Widely considered as the first successful altcoin, Litecoin’s 2011 release inspired countless developers to try to expand the crypto user base by altering Bitcoin’s code and utilizing it to launch different networks.
While Litecoin was not the first cryptocurrency to copy Bitcoin’s code and alter its features, it is one of the most significant ones (historically speaking). However, Litecoin was not only slightly modifying Bitcoin’s source code, but also created several revolutionary features, such as the Lightning Network and Segregated Witness.
Rather than acting as competition to Bitcoin, Litecoin positioned itself as a friendly cryptocurrency with slightly different goals.