6 ms·

What's the difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum?

2 points by pnonplussed 6y ago

cocktailpeanuts 6y ago
Bitcoin was not designed as a state machine, but as a way to store transactions which can be used to construct a state machine offchain. Ethereum tries to implement a fully self contained state machine in its system. This is where all its problems come from. Because every Ethereum miner has to validate every transaction in the entire network, a Proof of Work model is too inefficient for them so they have to transition to Proof of Stake (Whether this will succeed or not, or whether it will even launch or not, is outside of this topic). This is also why Ethereum transaction fees are so high nowadays. Also because the main design goal of Ethereum was to make a "Turing complete blockchain" (which it technically isn't), it had to add a new concept called "gas", which adds an additional layer of complexity (compared to bitcoin). This gas concept has resulted in all kinds of UX challenges. Bitcoin has its own flaws too. Most Bitcoin investors no longer believe Bitcoin was meant to be used for transactions, but just as a way to store value, like digital gold. So there's not much you can do with it other than speculative investment, hoping that the price will skyrocket at some point. Basically, it's not really interesting for most hackers, it's become a wall street toy.
- sushshshsh 6y ago
  It can still be used for transactions, just very slow ones. There's no need to use it to buy a cup of coffee, but I'm hoping it can still be used to send $5 to someone and just have it take days to arrive.
  - cocktailpeanuts 6y ago
    > I'm hoping it can still be used to send $5 to someone and just have it take days to arrive Here's the thing. Why would anyone want to do that? 1. First world people living a privileged life: Why would any idiot in this category send $5 and wait for days to arrive when they can just use Venmo or all kinds of upcoming payment systems from the big tech cos like Google, Facebook, Apple, etc.? 2. People in non first world countries: Bitcoin can only facilitate 1MB of transactions per block. The poor people will be priced out of ever using Bitcoin if Bitcoin was used for transactions. These people won't use bitcoin, they will use whatever that's cheapest. Even the ones who "store" their value in Bitcoin will never use Bitcoin for transactions, just for storing.
    - sushshshsh 6y ago
      Hmmm, definitely you're right... Even if I was to have 0.002 BTC or whatever in my wallet file, and I just gave this wallet to my friend for him to spend, he will still face this issue of fees when he goes to spend it. The issue is that Bitcoin is much more liquid and legitimate than other coins like Litecoin or Ethereum, which are technically more fungible but not accepted in as many places.
tromp 6y ago
Bitcoin vs Ethereum premine: 0% vs 70% reward schedule: set in stone vs subject to change philosophy: immutable vs experimental blocktime: 10 min vs 13 sec balances: utxo-based (unspent transaction output) vs account-based scripting: branchless programs vs stateful & Turing complete complexity: low vs high

2 points by pnonplussed 6y ago

Bitcoin was not designed as a state machine, but as a way to store transactions which can be used to construct a state machine offchain. Ethereum tries to implement a fully self contained state machine in its system. This is where all its problems come from. Because every Ethereum miner has to validate every transaction in the entire network, a Proof of Work model is too inefficient for them so they have to transition to Proof of Stake (Whether this will succeed or not, or whether it will even launch or not, is outside of this topic). This is also why Ethereum transaction fees are so high nowadays. Also because the main design goal of Ethereum was to make a "Turing complete blockchain" (which it technically isn't), it had to add a new concept called "gas", which adds an additional layer of complexity (compared to bitcoin). This gas concept has resulted in all kinds of UX challenges. Bitcoin has its own flaws too. Most Bitcoin investors no longer believe Bitcoin was meant to be used for transactions, but just as a way to store value, like digital gold. So there's not much you can do with it other than speculative investment, hoping that the price will skyrocket at some point. Basically, it's not really interesting for most hackers, it's become a wall street toy.

sushshshsh 6y ago
It can still be used for transactions, just very slow ones. There's no need to use it to buy a cup of coffee, but I'm hoping it can still be used to send $5 to someone and just have it take days to arrive.
- cocktailpeanuts 6y ago
  > I'm hoping it can still be used to send $5 to someone and just have it take days to arrive Here's the thing. Why would anyone want to do that? 1. First world people living a privileged life: Why would any idiot in this category send $5 and wait for days to arrive when they can just use Venmo or all kinds of upcoming payment systems from the big tech cos like Google, Facebook, Apple, etc.? 2. People in non first world countries: Bitcoin can only facilitate 1MB of transactions per block. The poor people will be priced out of ever using Bitcoin if Bitcoin was used for transactions. These people won't use bitcoin, they will use whatever that's cheapest. Even the ones who "store" their value in Bitcoin will never use Bitcoin for transactions, just for storing.
  - sushshshsh 6y ago
    Hmmm, definitely you're right... Even if I was to have 0.002 BTC or whatever in my wallet file, and I just gave this wallet to my friend for him to spend, he will still face this issue of fees when he goes to spend it. The issue is that Bitcoin is much more liquid and legitimate than other coins like Litecoin or Ethereum, which are technically more fungible but not accepted in as many places.

tromp 6y ago

Bitcoin vs Ethereum premine: 0% vs 70% reward schedule: set in stone vs subject to change philosophy: immutable vs experimental blocktime: 10 min vs 13 sec balances: utxo-based (unspent transaction output) vs account-based scripting: branchless programs vs stateful & Turing complete complexity: low vs high