I'm a huge believer in competition and I think LTC has what it takes, because it's got the same "perfect money" profile as BTC with all of the same inherent strengths and potential weaknesses. I would like to see LTC grow and offer a strong secondary alternative to bitcoins, especially in the eventual brick and mortar world, where it would actually be more useful than BTC thanks to its far faster confirmation times.
LTC is no real competitor to BTC because it is basically just relabeled BTC. Confirmations are a tool against double spends, and the actual level of security is in the roam of network hashing power * number of confirmations * average block time. So for each confirmation on BTC one has to wait probably 10 on LTC, in other words, way longer, to get the same level of security against a double spend.Well, the more the merrier then. I'm a huge fan of bitcoin, but I'm also a huge fan of the derivative nature of all human progress, and I see LTC picking up in bitcoin's shadow as more people adopt BTC as a payment method. I'm sure it will be driven almost entirely by speculative fervor, for a time, but it does have a bright future. My little bit of hashing power is just another check and balance on a wonderful idea!
