Litecoin (LTC) is a peer to peer cryptocurrency created in October 2011 by Charlie Lee, a former Google engineer. It was designed as a lighter, faster companion to Bitcoin and is often described as the silver to Bitcoin's gold. Litecoin produces a new block roughly every 2.5 minutes, compared with about 10 minutes for Bitcoin, so payments confirm sooner and fees stay low. It uses the Scrypt proof of work algorithm and has a maximum supply of 84 million coins. Litecoin has run for more than a decade without major interruption, and it is commonly used for payments and for moving value between exchanges and wallets.