Blockchain technology, the decentralized blockchain system that underlies the digital currency bitcoin, has received a lot of interest recently from Wall Street. The prospect for disruption in the financial sector and beyond is becoming more apparent by the day, with applications that range from cross-border payments to exchanges and clearing of over-the-counter options to simplifying back-office operations. So, what makes ethereum more decentralized than bitcoin? While bitcoin is the most commonly utilized and very well-known use case of blockchain, ethereum may be the game-changer that enables this disruption to occur.

In many respects, ethereum and bitcoin are similar: both are digital currencies that can be exchanged on internet exchanges and kept in different kinds of cryptocurrency wallets. Both of these coins are decentralized, which means they are neither issued nor managed by a central bank or other government entity. Both make use of blockchain, a distributed ledger technology. However, there are many key differences between the the most prominent cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalization. We’ll look at the commonalities and contrasts between bitcoin and ethereum in more detail below to know what makes ethereum more decentralized than bitcoin?

Bitcoin Basics

Bitcoin is a completely decentralized digital currency system. It is intended to allow peer-to-peer transactions without the need of a trusted third party. Bitcoin has a limited supply: no more than 21 million bitcoins will ever exist. Bitcoin is censorship-resistant due to its decentralized structure, which means that any transaction that is legitimate according to the network’s standards may be included in a block. Because of these characteristics, bitcoin is a strong contender to become the world’s reserve currency.

Ethereum Basics

Ethereum is a cryptocurrency that differs from bitcoin in terms of its objectives and design characteristics. Ethereum is better understood as a platform for performing financial smart contracts. It is often referred to as a distributed global computer. The ethereum network supports a wide range of tokens, but its main token is known as ether (ETH). Ether is used to pay processing fees for the ethereum platform’s numerous smart contracts.

Ethereum was developed as a new blockchain with a new programming language known as Solidity. Unlike Bitcoin Script, Solidity’s code is Turing complete, which means it has loops. As a result, an ethereum contract may be much more complicated and use far more computing resources than a bitcoin exchange. The ethereum blockchain supports a more sophisticated and diverse set of smart payments systems than the bitcoin network. Furthermore, many other kinds of tokens may be produced domestically on the ethereum blockchain, while bitcoin is the sole token that can be transferred directly on the bitcoin network. However, ethereum’s architectural choices come at an expense, including increased complexity and a lack of genuine decentralization.

Ethereum and Decentralised Autonomous Organizations

Smart contracts could serve as the foundation for entire decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) that operate like corporate entities, engaging in financial relationships and selling items, hiring labor, negotiating deals, balancing budgets, and maximizing profits—without the need for human or institutional intervention. If one believes that businesses are nothing more than a complicated network of contracts and responsibilities of variable scale and scope, then such DAOs might be programmed into ethereum. 

This opens the door to a plethora of new and intriguing possibilities, such as emancipated robots that physically own themselves and humans directly hired by software.

Is Ethereum Decentralized?

What makes ethereum more decentralized than bitcoin? Bitcoin’s decentralization is a key characteristic that is required for the currency’s long-term viability and integrity. To preserve security, censorship resistance, and an open, transparent monetary policy, bitcoin must be decentralized on many levels.

Ethereum has shown to be more centralized than bitcoin on many of these levels. This centralized control has been exposed through network outages and arbitrary protocol modifications.

While DAOs are a concept that will be realized in the future, decentralized applications (DApps) are already being created for ethereum. These stand-alone apps operate on the EVM and make use of smart contracts. Micropayment systems, reputation features, online gambling applications, schedulers, and P2P markets are a few examples.

DApps are distinguished by the fact that they operate on a decentralized network and are implemented without the requirement for a centralized authority or supervisor. The ethereum blockchain can disintermediate any kind of multi-party application that now depends on a central server. Chat, gaming, shopping, and banking may all be included in the future.

What Makes Ethereum More Decentralised Than Bitcoin?

Ethereum supporters often highlight the increased number of “decentralized finance” businesses developed on top of ethereum as a cause Ether will surpass bitcoin. Indeed, ethereum has simplified the process of launching new currencies and apps straight on the blockchain. For a variety of reasons, this is unlikely to improve Ether’s long-term value proposition.

On ethereum, hundreds, if not thousands, of distinct tokens have been created. These tokens are not created and maintained with the same care and caution that bitcoin is, and a significant number of them have been abused, resulting in financial loss for investors. Even more, have simply lost value as a result of a speculative bubble burst. The continuous cycle of new initiatives, vulnerabilities, and failures harms ethereum’s and decentralized finance’s general reputation and dependability.

Furthermore, the majority of new ethereum projects create their own unique coin. The abundance of new tokens has stifled the growth of network effects, resulting in a huge number of illiquid tokens. In an unstable and illiquid environment, novel and sophisticated smart contracts are useless.

The Bottom Line

Ethereum may accomplish applications of all sizes and shapes what bitcoin achieved for money and payments by using blockchain technology. Smart contracts may be created using a built-in programming language and distributed virtual machine to perform a wide range of tasks without the requirement for a reliable third party or central authority. Nodes may be compensated for their processing capacity in operating these decentralized applications using their own money, ether, and ultimately, whole decentralized autonomous companies may emerge in an ether economy.

Investigating the differences between bitcoin and ethereum leads to a more in-depth analysis of what blockchain can do to enhance every area of our life. Bitcoin and ethereum will most certainly play a significant role in the future of everything from banking to the courts to construction.

There may be few direct parallels between bitcoin and ethereum, but there will be many parallels between life before and after their widespread adoption.