Is Ethereum better than Bitcoin? Why or why not? Is it like comparing apples to oranges?

Charles Hayter, CEO & Founder of CryptoCompare.com

Ethereum is written in a Turing Complete Language - Bitcoin was written in a stack based language that isn't Turing Complete.

A Turing complete language means anything can be done with it given enough time and enough computing power.

This means that Ethereum has a broader base to build on and a broader market to enter - as it isn't locked to being a value transfer ledger - which is where the analogy of ethereum as a tcp/icp in comparison to bitcoin as your email comes in. Although Bitcoin could be built upon to allow the functionality that Ethereum has - it would be clunky!

The major difference is the simplicity on building on top of ethereum. For example some very smart guys at Slock.it have built a device that unlocks for a period of time on the condition of payment to a particular wallet. So can you imagine paying for an air b and b to turn up at the door swipe your phone and enter - no key handovers but a bit of a bummer if your phone has no juice.

The other set of differences comes in the way Ethereum and bitcoin are built. Ethereum uses ethash instead of sha-256 - which means that individuals can compete in mining it (Ethash is memory hard meaning it needs memory to run - which in turn means it works more efficiently on a GPU ) whilst Bitcoin has ASIC chips that have led to a moore's law race and concentrated mining power!

Ethereum also has a shorter block time than Bitcoin - due to some clever hacking using the ghost protocol - which basically means that forks in the chain are rewarded but don't cause to much of an issue! So Ethereum a transaction should be confirmed in under 20 seconds and with bitcoin 10 minutes... less waiting around.

Another difference is the economic model and plans. Ethereum plans to move from proof of work to proof of stake and at present has a continual stable block reward. Bitcoin on the other hand has a block reward that halves every four years until 2140. Even though the supply rate is different, in essence they are both deflationary. (Time to get into your arguments on the Austrian School of Economics!)

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