The world of crypto was first introduced when the anonymous creator of the first peer-to-peer crypto asset; Bitcoin, shared the whitepaper with the world. Ever since then, the world has seen multiple new tokens and crypto projects being worked upon. As of today, according to a Forbes report, the crypto space has more than 22,000 crypto assets available.
As time went on, the second most famous crypto token for having the second largest market cap came into existence; Ethereum. With two biggest and the oldest crypto tokens in the market, there has got to be a curiosity as to what makes the tokens different from one another. The topic that is the purpose of this article.
WHAT IS BITCOIN?
Bitcoin is the first of the many digital cryptos we see today. It is a decentralised digital asset that was originally described in a whitepaper in 2008 by a person or a group of people under the alias name of Satoshi Nakamoto. It was in 2009 that the Bitcoin crypto was finally launched.
Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer (P2P) online currency where transactions can take place directly between two equal and independent participants of the network without the intervention of any third party. In Nakamoto’s words, Bitcoin was created to facilitate online payments between two parties without going through the lengthy and gruesome process via a financial institution.
The price of 1 bitcoin today is just shy of $25,500 (June 16, 2023) and it is the world’s largest crypto by market capitalization today.
The unique features of Bitcoin (BTC) are:
- It is the first-ever crypto to appear in the market
- It has created a conceptual as well as technological shift leading to the development of thousands of similar projects.
- Bitcoin pioneered the idea of money being sent and received across the globe without going through intermediaries such as banks and other financial institutions.
WHAT IS ETHEREUM?
Ethereum, the second-largest crypto by market capitalization, is an open-source blockchain system that has its own native crypto called Ether. Ethereum (ETH) works as a crypto platform for several other cryptos and helps in the execution of Decentralised Smart Contracts.
Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum crypto described Ethereum in 2013 on a white paper along with his co-founder and secured funding for the same in a public crowd sale in 2014. It has undergone several updates since its launch, the recent being the Ethereum Shanghai upgrade in April 2023.
The primary goal of Ethereum is to become the global platform for decentralised applications (Ethereum Dapps) that would allow the programmers and coders across the globe to run and write software that are censorship, fraud, and downtime free. It was the pioneer of the frequently used term today in the blockchain space, smart contracts. The principal innovation of Ethereum was designed to allow the execution of smart contracts via blockchain. As described by the co-founder, Gavin Wood, Ethereum was designed to become “one computer for the entire planet”.
The Ethereum blockchain is capable of hosting other cryptos called “tokens” through its ERC-20 standard. This in fact is the most common use for the platform. Ethereum coin price started at $3 while Ethereum price today stands around $1600 as of writing this. This rise in price has been in a span of only six years.
The unique features of the Ethereum crypto are:
- Ethereum is the pioneer of the smart contract concept.
- Ethereum blockchain is able to host various other cryptos using its ERC-20 standard.
- Ethereum’s latest update, London Hard Fork was implemented to reduce the high transaction fees and enhance its scalability.
Ethereum’s Merge – which is set to transition the Ethereum blockchain from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. This move is intended to create a more energy efficient ETH network that has greater scalability capabilities too.
Read More: How to buy Ethereum (ETH) in India 2023
According to official sources, this move is expected to come by as soon as by the middle or end of September, 2022.
Bitcoin(BTC) vs Ethereum(ETH): What’s the Difference
| Comparison Basis | Bitcoin (BTC) | Ethereum (ETH) |
| Launch date | 2009 | 2015 |
| Founders | Satoshi Nakamoto | Vitalik Buterin and Gavin Wood |
| Blockchain protocol | Bitcoin Blockchain | Ethereum Blockchain |
| Token type | Native | Native |
| Use case | The first crypto, mainly used as a digital asset today. | To host various cryptos and other decentralised applications (DApps) |
| Market Cap* | $494,618,779,230 | $200,071,566,346 |
| Circulating Supply** | 19,403,762 BTC | 120,214,903 ETH |
| Consensus method | Proof-of-work (PoW) | Proof-of-stake (PoS) |
MarketCap* and Circulation Supply** as of June 2023
Source: CoinMarketCap
Similarities of Bitcoin and Ethereum
Both Bitcoin and Ethereum being decentralized digital tokens which operate on blockchain technology comes with certain similarities that they both have. Some of the the common grounds between Bitcoin and Ethereum are as mentioned below:
- Decentralization: Being decentralized, both the tokens are not controlled by any single entity. Transactions on both the networks are processed by a series of computers that validate and record transactions on a distributed ledger; which is called the blockchain.
- Digital money: Both Bitcoin and Ethereum are crypto tokens which can be used as a medium of exchange. Users have to make use of digital wallets in order to store and send funds in order to trade or invest in these tokens. Both the assets are divisible to many decimal places.
- Volatility: Being assets, Bitcoin and Ethereum come with a volatile market. This means that they can experience fluctuations in their price; influenced by various factors like market demand, regulatory changes, and investor sentiments.
Investment: Being two of the largest crypto assets as per market cap, BTC and ETH are both popular investment options.
Latest News Bitcoin
- Bitcoin price saw a surge during the third week of March, following the liquidation crunch from the US banks and the SVB incident.
Dollar liquidity swap lines opened up on March 19th.
BTC kicked off its rally from that point.
Btw, there was hardly any correlation with EurodollR futures, it was totally spurious, but good to get some cogs turning 😂 https://t.co/NV5RKCncGl pic.twitter.com/o0bbOJJpFQ
— David Belle (@davidbelle_) May 8, 2020
- Soon after the surge in price, BTC saw the lowest liquidation in 10 months! An impact of the banking sector fallout, as believed by the crypto experts.
- BlackRock, the biggest asset manager in the world, has filed an application to come up with a spot Bitcoin ETF for investors’ exposure to crypto. The company will utilize Coinbase (COIN) custody and spot market data of exchange for its pricing.
Fun being on @LizClaman show!! And yes, @BlackRock getting a $BTC ETF through would be the best thing that could happen to $BTC. https://t.co/2fFBeB9eyo
— Mike Novogratz (@novogratz) June 16, 2023
Latest News Ethereum
- Shapella upgrade on the Goerli testnet went live on March 16, 2023, before the mainnet launch is set to roll out on April 12, 2023.
It’s happening 🎊
Shapella is scheduled on mainnet for epoch 194048, scheduled for 22:27:35 UTC on Apr. 12, 2023 📆
Client releases compatible with the upgrade are listed in the announcement below 👇https://t.co/I0hSv9lnjz
— timbeiko.eth ☀️ (@TimBeiko) March 28, 2023
- With the new update in place, the ETH withdrawals are not faraway! The Shapella network upgrade will activate on the Ethereum network at epoch 194048, which has been scheduled for 22:27:35 UTC on Apr. 12, 2023
- ETHGlobal Waterloo, the world’s largest hackathon for Ethereum developers, is going to take place from June 23 to 25th in Canada after three years.
🍁 The countdown is on!
Hackers, ETHGlobal Waterloo is officially only two weeks away!
Now is the time to finalize your submission, travel plans and start brainstorming your big ideas. Keen to see what you can expect?🧵 Here’s the tl;dr ✨
— ETHGlobal (@ETHGlobal) June 9, 2023
<🍁 ETHGlobal Waterloo is in less than a month!
💸 $200,000 USD in prizes are available
🗺 Meet builders from around the world
🦺 24/7 mentorship
💻 Hands-on workshops at the beginning👇 Apply now for a very special hackathon in the city we call home:https://t.co/RqhhGIxKiX pic.twitter.com/e8wQ8sfDKR
— ETHGlobal (@ETHGlobal) May 24, 2023
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- Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin is jointly working with Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal to help send $100M for Covid-19 research and medical infra development in India.
Last year @CryptoRelief_ led by @sandeepnailwal allocated $100m to Covid research projects I wanted to fund
Sandeep and I discussed and jointly concluded these and other projects are high-impact and need follow through grants. Hence we decided to put $100m more to these projects
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) June 8, 2023
Additional Read: Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade
Proof of Work vs Proof of Stake
Previously, both Bitcoin and Ethereum relied on the same Consensus protocol of Proof of Work. However, in September 2022, the Ethereum network shifted from PoW to PoS in the Ethereum Merge upgrade after 7 years since its launch. This was done due to shortcomings of PoW consensus.
In Proof of Work, transactions are validated through a process called mining, which requires miners to employ their computational resources to solve complex mathematical puzzles. This process consumes a significant amount of power and energy, making it unsustainable for the environment. Furthermore, as the number of participants in the network increases, the complexity of puzzles also rises, which becomes a challenge for the scalability of PoW-based blockchains.
On the other hand, the PoS mechanism operates differently, it does not use the mining process or require high computational energy. Instead, participants are required to stake a certain amount in the network to become a validator node for validating transactions and creating new blocks. The validator nodes are selected randomly and receive a reward for their participation in the transaction confirmation. Consequently, PoS-based blockchains consume less power and are more scalable as block creation depends on validators, not computational power.
BTC VS ETH – TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
Source: Trading View
If we put Bitcoin vs Ethereum, head to head – both Ethereum prices and Bitcoin prices have moved more or less in a similar fashion, ever since the beginning of 2022. Ethereum prices, being the smaller token of the two tokens by market capitalization has suffered slightly more in percentage terms. Since the beginning of the year, BTC prices have shed over 52% while ETH prices have lost over 58% in the same period.
However, from that technical standpoint, both these tokens are very attractive with Bitcoin being regarded as the only true ‘decentralised’ blockchain network while Ethereum being the biggest smart contract platform, which is soon moving to the energy efficient proof-of-stake system of consensus. Thus both share multiple benefits and are worthy to be in any crypto portfolio.
BITCOIN PRICE PREDICTION 2023
- The BTC price is running at $25,575 with a 24-hour trading volume of $14,191,168,089. The BTC price has shown an upwards rally of 2.79% in the last 24 hours. The market cap of BTC is standing at $496,251,970,003 as of June 16, 2023.
- BTC price had rallied up in the Q1 of 2023 and has been trading in the range of $27500 to $26000 since the past few weeks.
- On June 15, BTC price fell below $25000, touching three months low amid a bearish crypto market though it soon recovered to $25600.
- If the BTC price maintains to break the $28100 resistance level, it might possibly reach the $32000 mark.
Additional Read: Bitcoin Price Prediction
ETHEREUM PRICE PREDICTION 2023
- The ETH price is currently trading at $1668 with a 24-hour trading volume of $5,930,912,916. The ETH price has gone up by about 2.23% in the last 24 hours. The market cap of ETH is standing at $200,634,134,706 as of June 16, 2023.
- Similar to Bitcoin, ETH price also had a fantastic rally in the Q1 of 2023, reaching a YTD high of $2130.
- ETH price is residing below its 50-day Moving Average for the past few weeks but has retained above the support level at the 200-day Moving Average.
- ETH price also had a divergence from the oversold zone in RSI-14, and if positive sentiment strengthens, it may rise above the $2000 level.
Additional Read: Ethereum Price Prediction
PROS AND CONS OF BITCOIN & ETHEREUM
PROS
| BITCOIN PROS | ETHEREUM PROS |
| It has good accessibility and liquidity | It is easier to mine than Bitcoin |
| Provides complete user anonymity and transparency | Ethereum has a biggest developer support |
| Total independence from a central authority | It is smart contract capable |
| Has a high return potential | Ethereum has one of the biggest and most loyal community |
CONS
| BITCOIN CONS | ETHEREUM CONS |
| It has extreme volatility | Extremely high transaction costs due to gas fees |
| No government regulations, thus under constant risk | No limit to the number of token available – unlike almost every other crypto out there |
| Irreversible – transactions are completely irreversible so hacks and illegal activities can’t be reversed | Hub centralisation issues – but that might be done away with with the ETH 2.0 |
| Limited use – thanks to its high costs | – |
Top Projects Built on Bitcoin, and Ethereum
- Some of the top projects of 2022 that are built on Bitcoin are Galoy, Breez, Alby etc.
- Some of the top projects built on Ethereum are Cryptokitty, crypto punks, OpenSea, Rarible, Nifty Gateway, and Decentraland.
Official Community
| Platform | Bitcoin | Ethereum |
| Telegram | NA | https://telegram.me/ether |
| Youtube | NA | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6rYoXJ_3BbPyWx_GQDDRRQ |
| https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/ | https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/ | |
| Discord | NA | https://discord.com/invite/CetY6Y4 |
| Github | https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin | https://github.com/ethereum |
BTC vs ETH: Which is a better buy?
Both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) have been on a roller coaster ride for the year 2023. Although the current Bitcoin price is lower than its ATH for 2022, it has still grown by 30% in the entire year. The growth rate for Ethereum has also been marvelous with a rise in prices by 55% despite the massive downturn both these top cryptos have suffered.
Bitcoin is the OG (original gangster) of the crypto space. It is also the most recognized crypto of the lot. Bitcoin, being the leader in this space has more than 15000 companies accepting it as a mode payment. Many experts even consider Bitcoin as a deflationary currency, which means that the value of this asset shall only increase over the span of time. This gives Bitcoin an advantage over fiat currencies that are subject to inflation though note crypto assets are highly volatile.
Ethereum on the other hand is the second in a row to Bitcoin both in terms of technological revolution and market cap. Ethereum blockchain has its own native token called Ether (ETH). There are a variety of projects that can be hosted on Ethereum using its ERC-20 standard. Decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) also use Ethereum blockchain as their platform. It lets developers across the globe create and run their own blockchain applications. Various ERC-20 tokens such as MATIC, DOT, etc have been creating history in the blockchain space.
Both of these cryptos have their own advantages. It is completely on the investor’s preference and risk appetite to invest in these cryptos. We always recommend DYOR (do your own research) before investing in any crypto as they are all subjected to market risks.
Read more: How to buy Bitcoin in India
How to Invest in Bitcoin and Ethereum
Investing in crypto is super simple, safe, and secured with CoinDCX app. It doesn’t matter whether you want to buy bitcoin or wish to trade ethereum price today, we have got you covered.
Here are the 3 simple steps to buy your first BTC or ETH with CoinDCX.
1. Sign up on CoinDCX
2. Link your bank details
3. Buy Bitcoin (BTC) or Buy Ethereum (ETH)
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