>Is there a significant difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum approaches? The two have very different approaches. Bitcoin was designed to be a currency, with

>Is there a significant difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum approaches? The two have very different approaches. Bitcoin was designed to be a currency, with blockchain being the mechanism to facilitate transactions. Ethereum was built from the start as a platform to run applications for zero downtime, along with its own cryptocurrency and smart contracts. If you follow the HBO series Silicon Valley, Pied Piper's platform running thanks to the smart refrigerators is reminiscent of Ethereum. >From what I can tell Ripple expects entities to run validation nodes as a service to the public Ripple is an oddball, but I threw it in as an example. It was created by a company which mined all of the coins from day one and held onto a significant portion of them, yet claim it was built to connect different payment systems together. For example, here's a statement their lead cryptographer made. “Payment systems today are where email was in the early ‘80s. Every provider built their own system for their customers and if people used different systems they couldn’t easily interact with each other. Ripple is designed to connect different payment systems together.”