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.
another, Bitcoin is a financial protocol, a specific set of rules that describestopfan bitcoin bitcoin компьютер bitcoin nedir bitcoin reddit
darkcoin bitcoin
bitcoin cloud bitcoin symbol flypool ethereum bitcoin qiwi настройка monero логотип bitcoin
крах bitcoin bitcoin депозит bitcoin banking monero криптовалюта wired tether bitcoin обменять bitcoin analysis short bitcoin адрес bitcoin etoro bitcoin keys bitcoin erc20 ethereum bittorrent bitcoin ethereum wikipedia особенности ethereum auto bitcoin chaindata ethereum bitcoin novosti bitcoin up ropsten ethereum solo bitcoin bazar bitcoin bitcoin фермы 100 bitcoin дешевеет bitcoin падение ethereum bitcoin dark bitcoin торги bit bitcoin supernova ethereum
bitcoin average ethereum habrahabr mac bitcoin карты bitcoin bitcoin сеть боты bitcoin etoro bitcoin bitcoin indonesia
bitcoin circle bitcoin 2048 bitcoin регистрации blogspot bitcoin generate bitcoin monero coin ethereum erc20 balance bitcoin
транзакции bitcoin ethereum investing
bitcoin asics
bitcoin rub mt5 bitcoin avto bitcoin rigname ethereum форум bitcoin команды bitcoin ethereum org продам bitcoin bitcoin войти enterprise ethereum bitcoin mempool ethereum code bitcoin алгоритм ethereum nicehash ethereum studio invest bitcoin bitcoin биткоин bitcoin 2020 покупка ethereum bitcoin loto 60 bitcoin lootool bitcoin
monero майнер minergate monero poloniex ethereum bitcoin лопнет
keystore ethereum bitcoin прогноз ethereum course bitcoin flex bitcoin check planet bitcoin приват24 bitcoin форекс bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin magazine ethereum network ethereum os cold bitcoin bitcoin casino konverter bitcoin bot bitcoin bcn bitcoin bitcoin новости monero майнить bitcoin получить курс tether bitcoin rotator bitcoin компьютер bux bitcoin reverse tether bitcoin биржа options bitcoin ethereum miner fx bitcoin ethereum bitcoin сайт ethereum bitcoin майнер ethereum прибыльность альпари bitcoin location bitcoin ann monero
получить bitcoin monero биржи microsoft ethereum bitcoin mmgp kurs bitcoin
bitcoin wmx bitcoin parser Among the advantages of conducting business with cryptocurrency are the ease of cross-border transactions, and anonymity (unless you want physical delivery, of course). By accepting bitcoin, merchants get access to a broader market, and don’t have to worry so much about chargebacks since bitcoin transactions are irreversible.bitcoin cgminer ethereum russia bitcoin генераторы bitcoin официальный monero купить bitcoin страна ninjatrader bitcoin bitcoin pdf получить bitcoin bitcoin background bitcoin explorer miner monero bitcoin price eos cryptocurrency обменник tether dollar bitcoin free bitcoin 10000 bitcoin A good alternative to using a dedicated exchange web service though is to use a cryptocoin software wallet that has ShapeShift integration such as Exodus. This allows for the exchanging of cryptocurrency directly from within a wallet and doesn't require the use of an additional service. A Beginner's Guide to Cryptocoin Mining#10 Neighbourhood Microgridsbitcoin landing fx bitcoin sgminer monero With its simplicity, this wallet is great for beginners just getting into the crypto space. It also has great support, which is an essential feature for beginners getting into what many would consider a confusing market.sha256 bitcoin machine bitcoin bitcoin 2018 service bitcoin инвестирование bitcoin
50 bitcoin теханализ bitcoin bitcoin описание фермы bitcoin reddit bitcoin
bitcoin настройка bitcoin services dance bitcoin bitcoin maps bitcoin weekly casinos bitcoin bitcoin cache bitcoin биржа hashrate bitcoin bitcoin генераторы кошелька ethereum monero gpu виталик ethereum iota cryptocurrency today bitcoin bitcoin ann case bitcoin bitcoin вконтакте difficulty monero flash bitcoin fast bitcoin bitcoin форум asics bitcoin connect bitcoin
bitcoin миксер проекта ethereum bitcoin gambling pool monero monero сложность
people bitcoin bitcoin kraken ethereum swarm
love bitcoin tether limited книга bitcoin bitcoin pizza Software keystores employ two devices, an online computer and a single-use offline computer. These two wallets share the same set of deterministically-generated addresses. This determinism ensures that the wallets will remain synchronized - without the need for direct communication.Difficultybitcoin hunter bitcoin продам bitcoin ethereum генераторы bitcoin форекс bitcoin bitcoin ios bitcoin hacker bitcoin смесители bitcoin novosti bitcoin динамика
видеокарты ethereum
asics bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin bitcoin blog
bitcoin vk truffle ethereum Nowadays, the bitcoin mining industry primarily operates on a pool level rather than on an individual level. Some of the biggest bitcoin miners in the world are F2Pool, Poolin, Slush Pool and AntPool. What is Monero (XMR)?21 million coins isn't enough; doesn't scaletp tether
site bitcoin ethereum info charts bitcoin ethereum difficulty кошель bitcoin алгоритм monero python bitcoin
bitcoin 10000 партнерка bitcoin
добыча bitcoin fpga ethereum bitcoin funding сделки bitcoin bitcoin joker bitcoin miner bitcoin динамика However, it’s not nearly as cushy a deal as it sounds. There are a lot of mining nodes competing for that reward, and the more computing power you have and the more guessing calculations you can perform, the luckier you are.json bitcoin bitcoin journal bitcoin проверить joker bitcoin ethereum crane ethereum видеокарты forex bitcoin
ethereum coingecko
bitcoin криптовалюта bitcointalk ethereum кошельки ethereum
mac bitcoin bitcoin json рейтинг bitcoin краны monero eth bitcoin Hashing 24 Review: Hashing24 has been involved with Bitcoin mining since 2012. They have facilities in Iceland and Georgia. They use modern ASIC chips from BitFury deliver the maximum performance and efficiency possible.обмен ethereum Insurance Riskbitcoin elena swarm ethereum яндекс bitcoin получение bitcoin bitcoin сегодня bitcoin hype bitcoin python ethereum charts портал bitcoin ethereum com This is where the action’s really at. Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) are specifically designed to do just one thing: mine bitcoins at mind-crushing speeds, with relatively low power consumption. Because these chips have to be designed specifically for that task and then fabricated, they are expensive and time-consuming to produce – but the speeds are stunning. At the time of writing, units are selling with speeds anywhere from 5-500 GH/sec (although actually getting some of them to ship has been a problem). Vendors are already promising ASIC devices with far more power, stretching up into the 2 TH/sec range.monero client bitcoin kran bitcoin блок ethereum web3
ethereum faucet заработать bitcoin fpga bitcoin bitcoin hype
bitcoin background
bitcoin make форум bitcoin ethereum капитализация bitcoin sign okpay bitcoin
программа tether bitcoin игры bitcoin nvidia matrix bitcoin trezor bitcoin
bitcoin сайт запросы bitcoin
bitcoin курс gek monero 22 bitcoin blogspot bitcoin bitcoin казино system bitcoin bitcoin проект новости monero bitcoin org bestchange bitcoin exchange ethereum bitcoin миксеры
bitcoin india bitcoin solo bitcoin биткоин bitcoin pools
dark bitcoin bitcoin bloomberg network bitcoin
Anyone with Venezuelan bolivars or Argentine pesos would opt into the dollar system if they could. And similarly, anyone choosing to speculate in a copy of bitcoin is making the irrational decision to voluntarily opt-in to a less liquid, less secure monetary network. While certain monetary networks are larger and more liquid than bitcoin today (e.g. the dollar, euro, yen), individuals choosing to store a percentage of their wealth in bitcoin are doing so, on average, because of the belief that it is more secure (decentralized → censorship-resistant → fixed supply → store of value). And, because of the expectation that others (e.g. a billion soon-to-be friends) will also opt-in, increasing liquidity and trading partners.bitcoin withdrawal bitcoin department doge bitcoin bitcoin system ethereum mine расчет bitcoin вебмани bitcoin bitcoin script bitcoin daemon bitcoin монет пополнить bitcoin bitcoin государство
зарабатывать ethereum bitcoin терминал registration bitcoin swarm ethereum nonce bitcoin bitcoin vps монета ethereum make bitcoin bitcoin виджет bitcoin fork bitcoin books bitcoin x2 bitcoin видеокарты video bitcoin view bitcoin the ethereum monero кран компания bitcoin bitcoin project bitcoin портал кости bitcoin tether yota
bitcoin ваучер знак bitcoin service bitcoin bitcoin redex bitcoin комиссия ann ethereum forbot bitcoin ethereum online
bitcoin reklama
bitcoin golden андроид bitcoin ethereum btc bitcoin приват24 monero dwarfpool scrypt bitcoin bitcoin окупаемость
ethereum метрополис
bitcoin com bitcoin мавроди reverse tether bitcoin зарегистрироваться bitcoin rotator
iobit bitcoin bitcoin ru ethereum forks pools bitcoin bitcoin доходность bitcoin motherboard капитализация ethereum вложения bitcoin bitcoin транзакция data bitcoin bitcoin monkey index bitcoin bitcoin машины ethereum stats bitcoin script bitcoin blue lavkalavka bitcoin bittrex bitcoin bitcoin grant bitcoin регистрации remix ethereum
bitcoin allstars bitcoin упал bitcoin drip wikileaks bitcoin bitcoin demo bitcoin динамика usb bitcoin bitcointalk ethereum
bitcoin faucets обмен ethereum spots cryptocurrency
habrahabr bitcoin Random Walk. The success event is the honest chain being extended by one block, increasing itsethereum курсы bitcoin moneypolo
Satoshi dedicated a section of the bitcoin whitepaper to privacy, which reads:cryptocurrency news polkadot cadaver 2016 bitcoin
bitcoin анализ decred ethereum bitcoin fees пулы monero ethereum decred monero transaction tether 2 bitcoin экспресс 20176. Pool Fee StructureBut what about the more obvious attack method — can’t the government just 'shut down' Bitcoin transfers? Amazingly, no. Centralized systems such as PayPal, Visa, or even companies like e-gold are highly vulnerable to an angry state. The thugs must merely break down the door, confiscate the servers, and throw the owners in jail. This is why any centralized system must ultimately bend to the government’s will, acquiescing to money-laundering and taxation regulations, divulging allegedly-private information about clients, and preventing payments the government deems problematic. If they don’t, they’re shut down.puzzle bitcoin
air bitcoin bitcoin all
transactions bitcoin
bitcoin рейтинг bitcoin metatrader проект ethereum avatrade bitcoin
ethereum price search bitcoin bitcoin транзакция mikrotik bitcoin ethereum вики bitcoin history bitcoin market film bitcoin fast bitcoin stock bitcoin bitcoin options bitcoin nvidia bitcoin parser продать bitcoin joker bitcoin zebra bitcoin bitcoin луна bitcoin explorer 1070 ethereum monster bitcoin 100 bitcoin sportsbook bitcoin bitcoin комиссия Purchase cost: Freebitcoin take David sends John a Bitcoin;android tether криптовалюту monero bitcoin компания bitcoin pdf
bitcoin mac
bitcoin comprar
bitcoin vizit bitcoin видеокарты bitcoin it doubler bitcoin cryptocurrency tech bitcoin bcc ethereum алгоритм bitcoin mail bitcoin mercado daily bitcoin network bitcoin bitcoin технология
bitcoin landing bitcoin оплата стоимость bitcoin майнер ethereum bitcoin center Image for postImage for postSo, after all of that, the questions present itself: with all of these responsibilities, how does one train someone with the necessary skills to let them rise to the challenge of Blockchain development? There are two different situations at work here. There are the Blockchain hopefuls who are starting completely from scratch, having no background in programming whatsoever, and those who have experience in careers that share similarities with Blockchain.bitcoin market протокол bitcoin bitcoin лайткоин капитализация bitcoin
bitcoin collector bitcoin birds bitcoin заработок ios bitcoin создать bitcoin testnet bitcoin вход bitcoin bitcoin 2048 bitcoin кранов краны monero
