The dash vs Litecoin comparison is one that has been happening a long time within the cryptocurrency sphere since speculative trading hindered a Return on Investment from Bitcoin and Ethereum. The two coins have independently made a name for themselves within the cryptocurrency market and their fan-base is ever increasing.
I do not expect the Dash vs Litecoin debate to end anytime soon because there are so many things to consider and each of these coins has some outstanding features that make it stand out.
The following review offers an insight into the specific features of the two coins and what differentiates them.
LTC vs DASH: All about Litecoin
Litecoin which is simply written as LTC is a decentralized peer to peer cryptocurrency which allows its users to transfer payments at very low fees. It was conceived by Charlie Lee in October 2011, at that time, he argued that if Bitcoin was gold then his invention was silver. One of the priorities after you buy litecoin is finding the best litecoin wallets.
Slowly, LTC has become one of the most preferred altcoins in the market. It hit the $1 billion market capitalization mark in November of 2013. It was the very first coin to adopt the Segwit (Segregated Witness) system.
Litecoin merits and demerits
| Litecoin merits | Litecoin demerits |
While Bitcoin, the pioneer cryptocurrency takes 10 minutes to execute a transaction, Litecoin only needs 2,5 minutes. That is impressively faster than most altcoins too. |
The main reason why Litecoin stood out was that it was initially deemed to be better than Bitcoin in many ways. When Bitcoin finally embraced SegWit, the uniqueness seized to be an upper hand for the Litecoin. |
An open-sourced system is one that has willingly shared its code and any interested parties can make improvements on it. Thus Litecoin can easily stay abreast of the changing trends within the market. That was the reason why it was able to embrace SegWit and adopt Lighting Network Technology. The coin will be able to stand the test of time because of its adaptability to changes. |
Charlie Lee, the founder sold his interests in the coin citing a conflict of interest, it hurt the coin’s reputation and credibility. They had also announced Litepay which was met with so much enthusiasm from users only for them to withdraw it thus affecting the credibility even more. |
While most cryptocurrencies charge a lot of money during transactions, Litecoin charges low transaction fees which makes it affordable for most people thus giving it an edge over the other coins. |
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Due to its very fast transaction speeds, the coin is less vulnerable to hackers and thieves. Most cryptocurrencies are prone to double-spending attacks because of their slow transaction speeds. |
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The total number of Bitcoin that will ever exist in the market is 21 million coins, this limits its users who would otherwise want to acquire more coins. Litecoin the other hand has a limit of 84 million coins which is quite encouraging for even aspiring users. |
Future prediction (outlook in 2020)
Litecoin’s list of pros makes it a good candidate for investment in 2020 and beyond.
What do experts say about the future of Litecoin? Will it keep growing? Or will it stagnate?
Experts believe that the future is very bright for this coin. Here are some of the reasons they have listed for this optimistic belief.
- It has grabbed a lot of attention to itself. Many people are talking about it on media outlets as an alternative cryptocurrency.
- Its high transaction speeds make it very popular among users
- Increase in BTC users which causes a strain in its system thus pushing more people over to Litecoin.
- Expansion of the Coinbase exchange user base, being that Litecoin is one of the 3 cryptocurrencies supported by the platform.
Future developments
Litecoin is working to create new features that will make it more user-friendly and usable in the real world hence enhancing mass adoption. They recently upgraded to Litecoin Core 0.16.3 and their team is working extremely hard on the Lightning Network. They are very hopeful that these actions will increase the coin’s adoption.
DASH vs LTC: All about Dash
The name Dash derives from Digital Cash, and the coin is often referred to as the next generation altcoin. During its creation, it was called Xcoin, then Darkcoin before they finally settled on Dash in 2015. Its creator, Evan Duffield based on Bitcoin’s core code and its fast transaction speeds, has strongly contributed to its popularity.
The coin aims to be the most scalable cryptocurrency. Its developers wanted to improve on Bitcoin and overcome its challenges; that’s how the coin ended up being the very first self-funded, self-governed Blockchain protocol in the world. Dash pays developers for any contributions to the network.
The merits and demerits of Dash
| the merits of Dash | Dash demerits |
With the InstantSend option, you can conduct transactions in under 4 seconds. No other cryptocurrency can even compare to the speed of Dash transactions. |
There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the coin’s decentralization and privacy features. It is rumored that the development team may have set aside 12 million out of the 18 million coins for themselves. Having very few people control such a massive number of Masternodes has made people question the legitimacy of its decentralized nature. Another feature that people have questioned is Dash’s privacy features. |
The cryptocurrency provides its users with a high level of privacy for their transactions and financial details. |
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every transaction is secure thanks to the master node technology which creates a trustless protocol. |
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Dash transaction fees are significantly lower than Banks, credit cards and other cryptocurrencies. It only costs a few cents, making it a huge threat to the money transfer systems like Western Union, PayPal, and MoneyGram. |
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You can send funds to anyone, anywhere in the world using Dash. Interestingly, the transaction costs are not affected by distance. |
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Dash rewards are divided between miners, master nodes and future expenses. The last portion is used to pay incentives to master nodes and support Dash development. |
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Litecoin uses the Scrypt hash algorithm, which was specifically designed to perform large-scale custom hardware attacks by needing large amounts of data. Dash uses a chained hash algorithm known as X11, used for Proof of Work (PoW) calculations. Chained algorithms make Dash mining easier than other cryptocurrencies. For instance, GPUs require 30% less electrical energy than Litecoin and even heated 30% to 50% lesser. |
General outlook
Dash has a very dedicated development team that has created such a unique interface for the coin. The coin can now offer offline transactions, thus creating an essential bridge between the online and the offline world. apart from offering the highest transaction speed, it serves over 4500 servers globally at the highest security level.
Even today, with all the milestones they have crossed, their development team is not sleeping. The coin’s master node has continued to add new features such as self-governance and self-budgeting among others. Also, the master node’s network is in such a way that more features can be added in the future. Experts believe that the next project by Dash dubbed the ‘Evolution’ will usher in eCommerce with not only the lowest risk levels but also maximum reputation.
Future developments
Just like Litecoin, Dash is also working on new features to make their coins more user-friendly. They released Dash released 12.3 and are planning to release the alpha evolution version very soon.
3. Dash v Litecoin: Verdict on which coin is better
Litecoin has grown in popularity and it is up to 4 times cheaper than Bitcoin. Dash, on the other hand, offers very fast transaction speeds. While Dash seems to have figured the scaling issue out, Litecoin is still struggling in that sector. Litecoin transfers may be cheaper than Dash but Dash has the InstantSend feature which betas Litecoin hands down. While Litecoin users may experience delays during transactions, Dash users can send and receive crypto concurrently.
Due to several small factors, experts believe both coins are going to stand the test of time. They have a strong correlation and both satisfy the same niche which is complementing Bitcoin. The users should explore both coins and understand them before making a decision on which coin is better for trading. I hope the information provided above will help you to decide on the best coin between the two.