Bitcoin is the most famous cryptocurrency currency in the world, with Ethereum giving it tough competition. But are these two competitors the same or different? They are very different than you can think.

Firstly, Bitcoin is a currency in digital form while the Ethereum is a token. Let’s see more of it and all other differences between Bitcoin and Ethereum!

1. Technology

The tech that powers Bitcoin is the ‘blockchain’. It is a public ledger of all the transactions executed in the system. This network grows constantly as more blocks are added to it. Launched in 2015, Ethereum is an open-ended decentralized software platform. Though these two are based on the principle of cryptography and distributed ledgers, technical differences still exist. For example, Ethereum uses the Turning programming language while the Bitcoin uses a stack-based language.

2. Application

Apart from the technological differences, Bitcoin and Ethereum have a lot of different applications. Bitcoin is an alternative to the regular money, which makes it a medium for payment transactions and store of value. On the other hand, Ethereum provides us with a platform to facilitate peer-to-peer contracts using its own cryptocurrency, Ether. It enables the users of the platform to build and run distributed applications (DApps).

3. History

Invented by Satoshi Nakamoto as early as 2008, Bitcoin is the world’s first cryptocurrency, and this is the reason it is so popular. Though it was invented in 2008, Bitcoin went live for trading in the market in January 2009. Ethereum entered the market much later – it went live for trading in July 2015 and it has been growing since then.

4. Adoption

Imagine paying for your dinner or shopping using Bitcoins or Ethereum. That’s the level of adoption expected for the cryptocurrencies in some years down the lane. When it comes to adoption of Bitcoin, the results are quite impressive! Some countries like Canada have Bitcoin ATMs as well. Major cities in developed countries like the United States have a high number of merchants accepting payments in Bitcoin. For Ethereum, the adoption is also growing given its huge potential and share in the cryptocurrency market. They are used for electronic payments for the goods and services at various merchants in the US.

5. Future expectations

Ethereum was trading at a price of $10 in January 2017. In March 2018, it was trading at approximately $734. According to Investing Haven, Ethereum was predicted to reach a price of $1000 by the year 2020. It touched $1400 in January 2018. A total of 90 million coins are in circulation today and the number will increase by some amount in coming years after which it will flatline.

Coming to Bitcoin, Blockchain Capital partner Spencer Bogart has predicted that the price of Bitcoin will be around $50,000 in 2018. That is nearly twice the highest price of Bitcoin in 2017.