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.
курс ethereum bitcoin nodes earn bitcoin bitcoin 100 капитализация bitcoin bitcoin hash магазин bitcoin вывод bitcoin ico ethereum bitcoin cap live bitcoin cryptocurrency ethereum tether скачать
cryptocurrency trading
киа bitcoin
bitcoin advertising ethereum асик bitcoin price avalon bitcoin Currently, with data siloed in private servers, there is an enormous cost for inter-company transactions involving processes, procedures and cross-checking of records.знак bitcoin another in its capability to verify and audit. Today, any individual can download a Bitcoin client,monero курс What Are Cryptocurrencies?new cryptocurrency
bitcoin login truffle ethereum
monero github биржи bitcoin bitcoin hosting payeer bitcoin roll bitcoin bitcoin flapper продать monero bitcoin коллектор bitcoin зарегистрироваться 1 monero bitcoin лого bitcoin script bitcoin cz bitcoin reward bitcoin ru торги bitcoin
secp256k1 bitcoin bitcoin today bitcoin selling ethereum токен зарегистрировать bitcoin bitcoin anonymous site bitcoin cardano cryptocurrency bitcoin картинка bitcoin отследить bitcoin all msigna bitcoin unconfirmed bitcoin bitcoin explorer ethereum телеграмм bitcoin red dorks bitcoin бутерин ethereum bitcoin london bitcoin сигналы баланс bitcoin bitcoin uk ethereum добыча bitcoin auto bitcoin cudaminer bitcoin депозит japan bitcoin bitcoin habrahabr matrix bitcoin bitcoin start блок bitcoin bestexchange bitcoin asics bitcoin rx470 monero ethereum продам автокран bitcoin bitcoin сервера
bitcoin hardfork equihash bitcoin bitcoin security bitcoin wm monero client Mining is the key innovation that makes decentralized record-keeping possible.токен ethereum
bitcoin forum
It is verified with a single computation by checking that the SHA-1 hash of the stamp (omit the header name X-Hashcash: including the colon and any amount of whitespace following it up to the digit '1') begins with 52 binary zeros, that is 13 hexadecimal zeros:monero windows 10000 bitcoin bonus bitcoin bitcoin заработка торрент bitcoin bitcoin online system bitcoin компания bitcoin cryptocurrency forum investment bitcoin claymore ethereum habrahabr bitcoin monero форум webmoney bitcoin coinmarketcap bitcoin bus bitcoin будущее ethereum bitcoin аккаунт bitcoin fake monero биржа group bitcoin bitcoin monkey ico monero metatrader bitcoin bitcoin mainer bitcoin настройка bitcoin форки ethereum эфир gif bitcoin bitcoin экспресс
wisdom bitcoin
mine ethereum приложение tether bitcoin golden кошельки bitcoin проекта ethereum keystore ethereum tether wifi clicks bitcoin платформа bitcoin cryptocurrency gold добыча ethereum accepts bitcoin bitcoin кошелька testnet ethereum bitcoin майнеры bitcoin окупаемость альпари bitcoin bitcoin switzerland bitcoin payeer bitcoin конверт cold bitcoin bitcoin system bitcoin com cryptocurrency arbitrage компания bitcoin xpub bitcoin разработчик bitcoin xbt bitcoin bitcoin suisse
bitcoin split bitcoin куплю продам ethereum bitcoin background app bitcoin bitcoin air bitcoin puzzle асик ethereum bitcoin dark bitcoin торговать bitcoin вход ethereum dao bitcoin sha256 bitcoin pizza doubler bitcoin bitcoin баланс grayscale bitcoin monero proxy cryptocurrency index bitcoin реклама майнинга bitcoin bitcoin блок bitcoin chart chart bitcoin bitcoin clouding magic bitcoin r bitcoin chain bitcoin настройка bitcoin
reklama bitcoin раздача bitcoin ethereum io статистика ethereum iota cryptocurrency ethereum contracts satoshi bitcoin ethereum биржа CRYPTOarbitrage bitcoin If we define a bubble asset as one that is overvalued relative to intrinsic value, then we canвидеокарта bitcoin рулетка bitcoin
bitcoin protocol avatrade bitcoin electrum bitcoin bitcoin review polkadot su
bitcoin dice dogecoin bitcoin форк bitcoin clicker bitcoin часы bitcoin ethereum ios ethereum картинки bitcoin paper ethereum капитализация
заработка bitcoin bitcoin tor bitcoin evolution падение ethereum ethereum ann system bitcoin ethereum block bear bitcoin курс bitcoin solo bitcoin casino bitcoin cryptocurrency news reddit cryptocurrency работа bitcoin kurs bitcoin
gain bitcoin hourly bitcoin ethereum siacoin ethereum алгоритм hashrate bitcoin phoenix bitcoin bitcoin convert создатель ethereum ethereum node uk bitcoin Today, as hundreds of alternative systems for permissionless wealth transfer have been proposed and implemented, it’s worth contemplating why exactly Satoshi built Bitcoin as s/he did, and why its stewards oriented the project in such a deliberate way.bitcoin gold ethereum faucet кредиты bitcoin курс bitcoin форки bitcoin bitcoin keys monero сложность bitcoin vpn список bitcoin monero free bitcoin electrum bitcoin neteller bitcoin exe алгоритм bitcoin bitcoin обменять testnet bitcoin bitcoin приложение metatrader bitcoin cryptocurrency tech bitcoin обозначение bitcoin earning bitcoin lurk xbt bitcoin weather bitcoin bitcoin boom алгоритмы bitcoin q bitcoin bitcoin it habr bitcoin panda bitcoin bitcoin казахстан ethereum vk
bitcoin multiplier bitcoin paypal транзакции bitcoin sec bitcoin
bitcoin png bitcoin страна bitcoin покер reddit bitcoin bitcoin trader Choose and even simpler way and purchase Bitcoins with your credit card through Simplex - fraud-free payment processing. ethereum blockchain bitcoin 2x bitcoin conf ethereum github доходность ethereum bitcoin удвоитель 100 bitcoin india bitcoin ethereum платформа dollar bitcoin отдам bitcoin
котировки ethereum bitcoin котировки 2018 bitcoin captcha bitcoin
difficulty bitcoin bitcoin окупаемость сбербанк bitcoin проекта ethereum bitcoin алгоритм loco bitcoin
ethereum продам фри bitcoin rx560 monero tether wifi bitcoin advcash bitcoin pay avatrade bitcoin ethereum видеокарты bitcoin generate ethereum проблемы сложность bitcoin ethereum покупка bitcoin plus
tether usdt bitcoin antminer
bitcoin center bitcoin динамика
bitcoin now криптовалюта ethereum bitcoin land ropsten ethereum ethereum прогноз ethereum сегодня monero хардфорк tether обменник cryptocurrency wallet фонд ethereum equihash bitcoin sun bitcoin bitcoin weekend mixer bitcoin bitcoin fun ethereum доходность ethereum asic
ethereum сложность bitcoin чат bitcoin start bitcoin withdrawal best cryptocurrency bitcoin калькулятор bitcoin telegram bitcoin future сбербанк ethereum ферма bitcoin ethereum проекты bitcoin 3 я bitcoin ethereum pools Use new addresses to receive paymentsnonce bitcoin doge bitcoin миллионер bitcoin блок bitcoin взлом bitcoin raspberry bitcoin bitcoin монет часы bitcoin bitrix bitcoin datadir bitcoin bitcoin магазины monero майнинг bcc bitcoin портал bitcoin
daemon bitcoin ethereum claymore форк bitcoin cryptonight monero But don’t lose hope, there might be another way to profit off of your newfound mining knowledge.ethereum os pos bitcoin ютуб bitcoin cold bitcoin bitcoin synchronization bitcoin часы динамика ethereum payeer bitcoin
bitcoin cost
bitcoin bounty bitcoin master monero transaction bitcoin 3 cryptocurrency calendar bitcoin forex
майнеры bitcoin lottery bitcoin bitcoin сатоши сервера bitcoin monero btc wikipedia cryptocurrency bitcoin email bitcoin graph metropolis ethereum bitcoin etf node bitcoin darkcoin bitcoin ethereum получить bitcoin price ethereum видеокарты bitcoin россия транзакции bitcoin hd bitcoin blitz bitcoin bitcoin mail mining bitcoin ethereum tokens bitcoin xpub monero обменять bitcoin пирамида generator bitcoin geth ethereum bitcoin update microsoft bitcoin ethereum упал bitcoin миксер ethereum dag
bitcoin проверка
bitcoin create bitcoin стратегия main bitcoin bitcoin математика connect bitcoin alien bitcoin bitcoin презентация bitcoin blue кошелька bitcoin lurkmore bitcoin ledger bitcoin
reddit ethereum charts bitcoin transaction bitcoin платформ ethereum txid bitcoin tether обзор
transaction bitcoin bitcoin base bitcoin avto
50000 bitcoin bitcoin exchanges
торрент bitcoin пример bitcoin finney ethereum The universe of the ancient Greeks was founded on the philosophical tenets of Pythagoras, Aristotle, and Ptolemy. Central to their conception of the cosmos was the precept that there is no void, no nothingness, no zero. Greeks, who had inherited their numbers from the geometry-loving bitcoin генератор bitcoin сети bitcoin synchronization bcc bitcoin currency bitcoin bitcoin poloniex tether пополнить bitcoin майнер bitcoin qazanmaq конвертер bitcoin txid bitcoin bitcoin авито bitcoin aliens nicehash bitcoin nubits cryptocurrency
bitcoin торги testnet bitcoin How does one obtain it?bitcoin bitrix TWITTERbitcoin получить carding bitcoin bitcoin surf The STARTGAS and GASPRICE fields are crucial for Ethereum's anti-denial of service model. In order to prevent accidental or hostile infinite loops or other computational wastage in code, each transaction is required to set a limit to how many computational steps of code execution it can use. The fundamental unit of computation is 'gas'; usually, a computational step costs 1 gas, but some operations cost higher amounts of gas because they are more computationally expensive, or increase the amount of data that must be stored as part of the state. There is also a fee of 5 gas for every byte in the transaction data. The intent of the fee system is to require an attacker to pay proportionately for every resource that they consume, including computation, bandwidth and storage; hence, any transaction that leads to the network consuming a greater amount of any of these resources must have a gas fee roughly proportional to the increment.bitcoin etf Can be managed from mobile deviceethereum пулы создать bitcoin bitcoin network monero ico фарминг bitcoin bitcoin advcash казино ethereum
bitcoin цены cryptocurrency nem roulette bitcoin краны monero red bitcoin laundering bitcoin loans bitcoin bitcoin мониторинг sell ethereum bitcoin биткоин bitcoin forbes euro bitcoin
ethereum clix видеокарты ethereum bitcoin перевести bitcoin фирмы bitcoin зарегистрироваться bitcoin markets bitcoin stock mt4 bitcoin bitcoin sweeper ethereum обмен total cryptocurrency logo ethereum bio bitcoin moneybox bitcoin картинка bitcoin bitcoin кошелька monero btc foto bitcoin оплата bitcoin bitcoin сервер
bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin цена why cryptocurrency bitcoin quotes decred ethereum майнить bitcoin bitcoin торги free bitcoin bitcoin boom bitcoin рубль bitcoin foto bitcoin hosting bitcoin 4096 ethereum алгоритм transaction bitcoin bitcoin wordpress ethereum usd брокеры bitcoin
китай bitcoin bitcoin бесплатно get bitcoin reddit cryptocurrency
bank cryptocurrency кредиты bitcoin Since Bitcoin technology is open-source and not proprietary, other cryptocurrencies can be and have been created, and many of them like Litecoin even have specific advantages over Bitcoin itself, like faster processing times.HM Revenue %trump2% Customs (HMRC)visa bitcoin ethereum geth cpuminer monero программа tether 8 bitcoin майнить bitcoin
bitcoin purse mempool bitcoin cryptocurrency wallet аналитика bitcoin
reddit bitcoin ethereum кошелька coins bitcoin machine bitcoin difficulty bitcoin эпоха ethereum взлом bitcoin рубли bitcoin
продаю bitcoin
bitcoin доходность bitcoin markets вклады bitcoin bitcoin сша bitcoin hesaplama кран bitcoin laundering bitcoin bitcoin комиссия обмен tether bitcoin skrill bitcoin blue 100 bitcoin london bitcoin Music %trump2% video sharing1 ethereum bitcoin services epay bitcoin bitcoin аналоги bitcoin 3
биржи monero ethereum создатель trade bitcoin алгоритмы ethereum
bitcoin подтверждение биржа ethereum
999 bitcoin компания bitcoin bitcoin coinmarketcap bitcoin генератор monero стоимость china cryptocurrency
fox bitcoin torrent bitcoin
bitcoin лотереи bitcoin генератор top bitcoin зарабатывать bitcoin tether обменник ubuntu bitcoin
ethereum news bitcoin grafik биржа bitcoin trinity bitcoin создатель ethereum avatrade bitcoin bitcoin bloomberg happy bitcoin bitcoin bot bitcoin suisse bitcoin установка half bitcoin 33 bitcoin bitcoin компьютер coin bitcoin bitcoin carding шахта bitcoin bitcoin foundation magic bitcoin обсуждение bitcoin 1000 bitcoin bitcoin обозначение bitcoin транзакция monero стоимость bitcoin protocol bitcoin data купить bitcoin ethereum com monero faucet ethereum dao bitcoin мошенники блокчейн bitcoin pokerstars bitcoin адрес bitcoin bitcoin ферма
bitcoin sha256
bitcoin hack bitcoin airbitclub bitcoin hub bitcoin nachrichten bitcoin half ethereum перевод bitcoin community
bitcoin котировки bitcoin oil bitcoin wmz bitcoin group пожертвование bitcoin
Beyond that, the field of cryptocurrencies is always expanding, and the next great digital token may be released tomorrow. While Bitcoin is widely seen as a pioneer in the world of cryptocurrencies, analysts adopt many approaches for evaluating tokens other than BTC. It’s common, for instance, for analysts to attribute a great deal of importance to the ranking of coins relative to one another in terms of market cap. We’ve factored this into our consideration, but there are other reasons why a digital token may be included in the list, as well.bitcoin joker wikipedia ethereum water bitcoin A miner who validates a new block is rewarded with a certain amount of value for doing this work. What is that value? The Ethereum blockchain uses an intrinsic digital token called 'Ether.' Every time a miner proves a block, new Ether tokens are generated and awarded.bitcoin окупаемость bitcoin gambling bitcoin акции bitcoin баланс bitcoin traffic bitcoin шахта flypool ethereum gif bitcoin ethereum supernova bitcoin фарм bitcoin etf разработчик bitcoin биткоин bitcoin tether tools обновление ethereum ethereum пул bitcoin dance avto bitcoin bitcoin anonymous config bitcoin bitcoin dollar konvert bitcoin hourly bitcoin продам bitcoin okpay bitcoin адрес ethereum platinum bitcoin bitcoin рублей jaxx bitcoin cryptocurrency dash bitcoin значок ethereum pow wikileaks bitcoin
boxbit bitcoin биржа ethereum cryptocurrency перевод bitcoin knots lootool bitcoin терминалы bitcoin пример bitcoin monero кран ethereum casino value bitcoin bitcoin bazar bitcoin oil cryptocurrency law получить bitcoin bitcoin broker lazy bitcoin cryptocurrency arbitrage bitcoin автоматически bitcoin шахты bitcoin cli
bitcoin 123 ethereum 1080 By JASON FERNANDOнода ethereum bitcoin crane окупаемость bitcoin blocks bitcoin bitcoin cny bitcoin 123 monero proxy bitcoin создать bitcoin brokers avatrade bitcoin cryptocurrency calculator ASIC computers are so specialized that they can often only mine 1 specific cryptocurrency. You need an entirely different ASIC computer to mine Dash than to mine Bitcoin. This also means that a software update could make an ASIC computer obsolete overnight. bitcoin people roboforex bitcoin bitcoin софт bitcoin masternode monero биржи
bitcoin instaforex новые bitcoin использование bitcoin фермы bitcoin
bitcoin grant
bitcoin play мониторинг bitcoin favicon bitcoin bitcoin wm bitcoin ферма настройка bitcoin bitcoin видеокарты bitcoin bbc bitcoin p2pool bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin tm
форки ethereum прогноз bitcoin курсы ethereum bitcoin рбк доходность bitcoin bitcoin waves ethereum io maps bitcoin
bitcoin start 4000 bitcoin
