Two Lions of Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin & Ethereum
Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are often regarded as the most popular cryptocurrencies on the market. Yes, they are the most valuable companies in terms of total market cap and public awareness. However, when you get down to the nitty-gritty, you’ll notice that these two notions serve pretty distinct objectives.
Learning the distinctions between Bitcoin and Ethereum will bring you down a far more in-depth road of technological growth and cultural evolution. You don’t have to be an expert on the blockchain (the underlying technology that powers crypto), Bitcoin, Ethereum, or decentralized applications (dApps) to recognize that we’re on the edge of something unique. Let’s take a look at what unites, differentiates, and ultimately unites these initiatives.
What Exactly is Bitcoin?
In January 2009, Satoshi Nakamotoput into action an idea he had planned before. This peer-to-peer digital money platform could operate securely without the need for a central authority. The concept of cryptocurrency, or money without a physical form, was founded with Bitcoin.
Bitcoin was not the first decentralized, virtual money proposed, but it was the first time that the concept gained traction. All other cryptos follow Bitcoin in value, and Bitcoin is still traded far more than any other coin.
The primary goal of Bitcoin was to develop itself as a credible alternative to government-backed fiat currencies. Its primary function is to serve as a store of value and a medium of trade.
What Exactly is Ethereum?
Ethereum is a global computing network that runs on the Ether cryptocurrency (ETH).
Ethereum’s programming language, Solidly, is used to build smart contracts that may be implemented on the blockchain. Because Ethereum’s blockchain is highly decentralized, developers choose to build their crypto apps on it. Decentralized apps (dApps) are peer-to-peer programs that run on Ethereum and can provide fully decentralized products and services. The gas required to run dApps on the Ethereum network is ETH, the network’s native currency.
Ethereum was introduced in 2015 as a solution to Bitcoin’s alleged flaws. Its use cases gave developers more options to create new apps; therefore, it gradually grew into a separate and competing entity. Vitalik Buterin founded Ethereum, which is presently the most actively developing blockchain project on the planet.
What They Have in Common
Bitcoin and Ethereum are both decentralized, meaning a government or other central body does not issue them. They’re both built on blockchain, a distributed ledger that’s ideally tamper-proof. If you work for a credible crypto trading platform, you’ll almost certainly be able to trade both Bitcoin and Ether. Because both currencies are so popular, they are frequently chosen for use in fiat-crypto trades, excluding smaller coins. In our review of cryptocurrency trading platforms, including the Bitcoin Prime official website, even though they usually have a limited number of supported crypto, Bitcoin and Ether will always be among them.
The Differences
Bitcoin was designed to accomplish one thing well: allow people to anonymously and securely transfer assets from one person to another without the involvement of a central bank. Ethereum was based more on the blockchain concept than it was on Bitcoin as a currency. As a result, instead of serving as a platform to provide us with a store of value tokens, Ethereum can do a lot more.
Although you can use Ether as a digital currency, it is not its primary goal. The Ethereum platform was mainly created to monetize Ethereum smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps). However, Ethereum and Ether have been so warmly welcomed that people have come up with uses for cryptocurrency that aren’t related to its primary function.
Because Ethereum is such a versatile platform, some users prefer to store their Bitcoin on the Ethereum blockchain rather than the Bitcoin blockchain. A “tokenized bitcoin” is what this is called. The Bitcoin blockchain does not allow for the storage of Ether. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is far more commonly accepted as a cash substitute.
Conclusion
Investigating the differences between Bitcoin and Ethereum leads to a more in-depth exploration of how blockchain technology can improve our lives in every way. Bitcoin and Ethereum will almost certainly play a significant role in the future of everything from banking to the courts to construction.
Although there isn’t much to compare between Bitcoin and Ethereum, there will be many parallels between life before and after their widespread acceptance.
