Litecoin halving is coming in August. What to expect?

Bitcoin is undoubtedly the most common cryptocurrency to mine. However, the range of coins is much bigger, and some of them are gaining more and more popularity. We can take Litecoin, which is a Bitcoin fork, as an example. Kucoin Pool has recently been working with LTC mining and one of their experts has shared the reasons to do so.

— Can you briefly introduce Litecoin?

— The coin was created in November, 2011. Since then, LTC has gained much attention from the miners, and for most of its existence, it has been among the ten largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. The coin follows the same principles as Bitcoin, so they are often referred to as “Gold Bitcoin” and “Silver Lite”.

— To participate in LTC mining, you’ll need to buy a specific mining machine and connect it to a pool. Then, you run a specific calculation program to verify and record transactions on the Litecoin network. This process is known as mining. As a reward for their efforts, miners receive a certain amount of LTC.

— If Litecoin follows the principles of Bitcoin, what’s the difference?

— Both coins use the proof-of-work consensus mechanism for mining and having a halving every 4 years. The similarities end here, and we can speak about differences.

Firstly, LTC uses the Scrypt algorithm, while BTC relies on the SHA-256 algorithm. This means that specialized mining machines are required for each algorithm. Secondly, LTC has a faster block generation speed of approximately 2,5 minutes, whereas BTC has a block generation speed of about 10 minutes.

— The Bitcoin fourth halving is expected in April, 2024. And the Litecoin third one is much closer, as it will happen this year in August. How will the miner earnings change? Will it be a price surge as it usually happens with Bitcoin?

— LTC has already undergone two halvings, meaning that the reward for successfully mining a block will reduce from the current 12,5 LTC to 6,25 LTC. This will indeed have an impact on the earnings.

The halving can also potentially increase the price of LTC to some extent. When the coin supply is halved, it reduces the overall supply, which may stimulate market demand and consequently drive up the price. However, it’s important to note that the long-term trend of coin prices depends on various factors, including the demand and competition.

While the impact of LTC halving on the market may not be as significant as that of BTC, it’s still an important event. From the perspective of miners, if the LTC price increases beyond the mining difficulty after the halving, the equipment value will also rise.

— More than one coin has been issued on the basis of PoW, and many pools are already engaged in mining litecoin. Why did Kucoin stop the choice on this cryptocurrency?

— The main reason why KuCoin Pool decided to launch the LTC mining pool is that the currency has become one of the most popular on the market. In addition, we have launched DOGE mining in parallel. Such a combined mining of LTC and DOGE can increase the security of the network and the efficiency of mining both coins.

— You offer merged mining of Litecoin and Dogecoin. What impacts might the LTC halving have on DOGE?

— It’s important to note that the coins have independent chains with their own distinct markets and ecosystems. With their own node networks, these chains differ in mining difficulty, network hashrate, and block rewards. The LTC halving may impact the market sentiment and price of DOGE, but such impact would be temporary and may not be significant.