MN504 Report: Analysis of Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash Cryptocurrencies

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash, two prominent cryptocurrencies. It begins with an introduction to Litecoin, discussing its origins, architecture, and key features like its blockchain and mining process using the Scrypt algorithm. The report then explores the challenges faced by Litecoin, including volatility and vulnerability to cybercrime. Part 2 focuses on replay attack prevention in Bitcoin and the factors attracting miners to Bitcoin Cash, such as its block size and mining profitability. The report then contrasts Bitcoin and Litecoin, highlighting differences in coin limits, transaction speeds, and mining algorithms (SHA-256 vs. Scrypt). The conclusion summarizes the key findings, positioning both cryptocurrencies within the digital asset landscape. The report also includes a detailed reference list.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Part 1..........................................................................................................................................2
Architecture............................................................................................................................2
Features..................................................................................................................................3
Challenges..............................................................................................................................4
Part 2..........................................................................................................................................4
Prevention of replay attacks by bitcoin..................................................................................4
Bitcoin cash attract miners.....................................................................................................4
Part 3..........................................................................................................................................5
Difference between bitcoin and Litecoin...............................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
Reference list..............................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Litecoin is one of the oldest cryptocurrencies in the world which came into existence
after Bitcoin. It is based on peer to peer cryptocurrencies. Litecoin came into existe4mse from
October 2011. The transfer of Litecoin’s used to take place from an open source of the
cryptographic protocol and therefore is also not managed by any kind of central authority. In
the year 2013, the value of the Litecoin was known to reach around $1 billion market
capitalization. The year 2013 saw the massive growth of the particular cryptocurrency. The
value of the Litecoin have grown significantly for past few years. Litecoin was introduced by
Charlie Lee by copying the core code of the Bitcoin(3). In general, Litecoin has a low
transaction fees when compared to the other kind of cryptocurrencies. This particular
Cryptocurrency market cap is presently more than $4 billion. Litecoin is also a decentralised
money which does not have any kind of censorship and generally remains open to all. With
the help of Litecoin, people can easily send low cost private, secure and borderless payments
for anyone anytime and anywhere.
Part 1
Architecture
Most of the cryptocurrencies comprise of the network protocol, consensus protocol,
internal state and the transaction protocol. Litecoin has a total of around more than two
hundred cores available for mining where eight groups are created with sixteen cores in each
of the group(4). The architecture comprises of the flexibility for communicating each of the
cores individually or group wise. The mining module will also help in communicating with
the external services. The internal architecture of the bitcoin is provided in the diagram
below. Each of the Scrypt core will be given a core identification number for diving the
nonce uniformly among the cores.

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Figure 1Architecture of Litecoin
Features
The Litecoin is also ranked one of the cryptocurrencies in the world. This particular
type of cryptocurrencies is an open source software and it also implements technological
advances which allow it to maintain its position as one of the leading cryptocurrencies. The
features of the Litecoin includes:
Blockchain: the blockchain of the Litecoin is been made for handling a high volume
of transactions. When the block generation are implemented along with the segregated
Witness, the network of the Litecoin will be supporting high volume of the transactions
without modifying the software in the future(6). This feature will be making the Litecoin
more efficient for the merchants as well the consumers who will be benefitting from the
faster confirmation times and low fees.
Mining: the algorithm which the Litecoin uses is known as Scrypt which is used for the
mining process for the new coins. Scrypt also allows for the higher degree of the parallel
processing and more accessible for the new miners than the traditional algorithms(5). The

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network of the Litecoin is known to produce more than eighty million Litecoin’s. Scrypt will
help for facilitating the mining for Litecoin without the usage of the ASIC based mining
hardware.
Challenges
Some of the challenges faced by the Litecoin’s are that payments play a quite an
important role in the business. One of the major challenges faced by the Litecoin’s is the
excessive volatility of the cryptocurrency. The market of cryptocurrency is also more open to
cybercriminals and hackers(6).
Part 2
Prevention of replay attacks by bitcoin
Replay attacks generally takes place when an individual tries to send coins on one
chain where the network will be showing the actions on the other chain. The bitcoin cash in
general provides replay protection for their fork. It also provides two methods of the replay
protection. One of the first methods is redefined sighashing algorithm(3). The sighash
algorithm is used when the sighash flag has bit 6 set. The second method will be using an
OP_RETURN output which have the exact string. Therefore, a replay attack takes place
when the transaction details from one of the blockchain is used on the others. Therefore, it
can be said that the replay attacks are not a particular kind of sophisticated hack. When the
bitcoin splits between the networks, the holders are awarded an equal amount of the new
currency on the new kind of network.
Bitcoin cash attract miners
The bitcoin cash is the cryptocurrency which is created in the year of 2017 which
took place from a fork of Bitcoin Classic. The amount of the Bitcoin Cash rises as a result of
the size of blocks which allow more transactions to be processed. One of the aims of the

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Bitcoin cash is increasing the number of transactions which can be processed. Bitcoin cash
known to have surged above $700 in the year of 2017(2). Though Bitcoin is one of the
leading cryptocurrencies in the market, still its mining is quite unprofitable for some of the
miners. One of the reasons behind people choosing bitcoin cash over bitcoins is that mining
for bitcoin is quite difficult in nature. The mining structure of the bitcoin suggests that each
of the block needs a large amount of computing power which will make it a tough proposition
for surviving. The mining cost of the bitcoin have also known to exceed the cost of the
electricity. For this result majority of the miners are moving towards the bitcoin cash instead
of bitcoins(1). The liquidity factor which one of the main points for the bitcoins will get
eliminated in bitcoin cash. The recent trend suggests the bitcoin cash will be moving higher
whereas the bitcoin will be quite low. Also, the recent price increase in the bitcoin cash states
that miners are getting more than two percent for mining the bitcoin cash rather than bitcoins.
This particular spread will be increasing in future with respect to the fourth ranked digital
coins.
Part 3
Difference between bitcoin and Litecoin
For the last few years, the interest for cryptocurrencies have known to rise
dramatically. However, their presence a lot of difference between bitcoins and Litecoin’s.
They are:
Coin limits: the recent study suggests that the market capitalization of the bitcoin will be
roughly around more than $100 billion. Both the cryptocurrencies, bitcoin and the lit coin
have some specific coin limits(2). The total limit of the bitcoin is 21 million coins and on the
other hand the Litecoin has a limit of 84 million coins. When the following cryptocurrencies
reach their limits, no newer currencies are released into the system. The mining reward has

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also been halved at predetermined points of time where Bitcoins are halved every 210,000
blocks and on the other hand Litecoin’s are halved e very 840,000 blocks.
Transaction differences: it has been found out that the transaction process of the Litecoin’s
are much faster than those of the bitcoins. Like for example the transaction can wait for only
2.5 minutes with Litecoin as compared to 10 minutes with the bitcoins which acts as a great
advantage. As for both the cryptocurrencies of bitcoins and Litecoin’s, there will be time
required for the transactions.
Mining differences: one of the motivations behind the creation of the Litecoin was to
improve upon the bitcoin. For most of the miners the significant difference between the
bitcoins and the Litecoin’s is the different proof of work algorithm. Bitcoin generally uses
SHA-256 hashing algorithm which generally undertakes calculations that can be accelerated
in parallel processing. For this reason, there is a rise in the ASIC technology and has resulted
in the increase in the difficulty levels of the bitcoins. On the other hand, Litecoin uses the
scrypt algorithm which is known as the s-crypt. Its algorithm incorporates the SHA-256
algorithm but its calculation is com partitively more serialised than those of the bitcoins.
Bitcoin was invented in 2009 whereas Litecoin was created in the year 2011 (1). The
coin limit of bitcoin is 21 million and for the Litecoin is 84 million. The algorithm used in
bitcoin is SHA-256 and the algorithm used in Litecoin is Scrypt. The founder of bitcoin is
Satoshi Nakamoto and that of Litecoin is Charles Lee.
Conclusion
Therefore, in order to conclude it can be said that both the cryptocurrencies have
gained sufficient popularity in the recent decade. Both the bitcoin and the Litecoin are termed
as the gold and silver of the cryptocurrency in the todays market. The cryptocurrency is
termed to be a digital asset which have been designed to work as a medium of exchange that

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uses strong cryptography for securing any kind of financial transactions. Cryptocurrencies are
also part of the alternative currency as well the digital currency.
Reference list
1) Cheung, A., Roca, E. and Su, J.J., 2015. Crypto-currency bubbles: an application of
the Phillips–Shi–Yu (2013) methodology on Mt. Gox bitcoin prices. Applied
Economics, 47(23), pp.2348-2358.
2) Duffield, E. and Diaz, D., 2015. Dash: A PrivacyCentric CryptoCurrency. Self-
published.
3) Gipp, B., Meuschke, N. and Gernandt, A., 2015. Decentralized trusted timestamping
using the crypto currency bitcoin. arXiv preprint arXiv:1502.04015.
4) Joy, A.I., 2018. THE FUTURE OF CRYPTO-CURRENCY IN THE ABSENCE OF
REGULATION, SOCIAL AND LEGAL IMPACT. PEOPLE: International Journal
of Social Sciences, 4(1).
5) King, S. and Nadal, S., 2017. PPCoin: peer-to-peer crypto-currency with proof-of-
stake (2012). URL https://peercoin. net/assets/paper/peercoin-paper. pdf.[Online.
6) Pilkington, M., 2016. 11 Blockchain technology: principles and
applications. Research handbook on digital transformations, p.225.