Like Bitcoin, Litecoin operates on an open-source blockchain that isn’t under the control of a single central authority, meaning it is decentralized in nature. To ensure that new transactions don’t contradict the blockchain’s transaction history, each Litecoin node operator has a copy of the blockchain, and miners assist in processing new transactions by compiling them in a block and broadcasting them to the network.

When mining LTC, miners often create ‘Orphan Blocks’ as the network has a shorter block verification time. An orphan block is created when two miners complete a block at nearly the same time. 

Key Utilities

The key utilities of Litecoin lie in the reduction of the time it takes to validate a new block and its ability to increase storage efficiency. Furthermore, the reduction in validation time makes:

• Transactions faster 
• Increases scalability
• And reduces transaction fees.

Additional Features
Since it is based on the BTC blueprint, Litecoin has a limited supply of 84 million tokens and follows a similar halving process. In a halving process, the mining rewards for Litecoin split every 4 years. This ensures the stability of the Litecoin network as new coins enter the market at a lower rate.

Litecoin also uses a separate hashing algorithm called Scrypt which is designed to be more secure than alternative functions against hardware brute-force attacks.

Interestingly, LTC is also a privacy cryptocurrency, due to an upgrade called the MWEB (Mimblewimble Extension Block). This upgrade allows users to turn on a privacy feature that ensures their transactions are private and anonymous meaning that the transaction amount is known only to the sender and receiver.