How to Buy Litecoin with PayPal
There are many reasons why you might be considering purchasing Litecoin. After all, among the altcoins currently on the market, Litecoin has some key points that make it stand out. For example, it was developed following the model of Bitcoin by a former Google engineer. Additionally, many cryptocurrency experts believe it to be more secure due to its unique choice of encryption algorithm. Whatever your reason might be for buying Litecoin, if you intend to do so using PayPal, there are a few things you need to know. This guide will shed light on the issue.
1. The Basics About Buying Litecoin — A Litecoin Wallet
When preparing to purchase Litecoin, you need to first familiarize yourself with the overall process that is involved when purchasing any type of cryptocurrency. First, you will need a wallet. By this, we are not referring to a nice bi-fold made of genuine leather. We are referring in this case specifically to a Litecoin wallet.
This consists of a set of two alphanumeric keys — one private and one public. The private key you should safeguard at all times. This is what you use to authorize your Litecoin to be transferred to another party on the Litecoin blockchain.
The public key is what you will need when you are purchasing Litecoin. It is the public key that informs the seller where to send the Litecoin. In other words, it is what routes the Litecoin that you purchased to you. Think of it similarly as you would giving someone your bank routing information so they may send you money.
Litecoin wallets can come in many forms. We have guides and articles about the variety of cryptocurrency wallets that are available. Feel free to check them out to gain further insight on how to open a Litecoin wallet, the specifics of the different types, and how they work. Suffice it to say the process for obtaining one is fast and simple.
As you will discover in the following sections of this guide, when you obtain a Litecoin wallet you would be best served to get one that allows for multiple cryptocurrencies — especially Bitcoin. Alternatively, when you obtain your Litecoin wallet, also get one for Bitcoin.
2. Some Bad News and Good News
Before you proceed deeper into this guide, it is important to make you aware of the fact that there currently is no direct way to purchase Litecoin with PayPal as a form of payment.
The fact that there is no direct method for doing so, however, does not mean that there aren’t workarounds.
You should, however, ask yourself if you have an overriding reason why you wish to purchase Litecoin with PayPal. If you have no qualms or issues with purchasing Litecoin with a credit card, debit card, bank transfer, or cash — then you might be best served to utilize one of those payment methods. We also have guides available for each of those forms of payment.
3. Basics of the Workarounds
The workarounds for purchasing Litecoin with PayPal involve you having to first purchase another cryptocurrency with PayPal and then using the services of a cryptocurrency exchange to acquire Litecoin with the cryptocurrency that you purchased.
When it comes to PayPal as a form of payment, you will essentially be limited to the purchase of Bitcoin. That means that you will be exchanging Bitcoin for Litecoin.
4. First Getting the Bitcoin
We have an entire guide dedicated to the process of buying Bitcoin with PayPal. We strongly urge you to give that guide a thorough read in order to help you develop a detailed idea of what purchasing Bitcoin with PayPal involves. For the purposes of its role in helping you to acquire Litecoin, we will provide an abridged explanation here.
Peer to Peer Marketplaces
Peer-to-peer marketplaces are online platforms that do not sell Bitcoin directly to you. Instead, they bring independent buyers and sellers together.
This means that each seller can impose unique conditions on the transaction. Some will have tight identification verification requirements which would require you to submit copies of your identification and proof of address. Also, being an open marketplace, there may not always be sell offers in the amount of Bitcoin that you require for your Litecoin acquisition. Additionally, the individual sellers may impose a fee structure of their own choosing, especially when PayPal is used as the method of payment.
That being said, the two best peer-to-peer marketplaces for acquiring Bitcoin with PayPal are Paxful and LocalBitcoins. Paxful comes with the benefit of offering a free online Bitcoin wallet to its users. Also, when the time comes to move your Bitcoin out of your Paxful wallet to acquire your Litecoin, they only assess the bitcoin blockchain’s miner fee, nothing else.
Virwox
Virwox is a cryptocurrency exchange that deals primarily with Linden Dollars, a virtual currency used in the virtual reality game known as Second Life. Virwox allows you to purchase these Linden Dollars on their platform with PayPal. You can then convert those Linden Dollars to Bitcoin. You would then use that Bitcoin to acquire Litecoin.
5. Converting Bitcoin to Litecoin via an Online Wallet
If you use the services of Cryptonator or Coinomi as your online cryptocurrency wallet, you will be able to exchange your Bitcoin for Litecoin through your wallet. There is no need to go through the services of another exchange.
In the case of Cryponator, they do not assess any fees for this type of exchange. They monetize their business model through the spread in buy and sell prices of the exchange rate that they quote you. Coinomi does charge a fee. This, however, is dynamically generated and will vary based on the size of your transaction and prevailing market conditions. It will normally be under five percent.
6. Changelly
Changelly is a cryptocurrency exchange that offers a simple and easy to understand platform to exchange the Bitcoin that you acquired with PayPal for Litecoin. Changelly also has the benefit of charging a low 0.5 percent fee.
For ease of use, speed, and cost — Changelly is a powerful option.
Visit Changelly Now7. Alternatives to PayPal with BitPanda
If you don’t mind using alternate third-party payment processors similar to PayPal, such as Skrill or Neteller, then you could use the cryptocurrency exchange known as BitPanda to purchase Litecoin directly.
When used in this manner, the BitPanda platform is straightforward. You simply select Litecoin as the cryptocurrency that you wish to purchase. You then select either NetTeller or Skrill as the method of payment. Finally, you indicate how much you wish to spend denominated in Euro. This will automatically show you how much you get in Litecoin.
The exchange rate that you will be quoted for your Litecoin purchase may not be on par with current market rates, but the slight fluctuation accounts for the fact that BitPanda does not assess a separate transaction fee.
Given the fact that you skipped the process of having to first acquire Bitcoin and then exchange it for Litecoin, going through BitPanda by using Skrill or Neteller can be an effective replacement for buying Litecoin directly with PayPal.
8. Conclusion
It is possible that in the future there will be direct methods to purchase Litecoin with PayPal. In the interim, if you feel it prudent to use PayPal for that purpose you will have to go through the added steps described above. However, even with those extra steps, the process cannot be described as difficult nor lengthy. Buying Litecoin with PayPal — be it indirectly — is still something that can be accomplished in a time frame measured in minutes.