Ethereum versus Litecoin: Which one is a more promising investment option?

by Ryan Williams World Leading Cryptocurrency Exchange

The fact is that the cryptocurrency market is expanding so fast that it’s quite challenging to decide which coin is worth investing in. You may know that Bitcoins are one of the most promising crypto coins out there. Sometimes people want to look for some alternatives – some digital-currency options that may not be as well-known as the Bitcoin but can give pretty good returns.

Finding a good altcoin is challenging, especially when you are looking for something that can deliver good returns in the long run. The most dependable cryptocurrencies after Bitcoin is Ethereum and Litecoin. If you have spent some time in crypto circles, you may have heard a lot about these two digital currencies.

But if you are new to the crypto-trading landscape, then you may be curious to know which one of the two coins will give you better returns. When you take a deep dive into comparing Ethereum with Litecoin, then you would know how different these two coins are.

Which is why, in this explainer, we are pitting Ethereum against Litecoin to see which one of them will emerge on the top. So, without wasting any more time, people, let us get down to the details.

Litecoin and Ethereum: The origins

Ethereum and Litecoin are digital currencies. But from a technical point of view, these digital currencies are worlds apart. The fact is, both of these crypto coins are developed for achieving different things. In this section, let us figure out the development story of Litecoin and Ethereum.

Litecoin: Introducing Bitcoin’s sidekick

Litecoin – whose ticker symbol is LTE – is Bitcoin’s source code fork. Litecoin’s creator, Charlie Lee, modified Bitcoin’s open-source code for developing Litecoin in 2011. Being a sidekick of Bitcoin, Litecoin was created by Lee for bringing a kind of digital silver to the crypto community.

In simple words, Litecoin is a digitized peer-to-peer crypto coin and payment method. Harnessing the same fundamentals that power Bitcoin, Litecoin does its best to emerge as an appealing cryptocurrency. A case in point: Litecoin has way faster transaction times than Bitcoins and has a lower fee and mining time. To be more precise, the block-mining time of Litecoin is just 2.5 minutes when compared with that of Bitcoin’s – which is 10 minutes.

Ethereum: Ushering in the era of smart contracts

By now, we know that Litecoin is a slightly modified version of Bitcoin. But what about Ethereum? To put it simply, Ethereum is a digital currency that streamlines the development of a self-executing digital contract, which is referred to as a smart contract. Actually, Ethereum is the name of a software program while its tradable crypto coin is known as Ether whose ticker symbol is ETH. Ethereum was also the first-ever crypto project that executed the concept of smart contracts. Once smart contracts were introduced by Ethereum, other crypto projects started to implement the idea.

Just like Litecoin’s founder, Ethereum’s founders are quite well-known. The key founder and the public face of Ethereum has been Vitalik Buterin. Responsible for the rise of the ICO culture that gained momentum in 2017, Ethereum is the favorite of almost every developer of a crypto project. Why? Well, because there is a programming framework, known as Solidity, powering the Ethereum network. So, the whole Ethereum network is easy to customize for anyone who knows Solidity.

As you can see, Litecoin and Ethereum are two different projects that serve absolutely different goals. As far as investment opportunities go, you will have to analyze both of the projects’ fundamentals that will fuel their growth in the long run.

After analyzing the coin’s existing market position and how successful it has been in the past, you can plan which project will enjoy more success in the coming time.

The war of prices between Ethereum and Litecoin

Both of these digital currencies have already had their high points and low points. To be honest, when compared with Litecoin, Ethereum price has reached higher heights quite fast. To be precise, in December 2017, Litecoin had a market cap of over USD 20 billion.

Afterward, in January 2018, Ethereum’s market cap reached USD 130 billion – that is nearly seven times larger than Litecoin’s ATH. On the basis of all-time highs and comparing Litecoin price with that of Ethereum, Ethereum’s chances of future success may seem brighter when compared with Litecoin’s.

Underscoring each coin’s uniqueness

Now, let us talk about each crypto project’s uniqueness. For instance, Ethereum was the one that brought smart contracts into the crypto world. And, doubtlessly, smart contracts actually revolutionized the entire cryptocurrency landscape from end to end.

Being the building block of many big crypto projects, Ethereum was even responsible for the whole ICO mania to take off in circa 2017. That was the time when Ether became one of the most celebrated crypto coins on the market right after Bitcoin.

Now, let us channelize our attention toward Litecoin. This digital currency was enjoyed quite a bit of recognition. The only thing is that Litecoin has still been shrouded by Bitcoin’s incredible success. In most cases, Litecoin has been pitted against Bitcoin Cash because it is a cheaper and faster alternative to Bitcoin.

No doubt, Ethereum is ahead of the crypto curve. But then again, it is not right to ignore Litecoin because it is also a key altcoin that can prove to be a more economically feasible alternative to Bitcoin. In fact, Litecoin has become one of the most secure payment systems out there. The thing is, Litecoin has become the go-to crypto payment option in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Because it has got such kind of exposure, Litecoin has definitely gained mass recognition.

Buying your favorite coin from a trusted crypto exchange

When it comes to buying either Ethereum or Litecoin, it sure comes down to a dependable cryptocurrency exchange out there. OKEx is one of the most trusted cryptocurrency exchanges of all time. Offering advanced financial services to traders all over the globe, this agency harnesses the power of blockchain for making sure your trading initiatives are secure every time.

This digital exchange offers hundreds of futures and token trading pairs for enabling traders to seriously optimize their investment strategies from end to end. Other than that, OKEx is a top digital asset exchange in terms of trading volume and has been catering to millions of users located in more than 100 countries.

And as far as trading safety goes, this digital exchange offers a reliable, safe, and completely stable environment for digital-assets trading done through a mobile app and web interface. OKEx embraces distributed server clusters, Global Server Load Balancing or GSLB, and other advanced technologies for providing a safe trading ecosystem.

Wrapping it up: Litecoin versus Ethereum

Long story short: There is no short and easy answer to the question of which crypto coin – Litecoin or Ethereum – is better. Only you can analyze and decide which of these digital currencies has the potential to power up its growth trajectory down the road.

Undoubtedly, cryptocurrency is one of the most robust digital-asset classes of all time. And sometimes it may appear that the whole crypto world is booming with sure-fire growth opportunities. But that is not always the case.

The world of crypto trading – just like any other trading – involves a lot of risks. Having said that, if you believe that any crypto project has a robust foundation, then you will make the investment, be it long-term or short-term.

Whichever digital coin you decide to put your money on, make sure you are using a safe and secure platform, such as OKEx, for buying and storing the digital assets.