Purpose: Bitcoin was created as a digital currency to be used as a medium of exchange, while Ethereum was designed as a platform for decentralized applications (dApps) that use smart contracts to automate processes and transactions.
Technology: Bitcoin uses a blockchain that is focused on storing and transferring value, while Ethereum’s blockchain is more flexible and allows for the creation of custom smart contracts and dApps.
Mining: Bitcoin mining is primarily done using specialized hardware that solves complex mathematical problems to verify transactions and add them to the blockchain. Ethereum, on the other hand, uses a different consensus mechanism called Proof of Stake (PoS) that allows users to validate transactions and create new blocks by staking their own ETH tokens.
Supply: Bitcoin has a limited supply of 21 million coins, while Ethereum’s supply is not fixed and currently has over 115 million ETH tokens in circulation.
Adoption: Bitcoin has been around longer and is more widely adopted as a means of payment and store of value, while Ethereum is used more for developing dApps and powering decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.
Overall, Bitcoin and Ethereum have different strengths and use cases, but both have played a significant role in the growth of the cryptocurrency ecosystem.