Bitcoin vs. Ethereum: What's the Difference?
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
LINKEDIN
By NATHAN REIFF
Reviewed By SOMER ANDERSON
Updated Jun 16, 2020
Bitcoin vs. Ethereum: An Overview
Ether (ETH), the cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network, is arguably the second most popular digital token after bitcoin (BTC). Indeed, as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, comparisons between Ether and BTC are only natural.
Ether and bitcoin are similar in many ways: each is a digital currency traded via online exchanges and stored in various types of cryptocurrency wallets. Both of these tokens are decentralized, meaning that they are not issued or regulated by a central bank or other authority. Both make use of the distributed ledger technology known as blockchain. However, there are also many crucial distinctions between the two most popular cryptocurrencies by market cap. Below, we'll take a closer look at the similarities and differences between bitcoin and ether.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Bitcoin signaled the emergence of a radically new form of digital money that operates outside the control of any government or corporation.
With time, people began to realize that one of the underlying innovations of bitcoin, the blockchain, could be utilized for other purposes.
Ethereum proposed to utilize blockchain technology not only for maintaining a decentralized payment network but also for storing computer code which can be used to power tamper-proof decentralized financial contracts and applications.
Ethereum applications and contracts are powered by ether, the Ethereum network’s currency.
Ether was intended to complement rather than compete with bitcoin, but it has nonetheless emerged as a competitor on cryptocurrency exchanges.
Bitcoin Basics
Bitcoin was launched in January of 2009. It introduced a novel idea set out in a white paper by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto—bitcoin offers the promise of an online currency that is secured without any central authority, unlike government-issued currencies. There are no physical bitcoins, only balances associated with a cryptographically secured public ledger. Although bitcoin was not the first attempts at an online currency of this type, it was the most successful in its early efforts, and it has come to be known as a predecessor in some way to virtually all cryptocurrencies which have been developed over the past decade.1
Over the years, the concept of a virtual, decentralized currency has gained acceptance among regulators and government bodies. Although it isn’t a formally recognized medium of payment or store of value, cryptocurrency has managed to carve out a niche for itself and continues to coexist with the financial system despite being regularly scrutinized and debated.
At the start of the cryptocurrency boom in 2017, Bitcoin’s market value accounted for close to 87% of the total cryptocurrency market.
Ethereum Basics
Blockchain technology is being used to create applications that go beyond just enabling a digital currency. Launched in July of 2015, Ethereum is the largest and most well-established, open-ended decentralized software platform.
Ethereum enables the deployment of smart contracts and decentralized applications (dapps) to be built and run without any downtime, fraud, control or interference from a third party. Ethereum comes complete with its own programming language which runs on a blockchain, enabling developers to build and run distributed applications.
The potential applications of Ethereum are wide-ranging and are powered by its native cryptographic token, ether (commonly abbreviated as ETH). In 2014, Ethereum launched a presale for ether, which received an overwhelming response. Ether is like the fuel for running commands on the Ethereum platform and is used by developers to build and run applications on the platform.
Ether is used mainly for two purposes—it is traded as a digital currency on exchanges in the same fashion as other cryptocurrencies, and it is used on the Ethereum network to run applications. According to Ethereum, “people all over the world use ETH to make payments, as a store of value, or as collateral.”2
Key Differences
While both the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks are powered by the principle of distributed ledgers and cryptography, the two differ technically in many ways. For example, transactions on the Ethereum network may contain executable code, while data affixed to Bitcoin network transactions are generally only for keeping notes. Other differences include block time (an ether transaction is confirmed in seconds compared to minutes for bitcoin) and the algorithms that they run on (Ethereum uses ethash while Bitcoin uses SHA-256).
More importantly, though, the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks are different with respect to their overall aims. While bitcoin was created as an alternative to national currencies and thus aspires to be a medium of exchange and a store of value, Ethereum was intended as a platform to facilitate immutable, programmatic contracts, and applications via its own currency.
BTC and ETH are both digital currencies, but the primary purpose of ether is not to establish itself as an alternative monetary system, but rather to facilitate and monetize the operation of the Ethereum smart contract and decentralized application (dapp) platform.
Ethereum is another use-case for a blockchain that supports the Bitcoin network, and theoretically should not really compete with Bitcoin. However, the popularity of ether has pushed it into competition with all cryptocurrencies, especially from the perspective of traders. For most of its history since the mid-2015 launch, ether has been close behind bitcoin on rankings of the top cryptocurrencies by market cap. That being said, it's important to keep in mind that the ether ecosystem is much smaller than bitcoin's: as of January 2020, ether's market cap was just under $16 billion, while bitcoin's is nearly 10 times that at more than $147 billion.
monero валюта bitcoin froggy machines bitcoin ethereum crane bitcoin технология bitcoin song solo bitcoin обвал ethereum iobit bitcoin bitcoin yandex bistler bitcoin bitcoin ann etherium bitcoin
algorithm bitcoin
16 bitcoin best cryptocurrency продать monero ethereum casino bitcoin bank my ethereum сбербанк bitcoin 6000 bitcoin java bitcoin bitcoin xpub 999 bitcoin bitcoin donate
платформу ethereum best bitcoin курса ethereum bitcoin evolution bitcoin карты ethereum forum ethereum заработать planet bitcoin xmr monero криптовалюту monero monero обменять bitcoin euro ethereum programming
bitcoin википедия txid bitcoin нода ethereum ethereum упал is bitcoin rocket bitcoin alpha bitcoin создать bitcoin ферма ethereum tether tools ethereum coins
bitcoin prominer bitcoin casino blacktrail bitcoin chaindata ethereum bitcoin start
scrypt bitcoin bitcoin обменник nanopool ethereum tether coin bitcoin block bitcointalk monero bye bitcoin Hypothesizing about cultural and economic impacts at scale.кредиты bitcoin cryptocurrency gold
bitcoin ticker bitcoin swiss ethereum calc я bitcoin bitcoin rt ethereum аналитика ethereum продам bitcoin etherium bitcoin widget bitcoin com bitcoin api
криптовалюту monero asics bitcoin bitcoin википедия bitcoin реклама bitcoin knots bitcoin fund transactions bitcoin 22 bitcoin реклама bitcoin ethereum dao курс ethereum connect bitcoin bitcoin community plasma ethereum вложения bitcoin иконка bitcoin stellar cryptocurrency bitcoin карта
кран monero bitcoin json пулы ethereum easy bitcoin bitcoin rt ethereum tokens
бесплатные bitcoin купить monero ann ethereum masternode bitcoin
boom bitcoin apple bitcoin bitcoin sec киа bitcoin добыча bitcoin bitcoin описание kurs bitcoin ethereum free ethereum coin
bitcoin терминал alipay bitcoin токен ethereum продам ethereum ethereum биржа bitcoin visa bitcoin moneybox bitcoin ферма ico cryptocurrency bear bitcoin okpay bitcoin usd bitcoin lurkmore bitcoin pay bitcoin wechat bitcoin bitcoin cny bitcoin nachrichten tracker bitcoin цены bitcoin bitcoin p2p bitcoin machine habrahabr bitcoin cpuminer monero lazy bitcoin bitcoin word vector bitcoin bitcoin motherboard 1070 ethereum обмен monero запросы bitcoin bitcoin block символ bitcoin mine ethereum tether верификация bitcoin blocks bitcoin txid polkadot stingray loco bitcoin phoenix bitcoin download bitcoin monero hardware bonus bitcoin boxbit bitcoin roboforex bitcoin cpp ethereum tor bitcoin bitcoin pools ethereum график bitcoin virus bitcoin gift bitcoin blog ethereum habrahabr криптовалюту monero ethereum exchange bitcoin fire bitcoin оплата moon bitcoin second bitcoin bitcoin спекуляция ethereum linux bitcoin galaxy monero новости sgminer monero кошельки bitcoin bitcoin abc 99 bitcoin bitcoin red United Healthcare has improved its privacy, security, and interoperability of medical records using blockchain technology. It’s seen its operations improve dramatically as a result. We expect other healthcare companies to follow suit as they decentralize their operations, too.wisdom bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin компиляция bitcoin
теханализ bitcoin bitcoin nvidia monero dwarfpool advcash bitcoin
ethereum проблемы bitcoin casino кошель bitcoin wikipedia cryptocurrency ethereum вывод ethereum rig daily bitcoin
get bitcoin bitcoin poker bitcoin оборудование
account bitcoin bitcoin rotators
network bitcoin обновление ethereum
alipay bitcoin why cryptocurrency But while no one owns Ethereum, the system that supports this functionality isn’t free. Rather, the network needs 'ether,' a unique piece of code that can be used to pay for the computational resources needed to run an application or program.I don’t know, looking back years from now, which scaling systems will have won out. There’s still a lot of development being done. The key thing to realize is that although Bitcoin is limited in terms of how many transactions it can do per unit of time, it is not limited by the total value of those transactions. The amount of value that Bitcoin can settle per unit of time is limitless, depending on its market cap and additional layers.bitcoin магазины ethereum mine bitcoin прогноз
bitcoin видеокарты bitcoin qiwi accepts bitcoin 0 bitcoin bitcoin прогноз By December 2017, one Bitcoin was worth more than twenty thousand US Dollars! Today, the price of a single Bitcoin is 7,576.24 US Dollars. Which is still a pretty good return, right?xpub bitcoin перевод tether кошелек ethereum bitcoin phoenix c bitcoin реклама bitcoin bitcoin swiss bitcoin книга rpg bitcoin обменники bitcoin bitcoin xyz segwit2x bitcoin bitcoin make wmz bitcoin 2016 bitcoin знак bitcoin putin bitcoin charts bitcoin bitcoin exe bitcoin stock Before the Hindu-Arabic numerals, money counters had to use the abacus or a counting board to keep track of value flows. Germans called the counting board a Rechenbank, which is why moneylenders came to be known as banks. Not only did banks use counting boards, but they also used tally sticks to keep track of lending activities: the monetary value of a loan was written on the side of a stick, and it was split into two pieces, with the lender keeping the larger piece, known as the stock—which is where we get the term stockholderэфириум ethereum bitcoin стратегия bitcoin torrent alpha bitcoin wallets cryptocurrency ethereum fork rocket bitcoin bitcoin hacker raiden ethereum coin bitcoin monero bitcointalk bitcoin auction
запросы bitcoin get bitcoin платформ ethereum algorithm bitcoin
love bitcoin скрипты bitcoin
bitcoin maining minergate ethereum bitcoin доходность bitcoin nedir bitcoin монета Well, your data is currently held in a centralized database (just like at Equifax). A centralized database is much easier to hack into because it uses one main server. In this case, all the hackers must do to steal the data, is hack the main server. In a blockchain, there is no main server — there is no central point for a hacker to attack! Here's a great advantage of blockchain explained.bitcoin agario bank cryptocurrency loan bitcoin пожертвование bitcoin monero algorithm математика bitcoin monero новости bitcoin surf dice bitcoin вход bitcoin шахты bitcoin алгоритмы bitcoin autobot bitcoin bazar bitcoin monero pro ethereum краны 2048 bitcoin ethereum покупка bitcoin doubler bitcoin avto json bitcoin fun bitcoin bitcoin vpn играть bitcoin bitcoin россия bitcoin часы bitcoin login bitcoin чат rinkeby ethereum
будущее bitcoin monero calc bitcoin slots bitcoin convert ethereum перевод bitcoin bio форк bitcoin иконка bitcoin json bitcoin bitcoin инвестирование bitcoin c nicehash monero удвоить bitcoin dapps ethereum bitcoin приложение робот bitcoin bitcoin чат
local bitcoin Cryptocurrencies: Some stablecoins even use other cryptocurrencies, such as ether, the native token of the Ethereum network, as collateral.получить bitcoin mainer bitcoin daemon monero bitcoin вирус bitcoin кэш wifi tether динамика ethereum georgia bitcoin bitcoin review bitcoin 2x bitcoin talk reddit cryptocurrency bitcoin сша протокол bitcoin
cardano cryptocurrency bitcoin mac matrix bitcoin nicehash monero cryptocurrency ico ethereum calc konvertor bitcoin ethereum криптовалюта виталий ethereum системе bitcoin alpari bitcoin bitcoin captcha bitcoin работать The data on a blockchain is meant to be shared while also adhering to the primary premises of cryptocurrency being decentralized, secure and anonymous. Transactions are generated and verified through a process called cryptocurrency mining, which utilizes compute power to solve complex math problems.криптовалют ethereum скачать bitcoin cryptocurrency tech цена bitcoin Ключевое слово bitcoin алгоритм bitcoin игра bitcoin landing ethereum classic продать ethereum black bitcoin майн ethereum gps tether monero gpu blake bitcoin bitcoin spinner ios bitcoin обновление ethereum надежность bitcoin
bitcoin экспресс инвестиции bitcoin twitter bitcoin bitcoin maps master bitcoin bitcointalk monero
bitcoin кошелек bitcoin тинькофф local bitcoin flypool ethereum bitcoin server earn bitcoin bitcoin анализ monero настройка shot bitcoin bitcoin sweeper
bitcoin fork bitcoin testnet aml bitcoin bitcoin заработок bitcoin 99 genesis bitcoin
home bitcoin bitcoin продать bitcoin plugin raiden ethereum bank bitcoin tether apk
bitcoin demo продать ethereum технология bitcoin ethereum swarm bitcoin department cryptonight monero биржи bitcoin
обозначение bitcoin bitcoin автокран расчет bitcoin difficulty monero мастернода bitcoin bitcoin майнер ethereum перспективы bitcoin cran андроид bitcoin форумы bitcoin bitcoin redex wei ethereum
bitcoin goldman webmoney bitcoin bitcoin информация коды bitcoin bitcoin пополнить bitcoin инструкция btc ethereum
bitcoin обменять poloniex monero ethereum coingecko coindesk bitcoin математика bitcoin аналоги bitcoin short bitcoin зарегистрировать bitcoin abc bitcoin monero client bitcoin grafik tether coin
bitcoin сатоши bitcoin blockstream ethereum forum accepts bitcoin cryptocurrency market
bitcoin bubble bitcoin x bitcoin ферма coinmarketcap bitcoin ethereum fork bitcoin отзывы monero ico робот bitcoin lealana bitcoin bitcoin оплатить теханализ bitcoin cryptocurrency tech bitcoin otc ethereum ubuntu bitcoin бонусы bitcoin games bitcoin video цена ethereum ethereum википедия rotator bitcoin monero прогноз ethereum stratum bitcoin бонусы bitcoin poloniex токены ethereum ethereum chaindata Ultimately, immutability is an emergent property, but it is dependent on other emergent network properties. As bitcoin becomes more decentralized, it becomes increasingly difficult to alter the network’s consensus rules and increasingly difficult to invalidate or prevent otherwise valid transactions (often referred to as censorship-resistance). As bitcoin proves to be increasingly censorship-resistant, confidence in the network grows, which fuels adoption, which further decentralizes the network, including its mining function. In essence, bitcoin becomes more decentralized and more censorship-resistant as it grows, which reinforces the immutability of its blockchain. It becomes increasingly difficult to change the history of the blockchain because each participant gradually represents a smaller and smaller share of the network; regardless of how concentrated ownership of the network and mining may be at any point in time, both decentralize over time so long as value increases, which causes bitcoin to become more and more immutable.poloniex monero криптокошельки ethereum создатель ethereum network bitcoin bitcoin instant андроид bitcoin bitcoin config bitcoin wallet short bitcoin bitcoin список раздача bitcoin Products and services that run on Ethereum. There are dapps for finance, work, social media, gaming and more – meet the apps for our digital future.bitcoin 10 monero стоимость electrum ethereum 33 bitcoin
bitcoin suisse bitcoin экспресс bitcoin conveyor bitcoin slots source bitcoin bitcoin roulette bitcoin ticker bitcoin мошенники bitcoin mining запросы bitcoin Is Ethereum mining profitable?ethereum swarm bitcoin авито ad bitcoin падение ethereum котировки ethereum bitcoin рубли difficulty ethereum bitcoin инструкция cz bitcoin
love bitcoin
p2p bitcoin rate bitcoin usa bitcoin bitcoin film nicehash monero bitcoin fortune monero майнеры bitcoin community заработок bitcoin fpga ethereum карты bitcoin bitcoin email
coinbase ethereum лохотрон bitcoin difficulty ethereum серфинг bitcoin bitcoin бонусы bitcoin раздача bitcoin genesis l bitcoin status bitcoin bitcoin вконтакте bitcoin etherium
bitcoin pattern monero hardware bitcoin easy bitcoin compare пул bitcoin world bitcoin bitcoin advertising bitcoin математика киа bitcoin bitcoin список bitcoin динамика bitcoin rig iota cryptocurrency ethereum contracts bitcoin адреса bitcoin sha256 кликер bitcoin bitcoin plus ethereum mist ethereum падение сервер bitcoin group bitcoin bitcoin заработать bitcoin classic скрипт bitcoin отзыв bitcoin bitcoin office
ethereum torrent рейтинг bitcoin ico ethereum bitcoin generator fast bitcoin app bitcoin bitcoin торги bitcoin cap
