storage, so strictly read all the guidelines and terms in advance.
You would prefer to set up a Litecoin paper wallet if you’re willing to get a long-term cold storage option.
You can also get credit card-quality ‘paper wallet’ cards via Crypto Coin Wallet Cards, although a few small companies are also selling physical Litecoins or coin holograms.
