Talk:Litecoin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Litecoin article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the subject of the article. |
Article policies
|
| Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
| This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Uleksite.
Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 00:11, 18 January 2022 (UTC)
Secondary Sources
Litecoin.org is not a reliable source. You're going to need to find secondary coverage from somewhere if this page is going to stay alive. — Preceding unsigned comment added by HowardStrong (talk • contribs)
- Agreed. As of right now, a Google News search for Litecoin results in nothing. This alone doesn't mean anything, but it would be easier to defend this new currency's notability if there were more reliable secondary sources talking about it right now. Talk within the Bitcoin community seems to be easy to find, but that's not generally useful. --Ds13 (talk) 23:17, 20 October 2012 (UTC)
- Is a subject notable if it's widely discussed in a huge circle or two? I mean, high schools get articles for similar reasons.--HowardStrong (talk) 00:44, 21 October 2012 (UTC)
- A Google News search for "Litecoin" results in six pages of articles which include Litecoin in their contents, furthermore they include an article about Mt Gox, the worlds largest Bitcoin exchange, including LTC in the future to be traded for USD. Furthermore a detailed study has shown the LTC market cap to be 69 Million USD (http://cryptojunky.com/blog/2013/05/01/waiting-for-mt-godot-a-litecoin-market-cap-to-gdp-analysis/). Surely, an emergent technological phenomenon with a market cap of 69 Million USD and which is soon to be traded on the world's largest BTC / USD exchange deserves a detailed Wikipedia article? (CryptoAddicto (talk) 20:50, 1 May 2013 (UTC)).
Currently, this article has no significant press coverage and/or notability.
I just added two major news articles one featuring Litecoin from MIT Technology Review and an Economist article from Friday that mentions it. Rancor60 (talk) 01:58, 16 April 2013 (UTC)
When it can be proven it does, it can be returned to mainspace. — Preceding unsigned comment added by HowardStrong (talk • contribs) 01:22, 21 October 2012 (UTC)
- Please see my comment in the above section there are plenty of News Sources which mention Litecoin. (CryptoAddicto (talk) 20:51, 1 May 2013 (UTC))
The Litecoin Symbol
The correct symbol for Litecoin is the Ł. This was originally proposed on this Bitcoin Talk thread. Further, the Ł Litecoin symbol can be seen in common use on the Litecoin Global Exchange. However, attempting to add this symbol to the infobox results in an L character without the slash. I'm unsure if this is a bug in the infobox code. —Wikijeff (talk) 00:28, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
- I've fixed this. Cliff12345 (talk) 22:46, 2 January 2013 (UTC)
Returning to mainspace
This topic seems more notable now (due to new sources), so I'll move it back to mainspace. Cliff12345 (talk) 22:00, 18 April 2013 (UTC)
Uncited and false promotion material is not appropriate for Wikipedia
First point:
Litecoin is almost identical to bitcoin from a technical standpoint. There are literally two changes in bitcoin's codebase, three if you include a different genesis block. Describing it as "almost identical", or "identical apart from two changed parameters" is accurate and objective.
Second:
There is no credible source verifying that Scrypt is a "more mathetically secure hashing algorithm". This is false advertising on Wikipedia for financial gain and therefore not appropriate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Taktao (talk • contribs) 15:48, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
- the different hashing algorithms in use make litecoin different from bitcoin. So does different confimation time. Scrypt is more secure, it can't so easily be done by an ASIC/FPGA, since it has very high memory requirements. so it's more secure, one person can't easily come on with an asic and have half the hashing power. 198.144.156.55 (talk) 16:01, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
- I did not write that it is identical to bitcoin. A different hashing algorithm is just one of two changes from bitcoin. This makes it "almost identical" to bitcoin, which is what I wrote. "Almost identical" is not the same thing as "identical", so please stop claiming that I wrote the latter. Almost every line of code in litecoin's source code is from bitcoin's codebase.
- As for Scrypt, it is NOT more secure. There is no evidence that making it more difficult to develop a FPGA/ASIC for it makes it more secure. These kind of speculative claims don't belong on Wikipeida.
- In fact, Scrypt is less widely used and has been less tested than SHA256, so a case could be made that it's less secure. Taktao (talk) 16:04, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
- Have a look at scrypt Such a trade off often exists in computer algorithms: you can increase speed at the cost of using more memory, or decrease memory requirements at the cost of performing more operations and taking longer. The idea behind scrypt is to deliberately make this trade off costly in either direction. Thus an attacker could use an implementation that doesn't require many resources (and can therefore be massively parallelized with limited expense) but runs very slowly, or they could use an implementation that runs more quickly but has very large memory requirements and is therefore more expensive to parallelize. the point is that you need to spend huge amounts of money in order to meet the memory requirements. 198.144.156.55 (talk) 16:08, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
- That doesn't support the implication of your claim that it's widely accepted as being more secure. It's more difficult to do using parallelized processes, and the design goal was to make it more secure, but there's no consensus that this approach actually makes it "more secure". Furthermore, litecoin's implementation of Scrypt uses a small scrypt size, so the claim that it's memory hard is questionable Taktao (talk) 16:13, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
- If it costs more money/more computer power to form some sort of attack on litecoin, then it must be more secure, attackers have to spend more money to cause harm. It must be at least a good bit more taxing on memory than other proof of work schemes, as the litecoin hash rate is far lower than any of the sha ones, despite being bigger than all but bitcoin. ((https://vircurex.com/ at the bottom) 198.144.156.55 (talk) 17:11, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
- It costs more to develop an FPGA/ASIC, not to attack litecoin. Also, costing more to develop specialized hardware will make it easier for a wealthy attacker to get a monopoly over litecoin by being the only one able to afford to develop ASICs for it. This would make it less secure. Wikipedia is not a place to put personal opinions that are contested by others Taktao (talk) 17:41, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
- If it costs more money/more computer power to form some sort of attack on litecoin, then it must be more secure, attackers have to spend more money to cause harm. It must be at least a good bit more taxing on memory than other proof of work schemes, as the litecoin hash rate is far lower than any of the sha ones, despite being bigger than all but bitcoin. ((https://vircurex.com/ at the bottom) 198.144.156.55 (talk) 17:11, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
- That doesn't support the implication of your claim that it's widely accepted as being more secure. It's more difficult to do using parallelized processes, and the design goal was to make it more secure, but there's no consensus that this approach actually makes it "more secure". Furthermore, litecoin's implementation of Scrypt uses a small scrypt size, so the claim that it's memory hard is questionable Taktao (talk) 16:13, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
- Have a look at scrypt Such a trade off often exists in computer algorithms: you can increase speed at the cost of using more memory, or decrease memory requirements at the cost of performing more operations and taking longer. The idea behind scrypt is to deliberately make this trade off costly in either direction. Thus an attacker could use an implementation that doesn't require many resources (and can therefore be massively parallelized with limited expense) but runs very slowly, or they could use an implementation that runs more quickly but has very large memory requirements and is therefore more expensive to parallelize. the point is that you need to spend huge amounts of money in order to meet the memory requirements. 198.144.156.55 (talk) 16:08, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
- In fact, Scrypt is less widely used and has been less tested than SHA256, so a case could be made that it's less secure. Taktao (talk) 16:04, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
Why don't you make a criticism section for litecoin where you can discuss claims that it's almost identical 198.144.156.55 (talk) 17:37, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
I've made a request for comment, we don't seem to be getting anywhere. 198.144.156.55 (talk) 18:03, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
- This is minor semantics and I have no problem with not mentioning that Scrypt is more secure than Bitcoin's algorithm unless a credible source can be found which supports this. The important thing is to be working on the article as Litecoin is a significant technological phenomenon which deserves a detailed Wikipedia article(CryptoAddicto (talk) 20:54, 1 May 2013 (UTC))
References
here are some useful references for the article: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/513661/bitcoin-isnt-the-only-cryptocurrency-in-town/ http://www.heise.de/tr/artikel/Kein-Chance-auf-ein-Monopol-1842133.html http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Bitcoin-trotz-Hackerattacken-auf-naechstem-Rekordhoch-1837180.html http://bitcoinmagazine.com/trace-mayer-on-fox-business-why-bitcoin-is-just-getting-started/ http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9238328/Bitcoin_rival_Ripple_looks_to_make_waves http://dustcoin.com/mining http://libertycrier.com/forum/top-5-things-you-should-know-about-litecoin/ http://thegenerallifeblog.blogspot.ca/2013/04/3-reasons-why-i-now-like-litecoin.html http://tedstake.monumentalnetwork.com/bitcoin-and-litecoin/index.jsp http://t3n.de/news/3-bitcoin-alternativen-litecoin-459549/ http://metro.co.uk/2013/04/18/bitcoin-by-numbers-is-online-currency-a-bursting-bubble-or-the-future-of-money-3619419/ http://www.oroyfinanzas.com/2013/04/diferencias-bitcoin-litecoin/ http://www.pianetatech.it/internet/attualita/bitcoin-non-e-lunica-moneta-virtuale-in-campo-ppcoin-e-litecoin-due-alternative.html http://www.proactiveinvestors.com/columns/casey-research/3689/the-money-wars-3689.html http://www.tagblatt.ch/aktuell/digital/Drei-Alternativen-zu-Bitcoin;art119505,3370967 http://www.zdnet.com/zdnet-app-wrap-april-8-2013-7000013650/ http://computerworld.nl/e-commerce/76078-10-alternatieven-voor-bitcoin http://tmgonlinemedia.nl/consent/consent/?return=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraaf.nl%2Fdft%2Fgoeroes%2Fthijsvanuchelen%2F21501473%2F__Silicon_Valley_in_virtueel_geld__.html&clienttime=1366740495975&version=0&detect=true 198.144.156.55 (talk) 15:56, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
- I don't know if this is a response to my comment. If so, first of all those references are not all credible news stories: some are blog posts, and second, the reliable news sources do not support the claims made, and do not refute the fact that litecoin is "almost identical" to bitcoin. In fact, one of the referenced articles, from the Economist, goes as far as it calling it a "clone" of bitcoin. --Taktao (talk) 15:59, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
- It wasn't a response, the response post is above. (this is just to suggest references which could be used to create information on litecoin) 198.144.156.55 (talk) 16:02, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
- I don't know if this is a response to my comment. If so, first of all those references are not all credible news stories: some are blog posts, and second, the reliable news sources do not support the claims made, and do not refute the fact that litecoin is "almost identical" to bitcoin. In fact, one of the referenced articles, from the Economist, goes as far as it calling it a "clone" of bitcoin. --Taktao (talk) 15:59, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
RfC
The main reason for the request for comment is that I and a few others (User:CryptoAddicto, User:Strike_Eagle, User:Coin12349) want to include information about the memory intensive nature/confirmation times and how some claim this makes litecoin superior to bitcoin, User:Taktao does not want this. Taktao also wishes to say that litecoin is almost identical to bitcoin, whereas I and the others mentioned want so say that it's similar. We haven't really gotten anywhere (just reverting each others edits repeatedly). 198.144.156.55 (talk) 17:52, 24 April 2013 (UTC)
- Comment - It obviously should mention the differences between proofs of work, and the implications of that. But it should be obvious that those discussions need to stop short of making claims of superiority of one over the other. This is an easy answer, from what I can see. If there needs to be discussion of those implications then it needs to be done in a balanced way. Shadowjams (talk) 03:03, 26 April 2013 (UTC)
- Comment - Shadowjams is correct. Differences that have secondary sourcing should be noted in the article. Claims from supporters about how those differences make Litecoin superior may also be noted, but such claims must be attributed to supporters (e.g. "supporters claim that ..."). LK (talk) 06:48, 26 April 2013 (UTC)
- Well put. And I'm somewhat familiar with both btc and ltc... the issues you guys are debating are very much up in the air at the moment. The only neutral way to discuss this is how LK describes it. Shadowjams (talk) 11:25, 26 April 2013 (UTC)
- Why don't we simply say in the article that this issue is currently being debated in the Crypto community? As this seems to be what is actually occuring. I also agree that where no reference can be found the wording should be "supporters claim" etc etc. If credible sources are found for either point of view they can be included. Obviously regarding transaction and confirmation times the very code could be referenced as this is a cold, hard, mathematical certainty due to the code of Litecoin. (CryptoAddicto (talk) 20:56, 1 May 2013 (UTC))
- Comment from user invited by RfC bot. It doesn't matter what individuals uses want in the article; it matters what reliable sources say about the topic. If reliable sources say litecoin is superior to bitcoin, then include that. If reliable sources say litecoin is nearly identical to bitcoin, then include that. If reliable sources say litecoin is inferior to bitcoin, then include that. If reliable sources disagree, include all viewpoints. If reliable sources say nothing on the topic, do not include anything, as that would be original research. As others note above, such claims should be attributed to who claims them, and not written in the encyclopedias voice. -Nathan Johnson (talk) 12:16, 11 May 2013 (UTC)
- Comment Please research and study the reliable sources on this topic, then report what they say. Opinions don't matter unless they've been reported in reliable sources. GoodeOldeboy (talk) 14:41, 13 May 2013 (UTC)
We really cannot source even a rough price at all in the article.
while talking about pricing volatility, especially against bitcoin, could be interesting and relevant, we can't put a quoted price in there "as of a date." it's shot up dollars or more at a time in the timespan of a few minutes, several times this month alone. litecoin is simply FAR too volatile to cite anything concrete about pricing.
72.129.146.14 (talk) 04:44, 28 April 2013 (UTC)
- The Bitcoin Wikipedia article refers to changes in BTC's price over time and mentions its volatility - so there is no reason the same cannot be done here for Litecoin. Bitcoin prices are just as volatile if not more so than LTC (CryptoAddicto (talk) 20:59, 1 May 2013 (UTC))
Should a pump and dump scheme really get a wikipedia page?
There is no rational value behind Litecoin in any sense (contrast to Bitcoin's innovation and viability as a functioning currency), and gets its value from misrepresentations. Is a minor pump and dump scheme really content for Wikipedia? --Luke-Jr (talk) 08:32, 28 April 2013 (UTC)
- Your assertion that it is a pump and dump scheme needs support from reliable sources. Litecoin has attracted ongoing media coverage which establishes notability, unlike the criticism section which lacks any references. - Shiftchange (talk) 09:05, 28 April 2013 (UTC)
- This is nothing more than your own personal opinion, which is shared by absolutely nobody else of repute. Muldrake (talk) 02:18, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
- As a cryptocurrency expert who has studied Litecoin's design, I consider myself to be a reliable source/reference. --Luke-Jr (talk) 16:22, 29 April 2013 (UTC)
- I consider myself to be a reliable source/reference, Wikipedia doesn't operate in this manner (Wikipedia:No original research, Wikipedia:Expert_editors). Cliff12345 (talk) 17:13, 29 April 2013 (UTC)
- "[15:44] <luke-jr> coblee: I don't pretend to know how scrypt works." (http://pastebin.com/7UCqiwk6 line 72, Log date: Fri Jul 27 2012) - It is a learning process for all of us, do not proclaim yourself an expert in the area you did not know anything about less then a year ago. CryptoDefender (talk) 22:01, 29 April 2013 (UTC)
- As a cryptocurrency expert who has studied Litecoin's design, I consider myself to be a reliable source/reference. --Luke-Jr (talk) 16:22, 29 April 2013 (UTC)
- The last thing any Bitcoin advocate who has any stake in Bitcoin should be doing is referring to another cryptographic currency as a pump-and-dump scheme. 69.246.218.13
- Like-Jr Litecoin has proved itself as a viable coin. If you wanna throw stones, go throw them at CHNCoin or Novacoin or Feathercoin (true pump and dump coins by design)- 5mil (Also, general concensus would probably show that you have not been knowledgeable of litecoin, and have in fact attacked it without knowledge from the beginning. ) Should anyone really ever listen to Luke Jr? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.153.8.106 (talk) 19:45, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
- Do you have a credible source for this claim Luke? If so in the interests of objectivity we can include this as a minority extremist viewpoint - but I do not think there are any credible references for this claim (unreferenced speculation on the Bitcoin wiki is not a credible source)(CryptoAddicto (talk) 21:02, 1 May 2013 (UTC))
Remove the Criticism section
It lacks a single reference from a notable source that backs up the assertions made therein. What is the normal time frame to allow such references to be attached? Statecraft (talk) 19:37, 28 April 2013 (UTC)
- I would give it a few days considering it was added yesterday. Maybe towards the end of the week if it remains unreferenced it should be removed. There isn't really a normal time frame. If the article was more obscure and edited less often it may be appropriate to wait longer. - Shiftchange (talk) 23:48, 28 April 2013 (UTC)
- I agree. However, while waiting, please take your time to examine (in detail) the following section ("Criticism section details, explanation and history"). CryptoDefender (talk) 07:14, 29 April 2013 (UTC)
- I've undone an edit which appeared to put a lot of wrong, irrelevant or biased information into the criticism section, as I think this improves the section. I think that Litecoin should have a criticism section however, as not everyone supports it (though I agree that we should try to find some references). Perhaps an advantages section could be added too? (this is the edit I made http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=552752730&oldid=552751748) Cliff12345 (talk) 17:20, 29 April 2013 (UTC)
- I agree. However, while waiting, please take your time to examine (in detail) the following section ("Criticism section details, explanation and history"). CryptoDefender (talk) 07:14, 29 April 2013 (UTC)
- Yes, if there are credible references for the criticisms than I suppose they can be included like anything else on Wikipedia, but at this stage I am not aware of any. (CryptoAddicto (talk) 21:04, 1 May 2013 (UTC))


