While somebody has on the brain FOMO (fear of missing out) in the crypto world, a large percentage of Internet-users are beyond blockchain, digital currency, and consider Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) a long row to hoe until now.
2018 was regarded a blockchain year, so there is no place left to be unfamiliar with BTC and ETH.
BTC and ETH are lines of computer code holding monetary value, again named crypto or digital currency. Cryptocurrency is meticulous mathematical computations made by “miners”.
Bitcoin is the first ever mined cryptocurrency, and it is limited — only 21 million of bitcoins can be ever mined. The simplest name for bitcoin is “digital dollar” which has no connection with the regular bank. It is decentralized, easy to set up, anonymous, completely transparent, fees are minimal, it is fast payment process, but non-repudiable.
Everyone and everywhere can mine bitcoins, create an account to buy/sell bitcoin through cryptocurrency exchanges.
Ether (or Ethereum) is another kind of cryptocurrency, which seems to many people a dominant coin which will beat BTC someday. ETH is different in its technology, however likewise bitcoin, it can be bought/sold, used as an investment, or be invested into ICO opportunities.
ETH is also anonymous and secure against foes. With BTC and ETH, you can transact large sums, buy/sell different things and products, travel etc.
If the cryptocurrency is just a “non-paper dollar”, how is the price estimated?
Miners and traders as a key metric for cryptocurrency comparison use a “Market Cap”. Market Capitalization is utilized to rate the size of currency, it is multiplication of price and circulating supply. In other words, Market Cap is an amount of Fiat money invested into cryptomoney.
The prices of ETH and BTC have risen speedily during 2017.
For instance, on the start, ETH had the value of around $10 for the first 18 months. In March 2017 it gained $395, and in April broke to $155, rose again to $800 in December.
First month of 2018 shown the gap between prices, from $14232 (January 15) to $9622 (January 17).
BTC Market Cap and price (02–15–2017–02–15–2018)
(Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/)
ETH Market Cap and price (02–15–2017–02–15–2018)
(Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/)
Today we face a little decrease of BTC price and ETH price in comparison with the end of previous year.
BTC price to GBP is £6,915.22 (02–15–2018). ETH price to GBP is £657.07 (02–15–2018).
Here comes the question: is it possible that someday ETH will cost as much as BTC?
The prices of BTC and ETH go up or down on the basis of public supply and demand, it means that you won’t be able to compare the prices of the potential growth because lots of factors influence the possibility of its growth or downfall. But it does not mean that you can not use Market Cap to compare, as a real indication of the currency size.
Let’s make it clear: if BTC has a fund 50x higher (for instance) than ETH, there should need be 50x investments in ETH to reach the same price. If we want ETH to be the same size as BTC, we expect “the Flippening” — time with the similar amount of invested money in both cryptocurrencies, or just similar Market Cap. After “the Flippening” ETH still and all will have the lower price.
Lots of cryptocurrency users make predictions about BTC and ETH.
I think Bitcoin and Ethereum will share a $4.5 trillion market cap by 2020 — Bobby Ullery.
After the explanation of the reasons for such growth, author estimates the prices of BTC and ETH for 2020: in 2020 there will be approx. 18,375,000 BTC and 1 bitcoin will cost 43,963 GBP (02–15–2018). If the circulation of ETH will come to 100M, the cost for one ETH will be 8,079 GBP.
*These numbers will occur only in case if by 2020 the nominal GDP of the world economy will be $91 trillion, and 5% of it will be stored by blockchain.
(Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/ethtrader/comments/7872z8/eth_will_overtake_btc_in_marketcap_2018/)
Is there any chance that ETH is a threat to BTC?
Both of them operate on blockchain technology, though BTC is a sole currency, while ETH is “smart contract” technology used by companies as huge innovation and potential to build apps, it is tough. ETH is supported by The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance — group of Fortune 500 companies who use ETH blockchain technology to automate utterly complicated applications through demanding businesses. Ether also allows faster creation of “blocks” then bitcoin. ETH efficiency is in transactions, while BTC — in storing value. BTC allure lies in money, while ETH empowers all other things to move on the network.
(Source: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1902718.120)
To sum up, the major difference between BTC and ETH is the gap of goals:
Where Bitcoin is disrupting currency, Ethereum is disrupting equity.
We consider these two digital currencies not to be a threat to each other, but to cause a fundamental development of blockchain in the world economy.
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