Litecoin (LTC) is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency launched in 2011 by Charlie Lee. It is one of the oldest altcoins, derived from the Bitcoin codebase but with a faster block time (around 2.5 minutes) and the Scrypt proof-of-work hashing algorithm.
The Litecoin API allows you to interact with the Litecoin network using JSON-RPC methods. Through the API, you can retrieve data about blocks, transactions, and the mempool, as well as broadcast new transactions to the network.
Check out our Litecoin API Quickstart guide for setup instructions, sample code, and your first API call.
Litecoin supports basic scripting, including SegWit and MWEB (MimbleWimble Extension Blocks) for privacy-preserving transactions, but does not have a full smart contract virtual machine like Ethereum.
Litecoin Core implements a standard JSON-RPC interface for querying blockchain data and submitting transactions, derived from Bitcoin Core.
When accessing the Litecoin network via a node provider like Alchemy, you use an API key to send transactions and retrieve data from the network.
You can use any HTTP client that supports JSON payloads, e.g. axios, fetch, requests, or curl. Bitcoin-Core-compatible libraries like bitcoin-core (Node.js) and python-bitcoinrpc also work with Litecoin's RPC interface.
The API works with any programming language that can send JSON over HTTP. Common choices include JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Go, and Java.
Litecoin transaction fees are paid in LTC. They are calculated per virtual byte (vByte) of transaction data and are used to incentivize miners to include transactions in blocks.
You can find a full list of supported JSON-RPC methods on the Litecoin API Overview page.
If you have any questions or feedback, please contact us at [email protected] or open a ticket in the Alchemy Dashboard.