Litecoin is an open-sourced, decentralized cryptocurrency that was made as an early Bitcoin spinoff. It is nearly identical in technical aspects, as it uses a Proof-of-Work protocol. It is sometimes used as a pseudo-test for Bitcoin, adopting new protocol changes before they are deployed on Bitcoin. Its supporters like to use the phrase “Litecoin is the Silver to Bitcoin’s Gold.”
LTC was created in 2011 by Charlie Lee, an engineer who worked for Google and Coinbase, with an idea of creating a better version of Bitcoin, optimizing it for use as a medium of exchange. This is why Litecoin has 4 times larger max supply (84,000,000 LTC), with 4 times faster block creation speed (every 2.5 minutes), prioritizing accessibility and transaction speed.
In 2017, Charlie started the Litecoin foundation, which leads all Litecoin development, although many development ideas are provided by the community.