Litecoin [1] is one of the largest alternative crypto-currencies and was one of the first alt-coins. It is based upon the same source code as Bitcoin with some minor alterations. The idea behind light coin was to make a light weight, easily spendable version of Bitcoin used for low value transactions (coffee, shopping etc.). Litecoin largely grew in popularity due to its fair launch process, allowing the community to own a large and distributed share of the pie.
Charlie Lee, the creator of Litecoin often says that Litecoin is Silver to Bitcoins Gold. I can really see this analogy to be fairly accurate. However, regarding fundamental value, the author believes Litecoin to be a more valuable currency than silver with value of a quarter of Gold, given the numbers that Litecoin was created with. The author speculates that Litecoin is somewhat of a hybrid between currency and a quarter Gold.
Given the market capitalization of global fiat currencies is approximately $5 Trillion and the Gold market is around $7 Trillion [2]. It seems perfectly feasible that Litecoin could attain 2.5% of this asset pool, which would equate to a market cap of around $0.3 Trillion. If this were to be achieved, the value of 1 LTC would equal.... 0.3 Trillion / 84 Million = Roughly $3500.
Conclusion:
Litecoin is a crypto-currency with real intrinsic value and a strong track record. 10% of a diversified portfolio is a reasonable balance to aim for.
References:
I think you are taking the Bitcoin = Gold and Litecoin = Silver a bit too literally. Either way, I hope you're right about the future price ... In fact, I hope your prediction is vastly underestimated :-)
+drstoker thanks for your response. It was not my intent to make Litecoin out to be the digital equivalent of Silver. In fact it is the creator of Litecoin who holds this view point. To clarify, my valuation is based upon Litecoin being something of a hybrid akin to a quarter that of Gold, with the ability to spend akin to cash. All highly speculative.
Solid post. Nice to see I'm not the only one who thinks like this. Many people say the prices of cryptos are high but we also thought that about Amazon, Apple and Facebok last year. An interesting website I found: https://www.coincheckup.com They give great insights in the team, the product, advisors, community, the business and the business model and other techincal insights. Go to: https://www.coincheckup.com/coins/Litecoin#analysis For the Litecoin Investment research.