Bitcoin has long been considered the king of cryptocurrency. This was the first crypto token to emerge. Since its creation in 2009, the price of Bitcoin has grown exponentially. It currently has the largest market capitalization of all the cryptos at over $60 billion. Despite this fact, it is not a perfect cryptocurrency. Many investors and users are looking for alternatives. Two popular altcoins that could serve as viable Bitcoin replacements are Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. In this article, we look at both altcoins and compare them against Bitcoin.

The problems with Bitcoin

First, we should look at the problems Bitcoin has, and why people are looking for alternatives. There is no denying that Bitcoin has deviated from the original ideas set out in Satoshi Nakamoto’s whitepaper. It doesn’t serve as the appropriate currency for daily use. Why? The following are some current issues Bitcoin is facing:

Scarcity and scalability. Bitcoin has a limited scope – there can only be 21 million Bitcoin in existence. This obviously limits the benefits that the customers can reap. Moreover, there can only be a certain number of transactions processed during a specific time period (namely, 3-7 transactions per second). Both of these factors mean that Bitcoin does not scale well.

Governance. Bitcoin was meant to be a decentralized currency with no governance. This was true to start, but as the coin grew, it was clear that some form of governance was needed. Developers had to come together to discuss the future of the coin and gain some form of control. This obviously goes against the original premise of Bitcoin.

Security. Whilst protocol layer security remains exceptional, application layer security has proven lackluster for Bitcoin. There have been many instances of the Bitcoin Wallet providers being hacked and exploits being found.

Which is a better version of Bitcoin?

Now that you understand the issues with Bitcoin, we can look at two suitable alternative currencies. We have chosen Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. Bitcoin Cash is actually a hard fork of Bitcoin and shares much in common with the original currency version. Bitcoin Cash was created to address the issues with Bitcoin and has a great community of supporters. It has a current market cap of $2.2 billion.

Litecoin was one of the earliest “spin-off” currencies that used many Bitcoin principles. It was developed and released in 2011 and remains one of the top cryptocurrencies in circulation. Whilst Litecoin does bear similarities to Bitcoin, it still has some major differences that are beneficial, as you will see below.

Litecoin: advantages and disadvantages

Litecoin is a fantastic altcoin and a viable Bitcoin alternative. Currently, Litecoin has a market cap of $1.9 billion. The following are some of the main pros and cons of this cryptocurrency:

Pros:

  • Open-source technology which allows for easy updates and changes
  • Faster transactions: up to 56 transactions per second
  • Lower transaction fees in comparison to Bitcoin ($0.021 vs $0.22)
  • A higher amount of total coins in circulation – 84 million compared to Bitcoin’s 21 million
  • Greater security through faster transaction processing times

Cons:

  • Bitcoin has made strides to negate the uniqueness of Litecoin through the SegWit update
  • Credibility: several key supporters of Litecoin have pulled out, which has reduced its credibility

From this, we can see that Litecoin has a heap of positives. It certainly addresses many of the issues that plague Bitcoin. The faster transaction time alone is a fantastic positive, and this also means the usability is better too. Litecoin is traded on many cryptocurrency exchanges and it can be used in a variety of different ways. All that it lacks in comparison to Bitcoin is trading volume and market capitalization – unfortunately, altcoins such as this will always have to play catch-up with Bitcoin as it was the original cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin Cash: advantages and disadvantages

Bitcoin Cash is the first successful hard fork of Bitcoin. It was released in August 2017 and since then has seen huge growth and circulation. Bitcoin Cash was devised to address the need for an increase in Bitcoin’s block size. A portion of the Bitcoin community argued for this development and thus decided to create the hard fork – Bitcoin Cash. The following are some of the main pros and cons of this cryptocurrency:

Pros:

  • An increased block size of 32mb (from Bitcoin’s 1mb), which improves efficiency
  • Enhanced security to prevent potential wipe-outs or replay issues
  • Great support: Bitcoin Cash is already supported by all major crypto exchanges

Cons:

  • Struggles to define a brand and splits within the coin itself have caused a lack of investor faith
  • Smaller adoption: As of yet, Bitcoin Cash lacks a point of mainstream adoption

Bitcoin Cash also clearly has many advantages. The increased block size is a huge benefit and gives it a large advantage over Bitcoin. Furthermore, the support and security are top-notch too. Bitcoin Cash has a high market capitalization and has overtaken Litecoin. The only issue is that it does not have widespread practical usage or adoption. If this does not improve, Bitcoin Cash will ultimately fail. After all, its primary purpose is to become a digital currency – if you can’t spend it anywhere, what is its point?

Conclusion

After comparing these two altcoins, it would appear that Litecoin actually has the advantage. It looks to have a greater number of positives and also has better support. The faster transactions and large total cap really are important pointers that work in its favor.

Bitcoin Cash should theoretically be the better version of Bitcoin – it was created with this purpose in mind. Currently, however, it must have greater support and adoption to truly be the better version of Bitcoin. Moreover, if Bitcoin improves upon the issues it is experiencing, the discussion would be fruitless. Only time will tell which coin will prevail – it is more likely that we will see a future where several different altcoins such as Ethereum, Litecoin, XRP and Bitcoin Cash will all play an important role in the industry.