For those of you who are currently struggling with the crypto world, maybe you are very familiar with the cryptocurrency called bitcoin. Bitcoin is indeed known as the cryptocurrency with the largest capitalization value in the world today.
However, have you ever heard of Ethereum? Yes, Ethereum is also a part of the crypto world that you know today. The name Ethereum may not be as popular as Bitcoin, which is currently very well known in the community.
So, what is Ethereum? How is it different from the Bitcoin we know so far? The following article will explain a little to you.
What is Ethereum?
Reported by Kanalcoin.com from the official Ethereum website, the notion of Ethereum itself is a decentralized platform that can be used to run smart contracts. Smart contracts themselves are applications that can operate automatically with certain programming, without censorship, fraud, downtime, or interference from other parties.
In addition, Ethereum is also known as a blockchain network that is used for their own cryptocurrency under the name Ether (ETH). Ethereum was created by Vitalik Buterin in 2014.
Previously, Buterin was known as one of the developers of Bitcoin during the period 2011 to 2013. Buterin had conveyed the name Ethereum in 2013 in a whitepaper. Buterin said that Bitcoin should be made easier to “customize”.
Buterin also began to propose an application called a smart contract which was expected to be able to be applied to bitcoin, so that the most expensive token could have a wider function.
However, the idea that Buterin put forward does not seem to be applicable to Bitcoin. Thus, Buterin created Ethereum in 2014 with a smart contract feature that can run itself with special programming.
In fact, with the Ethereum program initiated by Buterin, in the crypto world, the term initial coin offering or ICO appears. ICO itself is a term for offering coins to investors to get funds for the development of certain technology projects.
In fact, when the Ethereum project was still in the development stage, the ICO carried out by selling Ether tokens to investors was able to reach 60 million ETH tokens sold at that time. This makes the Ethereum platform continue to grow and be promoted more broadly.
Since then, Ethereum has grown rapidly and is increasingly recognized by the public. In fact, the existence of Ethereum has become a turning point for raising funds for the development of certain projects using the blockchain network and competing with corporate bonds that have been used by the community.
Difference Between Ethereum and Bitcoin
At first glance, Ethereum and Bitcoin do have quite a lot in common. One of them is Ethereum and Bitcoin are cryptocurrencies that are both obtained from the mining process by miners. In addition, it was also created in the form of a peer-to-peer public network or individual to individual like Bitcoin.
However, there are some pretty basic differences betweetn Ethereum and Bitcoin. Whatever it is, here’s a little review for you.
- Purpose of Creation
The purpose of the creation of Bitcoin is as a store of wealth, digital assets, digital gold, and the end goal is to become a digital currency that can be used globally by people around the world.
Meanwhile, Ethereum was created to be a platform that smart contracts can use to make certain agreements with a decentralized application base, so that everything that was originally done manually can be done digitally on blockchain technology.
- Quantity Limit
Bitcoin is known to have a very high price due to the very limited amount in this world. The reason is that there are only 21 million bitcoins in the cryptocurrency market. Meanwhile, Ethereum does not have any specific limits regarding the amount.
Ethereum emphasizes mining based on smart contracts and ICOs carried out by certain parties for the project development process.
- Block Creation Speed
Ethereum has a faster block creation speed compared to Bitcoin. Ethereum is able to create a block on its network in 12 seconds, while Bitcoin takes much longer, ie 10 minutes to create a block on its network.
- Fee Transaksi
Each transaction carried out on blockchain technology usually uses a fee or additional fee. Fees applied to Ethereum may vary depending on the computing power of each. Meanwhile, Bitcoin has a pre-set transaction fee.
- Coding Used
Ethereum has a very different coding to Bitcoin. Ethereum uses Turing Complete Code which allows you to send scripts with unlimited loops. However, Bitcoin does not have the same coding as Ethereum.
So, that was the brief information about Ethereum that you need to know before diving deeper into the world of cryptocurrencies. Now that you know the difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum, hopefully it will be useful and see you in the next article.
(*)