Litecoin was the currency designed to be a ‘lite’ version of Bitcoin, the ‘Silver to Bitcoin gold’. As the Bitcoin price has skyrocketed, Litecoin has stirred a little and it is becoming more recognized.
With Bitmain releasing Scrypt mining hardware potentially, and with the Innosilicon offerings, it is likely that Scrypt mining and network security for Litecoin will see much growth during 2017, although with increased difficulties. Now does not seem a good time to sell coins, as if Litecoin deploys the ability to scale for the Lightning network first, it is likely we will see some price gains.
WARNING: The above is merely my opinion and speculation and should not be taken as gospel for investment advice!
It is likely that this growth will see many older unprofitable Scrypt miners drop off the network, but it seems like the KNC Titan and A4 Dominator will be good for a few difficulty jumps yet, but it is likely the A4 Dominator will be obsolete much earlier during the hardware lifecycle than the KNC Titan was.
If proven true, the Bitmain L3 will be a game changer in the Scrypt mining world where difficulty and network security are concerned:
It is recommended not to invest in any Scrypt mining hardware at the current price points, especially the crazy eBay prices until more information is available. It is likely many eBay sellers are yet unaware of the L3 rumors.
It is likely that Litecoin will gain further adoption as well as Bitcoin, and both have their uses as a cryptocurrency.
2017 will be an interesting year for Crypto! Happy mining!