Bitcoin and gold are different sides of the same equation. There have been several instances in the past where financial studies have asserted how Bitcoin could potentially replace gold in the future. Surveys have also pointed out how Bitcoin stands a fair chance against gold. When it comes, to Bitcoin’s silver, the argument takes a different turn.
Shedding light on the difference between LTC and BTC, Charlie Lee, founder of Litecoin, told that he viewed Bitcoin as “digital gold” and Litecoin as “real silver.”
With LTC riding on the back of fast network speed and less congestion, Lee pointed out how it used a different algorithm that made transactions on its network faster and cheaper. He said,
“The main difference is that it [Litecoin] uses a different algorithm, so it has a different set of miners than Bitcoin. It’s also faster and easier to use. The Bitcoin blockchain now is congested and the fees are really high. For Litecoin, the fees are still in ‘pennies’. So it’s very cheap to use.”
Lee further spotlighted the high competition in BTC’s network and said,
“Bitcoin’s blockchain is full. Because of that, everyone is competing to get their transactions into the next block and do that by paying more fees.”
Source: Blockchain.com
The above chart depicts all the valid transactions that are waiting to be confirmed by the BTC network. There has been a notable rise in the network’s traffic and congestion over the past few days. At the time of writing, BTC’s Mempool Size approximately stood at 76 megabytes, while LTCs numbers were comparatively much lower.
Attributing Bitcoin’s blockchain to be the Suez Canal, Lee pointed out how whoever was willing to potentially pay more got to jump the line and get into the canal first. He concluded,
“People are paying more fees to get into the next block. So in this analogy, I see Litecoin as another canal next to it [the Suez Canal] that has a larger bandwidth. More ships can go through the Litecoin Canal than the Bitcoin canal.”