The short answer is efficiency. Litecoin’s scripting language is limited, and the fee market for LTC transactions is competitive. Every LTC transfer costs real money and takes meaningful block space. Routing all LitVM gas fees through native LTC would mean thousands of LTC-level transactions per day just for gas. zkLTC solves this by existing as a first-class citizen on LitVM itself — a standard ERC-20 token that happens to represent LTC utility. Fees on LitVM are paid in zkLTC, and the economics are decoupled from LTC base chain congestion.
zkLTC on LitVM testnet is test tokens only and has no monetary value. The bridge to mint real zkLTC on mainnet will go live alongside the mainnet launch.
To move value from Litecoin mainnet to LitVM, users send LTC to a bridge contract on the Litecoin chain. The bridge monitors this deposit, validates it through Litecoin’s proof-of-work, and mints the equivalent zkLTC on LitVM. The reverse works the same way: burn zkLTC on LitVM → the bridge releases LTC on mainnet. This is a trustless, non-custodial bridge because: • The bridge contract on Litecoin is a simple timelocked vault • LitVM posts validity proofs to Litecoin that include the canonical state of the bridge • If the bridge tries to cheat (release LTC without a valid burn), the validity proof would be invalid
Go to the LitVM faucet page from the navigation. Connect your MetaMask or Rabby wallet.
If you haven’t added LitVM testnet yet, the faucet will prompt you to add it automatically. Approve the network addition in your wallet.
Click "Claim" and confirm the transaction in your wallet. You’ll receive a set amount of test zkLTC instantly. There’s a cooldown between claims to prevent abuse.
On mainnet, the bridge UI allows you to send LTC from your wallet to the bridge contract. After the proof is validated (typically a few Litecoin blocks), zkLTC appears in your LitVM wallet.
Gas fees on LitVM are significantly lower than Ethereum L2s because the validity proofs mean Litecoin nodes don’t need to process every transaction. A typical ERC-20 transfer on LitVM costs fractions of a cent at LTC’s current price.