People have often described litecoin as silver to bitcoin's gold.It is the third largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin by market cap, with Ripple sitting in second place.Litecoin was developed as a bitcoin alternative to address some of that cryptocurrency's perceived shortcomings.It was designed to be ‘lightweight’ and more abundant than bitcoin.In addition, it uses scrypt as its proof-of-work algorithm, which was aimed to make it impervious to ASIC mining, although several companies say they are planning to launch scrypt ASIC miners in the near future.A total of 84 million litecoins can be produced on the network (compared with 21 million BTC), which was designed to process blocks faster than bitcoin.If you would like to know a bit more about litecoin, then read this more detailed introduction on how to get started.Some points of note before you buy litecoin: If you are aware of the risks, if you’ve done a lot of research and you are still willing to enter the litecoin market, there are a number of potential pitfalls and issues that need to be addressed.

Buying litecoins is not as straightforward as buying bitcoins, but this is hardly surprising given the lesser-developed litecoin infrastructure.One of the easiest ways of buying litecoins is to simply purchase them with bitcoins – this approach also happens to be the fastest, and for most users it will be the cheapest option.Anyone with a stash of bitcoins can easily use them to purchase litecoins on a number of exchanges: At present, one of the biggest issues facing litecoin is the lack of exchanges willing to deal in it.There are roughly two dozen litecoin exchanges, but most of them only allow BTC/LTC conversions, making the buying process cumbersome.BTC-E, Bitfinex, Crypto-Trade and Kraken sell litecoins for euros, dollars and roubles, but availability depends on your location.For example, UK investors can buy litecoins directly from Bittylicious and BitBargain with a domestic banking transfer, but this is not the case in most countries.Australians can convert to and from AUD at CoinSpot.

You can buy litecoins for fiat on these exchanges: You may think the most straightforward way to purchase would be to buy litecoin via fiat wire transfer using an exchange, but this can be a tedious process for a number of reasons.Some major bitcoin exchanges like BTC China and Coinbase do not handle litecoin transactions at present.bitcoin mining success storySpeed is the most obvious advantage of using bitcoin to buy litecoin.kostenloses bitcoin kontoIn theory, it should take just minutes, whereas international wire transfers can take days to clear and potentially incur additional costs.cara dapat bitcoinThe limited number of litecoin exchanges means that the vast majority of potential investors have to rely on international transfers.bitcoin jpy チャート

An alternative is to buy bitcoin locally, forgoing the hassle of wiring money abroad, and converting it into litecoin.The upside is that you will get your bitcoin sooner and possibly get a better price when you convert it, provided litecoin's value keeps going up.You are likely to pay more for bitcoin if you are limited to the local market.tieu luan bitcoinA number of exchanges offer online litecoin wallets, but they are hardly elegant solutions.litecoin goldMany users will want something more secure, like cold offline wallets.Luckily, litecoin features built-in encryption that you can use to protect your wallet in just a few clicks.That said, the choice of litecoin wallets is rather limited compared to those available for bitcoin.Many users choose to use the official Litecoin-Qt desktop client, but it has its fair share of foibles, including reported syncing issues.

Electrum also has an offering (OS X/Linux/Windows) using a 12-word security passphrase (or 'seed') to protect your account.A few online wallets charge users for transactions and even plain storage, so be sure to read the fine print.For longer-term cold storage, you may want to setup a litecoin paper wallet.It is also possible to get credit card-quality ‘paper wallet’ cards from Crypto Coin Wallet Cards, while a few smaller companies are already selling physical litecoins or coin holograms.You can keep up to date with the latest litecoin news here.Litecoin network data can be found here.An announcement by one of the world's largest bitcoin exchanges has stoked fears another Mt Gox-style meltdown may be brewing.The largest bitcoin exchange by US dollar volume in recent weeks, Bitfinex revealed today it will be unable to accept incoming wires starting tomorrow, a statement that comes after it disclosed late last week that it was experiencing delays in US dollar withdrawals.The exchange said in a statement today: "Beginning 18th April, all incoming wires to Bitfinex will be blocked and refused by our Taiwan banks.

This applies to all fiat currencies at the present time."Notably, Bitfinex didn't offer any details as to why the banks – the subject of a previous wire transfer dispute that began earlier this month – will not accept the transfers.(The exchange ultimately went to court over the decision, but withdrew its lawsuit one week later.)While Bitfinex is said to now be working on solutions to its banking issues, market observers are suggesting cause for concern.Jacob Eliosoff, cryptocurrency fund manager, spoke to the general reaction that this situation has so far provoked, discussing how the resulting freeze in withdrawals could create abnormal pressures in the market."This is a dynamic many of us remember from the Mt Gox days when there were problems with fiat withdrawals," he said."Investors responded by converting fiat they had on the exchange to bitcoin so they could withdraw it.[In other words], they buy bitcoin to withdraw, pushing up the price on the exchange."Eliosoff went so far as to state that some market observers could perhaps view this as an opportunity for arbitrage, using it as an excuse to deposit bitcoin in order to sell at the high price and buy the bitcoin back again.

Charles Hayter, founder and CEO of CryptoCompare, provided a similar sentiment."The hiatus [of] Bitfinex's banking facilities have led to a rush by some to extricate their bitcoin from the exchanges," he told CoinDesk.Because of these developments, exchange spreads have widened, with Bitfinex enjoying a more than $50 premium in some cases at the time of report, according to data from CryptoCompare.Bitcoin was trading at roughly $1,235 at 18:55 UTC on Bitfinex, compared to roughly $1,185 on Bitstamp and $1,190 on GDAX.The spread harkens back to the final days of Mt Gox, when data showed the exchange consistently traded between 10% and 26% above its competitors.While analysts voiced their concerns, they were optimistic that Bitfinex would emerge from this situation unscathed.The victim of a hack last August, Bitfinex has shown a propensity to bounce back from operational difficulties.After losing nearly $65m in customer funds, it would go on to "socialize" losses among exchange users, using a new cryptographic token to credit customers.