Doge is Litecoin's Best Friend!
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Doge is Litecoin's Best Friend!


A little known secret on Crypto-Twitter is the powerhouse relationship between the two coins, Litecoin and Dogecoin. Many know the story that Charlie Lee offered and successfully saved the dying memecoin, Doge, back in 2014. At the time, the Doge community was worried about why Charlie would do such an altruistic gesture. Unanswered questions lost and forgotten in the 8 years of the fast moving, forward thinking generation of new Litecoin and Dogecoin enthusiasts.


Now is the time to recognize the true implications of merge mining and the benefits to both coins. This is the moment, I believe these two undervalued coins receive the recognition and valuation they both deserve. I'm not being an unrealistic fan-boy when I say, today at Bitcoin price of ~$39,000, the fair Litecoin price is ~$10,000 and Dogecoin price is ~$5. Together, LTC and DOGE are stronger and better than Bitcoin. (Though BTC is still king). Allow me to prove my click bait...


Block Security

Most believe Block Security is all about the hashrate, it is not. Bitcoin uses SHA-256 and is completely dependent on the hashrate to provide security. Litecoin and Dogecoin use Scrypt which require memory along with hashrate. Comparing SHA-256 hashrate against Scrypt hasrate is literally like comparing apples to oranges. Bitcoin miners for example cannot attack the Litecoin Network and Litecoin miners cannot attack the Bitcoin Network.

In the past, blockchain networks have been attacked using the "51% attack" and then double-spend. Exchanges are usually the victims in this case as a successful 51% attack allows one to sell coin they do not own on the exchange. Since the 51% attack uses a percentage of total hashing power to attack a network, the greater a blockchain has in total hashing power for it's algorithm. (SHA-256 or Scrypt in these cases) The most dangerous time in Bitcoin's history was when Bitcoin Cash forked off in 2017.

As you can see, there was a couple of times in which Bitcoin Cash miners could have attacked the Bitcoin Network. Fortunately for both coins, an attack was never made, only a struggle for hashrate dominance with the Bitcoin name on the line.

Let's now compare Litecoin and Doge since they both use the same hashrate, Scrypt.

At first glance, it would seem that neither Litecoin nor Doge is very secure because they have exactly the same hashrate and miners can attack the other's network at any time. The difference, however, is that this hashrate for each coin is coming from the same miners, mining both coins at the same time, called merge mining. In the example above, the SHA-256 miners had to choose to either mine BTC or BCH. Since miners don't have to choose to either mine Litecoin or mine Dogecoin, the two coins add to each other's security. Together they are stronger and better.


Cost to Attack

The cost to attack Bitcoin or Litecoin and Dogecoin goes further into depth then I'd like to cover in this article, but to give you rough estimate, here is the cost-to-revenue a potential miner is expecting. As you can see, it's more expensive to mine Litecoin with a lower expected return on revenue. That makes a 51% attack on Litecoin more expensive to attempt then a 51% attack on Bitcoin. This translate to, "Litecoin is more secure than Bitcoin".

So why would one looking to be a cryptocurrency miner invest in mining for Litecoin if Bitcoin could generate more revenue? Let me introduce you to Dogecoin mining.

As you can see, a miner investing in Scrypt mining equipment will receive revenue from both Litecoin and Dogecoin! Together they are stronger and better.


Sustainability

Litecoin and Dogecoin are more sustainable together. I'm not talking about global warming and the saving of electricity. Though that will make a great article too. I'm talking about block rewards. Most of the revenue from mining blockchains come from the block reward, which for Bitcoin will end sometime around 2140. For Litecoin, block rewards will end sometime around 2142. Many developers have debated how blockchains will survive over the years while block reward is reduced by half every 4 years. Eventually transaction fees will have to replace block rewards to keep miners interested in mining. Big names like FakeSatoshi, Craig Wright have warned about an impending "miner death cycle". This is where the price of Bitcoin can no longer support miner revenue because the block rewards and transaction fees are too small in terms of fiat in order to maintain miner overhead.

Together Litecoin and Dogecoin aren't worried. Merge mining has already provided a solution. Dogecoin does not have halving events and so block rewards will continue forever, sustaining miner security for both LTC and DOGE. What's interesting is one of the pulls to Bitcoin is that there will never be more than 21 million BTC and one of the pulls to Litecoin is there will never be more than 84 million LTC. The purpose is to maintain value unlike fiat which continues to lose value over time. Doge doesn't have the same pull since it doesn't have a supply cap which is where Litecoiners step in. Litecoin is like Silver and Doge is like money. Litecoin brings in the miners and Dogecoin sustains the miners. A recent tweet from Charlie Lee, Creator of Litecoin, confirms just what I'm describing here. Together they are stronger and better.


For a more detailed discussion on Bitcoin, Litecoin and Doge compared to Gold, Sliver and money please read, "Litecoin is the Silver to Bitcoin's Gold: Is LTC & BTC comparable to Precious Metals?"


For a more detailed on the "other type" of sustainability, please read, "Bitcoin Accelerates Green Energy Infrastructure. Do Litecoin and Doge?"


Efficiency

By now you're starting to get the picture. Litecoin and Dogecoin are both more efficient together. All the electricity used to secure one also secures the other. While many have been trying to attack Bitcoin for it's "Energy Consumption", Litecoin and Dogecoin are more efficient. The energy consumed to secure Bitcoin is only securing one coin whereas the energy to secure Litecoin is also used to secure Dogecoin. Together they are stronger and better.


Developer Collaboration?

For many years Doge has not been improving, it's weakest metric is a lack of innovation. The removing of halving events is innovation and so is merge mining. We can see how these innovations improves Litecoin and we see how the two coins are stronger together. Imagine if Dogecoin added SegWit, the Lightning Network, and MimbleWimble? Imagine cross-chain atomic swaps between Litecoin and Dogecoin as easy and similar to moving fiat from a savings account to a checking account? I believe developers should collaborate in improving both coins as improvement would benefit both coins. Together they are stronger and better.


Community Collaboration?

Miners are united. There is no reason for each coin's community to not unite. A Dogecoin enthusiast recently asked if Charlie Lee would add Doge to his background image which currently has Bitcoin and Litecoin united and working together on the Lightning Network. Bitcoin is great, but maximalism is poison. It is not benefiting Litecoin to unite with a blockchain that sees Litecoin as a competitor or a "Testnet". The Litecoin community could encourage developers to add previously mentioned innovation to Doge. The Dogecoin community's memes and marketing are the best on Crypto-Twitter.


Best Friends Forever!

My motivation to write this article is to explain the many benefits to the forgotten innovation of merge mining. In reality, the two coins are sleeping giants that Doge just proved with its price action. Neither is better than Bitcoin, but together they are stronger and better than Bitcoin. Doge is Litecoin's Best Friend! Isn't it time you "Looked into Litecoin"?


Follow me on Twitter: The Litecoin Eagle @EagleESBD


P.S. A reminder of Roger Ver's 3 favorite coins contending to be the world's dominant cryptocurrency. Doge, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash. We now know which 2 are going to be the world's dominant cryptocurrency because they aren't contending with each other


Further reading found here:




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