A crypto expert discusses the differences between bitcoin and ethereum.

It almost sounds like a wrestling match: bitcoin vs. ethereum.

Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency, while ethereum is a global computing platform powered by its native cryptocurrency, ether, which is the second most popular.

‘The Crypto Ecosystem’

Both are are decentralized, meaning that they are not issued or regulated by a central bank or other authority.

Egor Volotkovich, executive director of cross-chain solutions EVODeFi, said the two cryptocurrencies “occupy different positions in the crypto ecosystem with marked uniqueness to both.” 

“While bitcoin continues to maintain its stance as the legacy payment asset in the blockchain world,” he said, “ethereum has advanced in its reach as a decentralized finance fuel in the growing blockchain world.”

In terms of advantages, Volotkovich said that bitcoin has maintained a high level of dominance in relation to its security infrastructure as the blockchain was not built in such a way that it can easily be exploited.

Ethereum, on the other hand, houses a number of decentralized applications, or dApps, he said, “some of which have been hacked, breached, or exploited in one way or the other.”

‘Go-To Digital Asset’

Volotkovich said that a more apparent advantage on the investing scene is the cheap price of ethereum when compared to that of Bitcoin.

“Literally, investors believe the former has more penchant for growth than the latter,” he said. 

An obvious minus for ethereum is its high congestion level which has continued to cause high transaction fees dubbed gas fees.

“Bitcoin’s observable minus in relation to that of ethereum is its average transaction time which is pegged at an average of 10 minutes as against that of ETH at a few seconds,” Volotkovich said

He added that generally, institutional investors prefer to have their allocations in bitcoin much more than ethereum. 

From Tesla  (TSLA) – Get Tesla Inc Report to MicroStrategy  (MSTR) – Get MicroStrategy Incorporated Class A Report and even Jack Dorsey’s Block Inc  (SQ) – Get Block Inc Class A Report have all made allocations in BTC but not ETH, Volotkovich said 

“However, retail investors and the broader DeFi world have found a lot of utility in ethereum and as such, it comes off as their go-to digital asset,” he said.