Ethereum Vs Bitcoin – How is Ethereum Different from Bitcoin

When
it comes to cryptocurrency, Bitcoin and Ethereum are usually what come to mind
first. While both currencies seem quite similar on the surface, the intention
and growth are radically different.

Let’s
take a look at each coin individually first:

Bitcoin

The
first virtual currency to be launched in January of 2009, Bitcoin was a white
paper by a mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto. With the promise of lower transaction
fees and decentralization, Bitcoin seemed alluring. Bitcoin doesn’t exist as a
physical entity. It only exists in the balances associated with public and
private keys. While there was great resistance when it came to adopting Bitcoin
initially, regulatory bodies and government entities finally gave in. Not all
of them though. There are still countries where Bitcoin mining is illegal and
you cannot exchange cryptocurrency.

However,
with the global distrust in governments and fiat currencies on the rise, there
is a lot of hope that Bitcoin will soon get the recognition and place it
deserves.

Ethereum

Introduced
by Vitalik Buterin in 2014, Ethereum took the best of Bitcoin with some
fascinating new features. Ethereum is not just a currency. It can be used to
create smart contracts which is a real-world application making it a tad better
than Bitcoin.

Blockchain

You
cannot read about Bitcoin without coming across Blockchain. Blockchain is the
technology that drives Bitcoin. A blockchain is a public ledger that has a
record of all the transactions which have been executed. When a transaction is
verified, a new block gets added to the blockchain in a linear fashion. Through
the powers of cryptography, hackers are dissuaded from messing with the
blockchain and in the 10 years since Bitcoin was created, no hacker has been
able to mess with the blockchain yet.

This
is what makes cryptocurrency decentralized, lowers transaction fees and
maximizes efficiency.

With
Ethereum, blockchain technology is being used to create apps known as DApps.
This is why Ethereum is also known as Bitcoin 2.0 sometimes.

Ethereum
enables Smart Contracts and Distributed Applications to be built without any
fraud, control, downtime or interference from third-parties.

Ethereum
is not just a currency and a platform but it is also a programming language
that runs on blockchain which helps developers build and publish DApps

Ethereum
has a lot of potential and so does the token used, Ether.

Ether
has a dual purpose. It is traded like currency and is used inside the Ethereum
platform to run applications and monetize work. According to Ethereum, “Ether
can be used to codify, decentralize, secure and trade just about anything”

The difference between Ethereum and Bitcoin

Ethereum uses Turning as its programming language whereas
Bitcoin is in a stack-based language. For transactions to get verified,
Ethereum takes seconds whereas Bitcoin takes minutes. Ethereum uses ethash
whereas Bitcoin uses SHA-256.

Ethereum is soon going to move to a PoS algorithm whereas
Bitcoin may be stuck to its PoW algorithm. 

How to buy Ethereum

There are several ways in which you could purchase Ethereum. One is to use a cryptocurrency exchange and buy Ethereum with Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency coins you may own.

Before you do that, make sure to own the best Ethereum wallet because keeping crypto holdings on online exchanges is extremely unsafe. A hardware wallet is considered the safest way to store coins.

You can also simply buy Ethereum with a credit or debit card on these exchanges.

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