Comparison of Core Narratives of LTC (Digital Silver) and BTC (Digital Gold) 1. Positioning: BTC focuses on long-term value storage and inflation hedging, mirroring gold's "value preservation" attribute; LTC focuses on small-amount, high-frequency payments and circulation settlement, mirroring silver's "everyday practicality" attribute, serving as a supplement to BTC's payment function. 2. Total Supply: BTC has a total supply of 21 million coins, making it extremely scarce, matching gold's "rare reserve" characteristic; LTC has a total supply of 84 million coins, four times that of BTC, with slightly lower scarcity but better liquidity, corresponding to silver's "slightly scarce, widely circulated" characteristics. 3. Block Generation and Efficiency: BTC has a block generation time of 10 minutes, slow confirmation, and volatile transaction fees, emphasizing security and stability; LTC has a block generation time of 2.5 minutes, fast confirmation, and lower transaction fees, suitable for... 4. Mining and Popularization: BTC uses the SHA-256 algorithm, which easily leads to centralized computing power and has a high barrier to entry; LTC initially used the Scrypt algorithm, which has a lower barrier to entry and is easier to decentralize and popularize, aligning with silver's easier accessibility and wider audience compared to gold. 5. Market Linkage: The two are strongly correlated in price, with BTC dominating market direction and LTC following the fluctuations with greater elasticity, similar to the traditional pattern where gold dominates precious metals markets and silver follows with greater volatility. 6. Core Development: BTC's core focus is on deepening its role as a "store of value," promoting ETFs and institutional holdings; LTC initially focused on "payment," later shifting towards ecosystem supplementation, always anchoring itself to the consensus of silver playing a "supporting role" to BTC. II. Key Milestones in LTC's Digital Silver Narrative Weakening and Transformation 1. After 2017, the rise of stablecoins like USDT, seizing control of the "small-amount payment, circulation settlement" market, diluted LTC's original core payment advantage and weakened the practical foundation of its silver narrative. 2. Starting in 2020, the DeFi and public chain ecosystems exploded, shifting market focus to "smart contracts and ecosystem value." LTC, lacking native smart contract functionality and relying solely on its payment attributes as a silver narrative, saw its appeal continuously decline. 3. Starting in 2023, LTC initiated a core upgrade, promoting the implementation of the LitVM virtual machine and attempting to introduce smart contract functionality. This aimed to move beyond its simple "payment supplement" positioning and transform from a "digital silver" to a coin "combining payment and ecosystem" capabilities.