Litecoin founder Charlie Lee wanted to create the “lite” (faster and easier to use) version of Bitcoin. Lee did just that with Litecoin in 2011, creating a cryptocurrency that adopted many of the best features of Bitcoin with some twists. For instance, while bitcoin transactions take about 10 minutes to confirm, Litecoin transactions are a lot faster, taking less than 3 minutes. In addition, while it takes specialized hardware and impressive raw computing power for users to mine Bitcoin, Litecoin has much lower system requirements and made it possible for ordinary PCs to mine for it.
Sven Franssen