Ethereum is one of the most significant digital assets besides bitcoin. Ethereum has its crypto asset called Ether (ETH). Ethereum is a type of digital asset that also operates on peer-to-peer technology like Bitcoin. Ethereum’s decentralized platform was explicitly created to be used as a place to store, deploy, and explain smart contracts.
Simply put, ETH is the world’s leading programmable blockchain. Through the Ethereum platform, developers can create new forms of market, store important data such as cooperation agreements, debts, company deeds, etc., and send money wherever and whenever they want without relying on third parties.
Transactions with ETH can also be more efficient because it removes intermediaries from the system used. Some experts say ETH aims to become the world’s computer.
Ethereum History Flash
A young computer programmer, Vitalik Buterin, launched ETH in 2015. At the age of 17, in 2012, he was introduced to Bitcoin by his father. Vitalik’s interest in Bitcoin led him to become a writer for Bitcoin Magazine. From there, Vitalik proposed an improvised idea on the Bitcoin platform, but it didn’t materialize, which led him to decide to create his cryptocurrency.
The man born in Moscow who settled in Canada finally dropped out of college. He dropped out of the University of Waterloo and replaced his activities with traveling the world to visit great individuals who worked on Bitcoin.
The man who entered Fortune’s 40 under 40 list finally created a blockchain technology platform, namely Ethereum. Although its value is not equivalent to Bitcoin, when viewed in terms of market capitalization, Ethereum is currently in second place after Bitcoin, where the price for 1 ETH as of September 18, 2020, is IDR 5,725,000.
Ethereum VS Bitcoin: What’s the difference?
Ethereum and Bitcoin are both crypto assets and have something in common: using a decentralized blockchain technology network. Both can also be produced through the mining process. While there are many technical differences between Bitcoin and Ethereum, the most crucial difference is their purpose and function.
- As for the amount, ETH and BTC are very different. This crypto-asset created by Satoshi Nakamoto is limited to only 21 million tokens, while ETH does not have a specific amount limit.
- While in function, BTC offers a peer-to-peer electronic money system for Bitcoin payments or transfers. In comparison, ETH focuses on its blockchain to run decentralized programs, including Ethereum payments or transfers. Even transfers using ETH are much faster compared to BTC.
- Transaction fees for using BTC and ETH are also different. BTC has a fixed and undifferentiated transaction fee. It is different from ETH. The transaction fee depends on the computing power of each client, so the price is not fixed.
- In addition, in its function, BTC is often used as a tool to store balance lists and transactions on its blockchain. In contrast, the Ethereum blockchain is designed to hold various data that can be used by computer programs (decentralized applications or dapps) running on the Ethereum blockchain.
Developers worldwide can build and run decentralized applications on the Ethereum blockchain. So, ETH is also useful for improving the financial industry and as a place to store personal information.
There are tons of digital currencies worldwide, and ETH could be one of your choices. In addition to mining, ETH can be obtained easily by trading on your favorite platform. Using an exchange platform or crypto asset exchange, you can buy and sell ETH, especially if you already have another digital currency, such as BTC, then you can buy ETH immediately.