Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are the two largest cryptocurrencies in the market. Back in 2017, Bitcoin experienced massive growth and it was possible for it to reach $20,000, the highest price ever registered by it in the market.

Now that the whole cryptocurrency space seems to be entering a new bull market, the main question is whether it will be possible for Ethereum to grow as fast and as high as Bitcoin did in the past. In this article, we will share with you why Ethereum is different from Bitcoin, why it’s faster and whether ETH could eventually surpass BTC.

How is Ethereum different from Bitcoin?

Bitcoin was created over ten years ago by Satoshi Nakamoto in order to allow individuals process transfers without having to depend on a centralized authority. This was a very incredible creation that helped many users perform financial transfers that before were controlled by a third party.

Meanwhile, Ethereum was created by a team of experts and developers such as Vitalik Buterin, Charles Hoskinson, Joseph Lubin, and Gavin Wood, in order to include smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps) to the financial world enabled by Bitcoin.

Both of these virtual currencies work in a very different way. Indeed, while Bitcoin transactions take several minutes to be processed, Ethereum is faster and much more efficient than the oldest digital asset in the world. During periods of a big load in the crypto market, users tend to use Ethereum rather than Bitcoin.

Ethereum vs Bitcoin: The main differences

In addition to it, there is a dedicated team of experts working on Ethereum and on different initiatives around it. In the future, Ethereum wants to move towards a full Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm that would allow it to be even more efficient than now.

Ethereum is now allowing developers, companies, and firms to deploy their own decentralized applications, something that on Bitcoin is not possible to do. Although Bitcoin has some smart contract functionalities, they are very limited compared to the ones offered by Ethereum as a whole.

It is worth mentioning that Bitcoin has a limited supply of coins compared to Ethereum. There will only be just 21 million BTC ever mined. Nonetheless, Ethereum didn’t stipulate a fixed number of coins, which could eventually generate a discussion in the community in the future. This is a very interesting thing that Bitcoin decided to do, considering that users know there will never be more than a certain amount of BTC ever mined.

Why is Ethereum network faster than Bitcoin?

Fast and cheap transactions are some of the most important things that enthusiasts search on virtual currencies. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum have much better services than banks and traditional financial institutions. However, the difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum is also massive.

The average block time for Ethereum is currently around 13 seconds, compared to Bitcoin that is 10 minutes. This allows this project to be a faster and more efficient network to work with rather than with Bitcoin. Despite that, it is worth mentioning that the hash rate of the Bitcoin network is massive and no other cryptocurrency in the world has the level of security Bitcoin has.

Furthermore, the Ethereum average fee is close to $0.1 per transfer compared to Bitcoin’s $0.7. That means that there are periods in which Bitcoin can have transactions seven times more expensive than those processed by Ethereum. Thus, it is faster and cheaper to use Ethereum rather than Bitcoin for sending funds from one place to another.

With future improvements on the Ethereum network, it can become even more efficient than now. That means Ethereum users could start using instant transfers for just a few cents. The impact that this could have in the financial world could be massive if implemented properly.

Will Ethereum Be Bigger Than Bitcoin?

This is one of the most important questions users do in the crypto market. It is not possible to know the answer. However, until now, Bitcoin has always been the largest cryptocurrency in the world.

Although Ethereum was close to surpassing its market capitalization, Bitcoin remains a clear leader in the space due to its longevity, adoption, and coverage, which Ethereum doesn’t yet have.

Despite all these things, this project could certainly surpass Bitcoin in the market. A bull trend could push altcoins to new highs, allowing them to surge and surpass their previous highs many times. Ethereum is the second-largest virtual currency in the world and it’s in a privileged situation to surpass Bitcoin.

According to data provided by CoinMarketCap, Ethereum has a market capitalization of $22.2 billion compared to Bitcoin’s $175.53 billion. However, Bitcoin’s market dominance is falling from a recent peak above 70%. Now it is 64.7% and analysts consider it could keep falling.

If that trend continues, this project could surpass Bitcoin in a massive bull market for altcoins. However, as mentioned before, no other altcoin in the past was able to challenge Bitcoin’s dominance in the space. We have now just to wait until the next bull market takes place and how traders will react to this new trend in the space.

Conclusion

In this article, we aimed at showing you which are the main differences between Bitcoin and Ethereum and how these two virtual currencies could compete for the leadership in the space. Although Bitcoin remains the largest crypto, things can change in the future if Ethereum continues to move forward.