ETH and BTC are by far the most popular cryptocurrency projects. Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency and has proven itself as the most robust crypto token in the volatile 2022 market. Many have chosen to make the ETH to BTC exchange this year. However, Ethereum has also made crazy gains in the last few years, and the launch of Ethereum 2.0 is gathering pace and causing excitement in the ETH community.
So, which one should you invest in? Here we’ll take an in-depth look at each of these goliath crypto projects to figure out which will be the most profitable investment in 2022 and beyond.
Ethereum Ecosystem
Ethereum was designed to greatly extend the power of blockchain networks to include decentralized applications, NFTs, smart contracts, and more. Here’s what they are all about.
NFT
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are one of the core innovations of Ethereum. The majority of these tokens reside on the Ethereum blockchain. They are completely unique, immutable, and cannot be forged. NFTs have all kinds of useful applications. They can be used for ensuring product authenticity, as items in games, in intellectual property, supply chain management, ticketing, etc.
Smart Contracts
Smart contracts are the foundation of the ETH blockchain. They are automatically executing contracts that are triggered by certain conditions. They are what underpin all decentralized applications and NFTs.
ERC-20 Tokens
These are tokens created on the Ethereum network. They are similar to NFTs but aren’t necessarily unique. These are often used to represent things like tradable platform tokens and even other currencies.
Mining
ETH mining is performed based on Proof-of-Work, similarly to Bitcoin. However, Ethereum has decentralization improvements over Bitcoin. Ethereum has protection against the use of specialized mining hardware. This helps regular users mine ETH.
ETH Price
The ETH price has grown immensely in the last few years, from around $100 a few years ago to $4,000+ in 2021. However, it has also fallen faster than Bitcoin in 2022, losing more than 75% of its value from its peak.
ETH is still a much smaller network than Bitcoin. However, it has many more applications. So, it’s possible that the ETH price has far more space to grow than Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Ecosystem
The Bitcoin blockchain is a simpler system than Ethereum but has a few killer features that keep it at the top of the cryptocurrency charts.
Distributed Ledger Technology
Bitcoin was the first blockchain network to use distributed ledger technology. It’s what makes Bitcoin stand out from centralized ledger technologies such as the VISA payment network.
The Bitcoin distributed ledger is not stored or controlled from any single location. It’s distributed among the many users of the Bitcoin network, and can only be added to by Bitcoin mining using intense computing power. This makes Bitcoin transactions robust to attack and censorship from anyone, including governments. Nobody can touch your BTC on the Bitcoin network.
Pseudonymity
Bitcoin transactions do not require that you open a personal account as you must at a bank. You don’t need to prove your identity or reveal it to anyone for that matter. You simply create a unique Bitcoin address and you can start making transactions with whoever you like. Your Bitcoin address becomes your “pseudonymous” identity, protecting your real identity.
BTC Price
The BTC price is the driver of the entire cryptocurrency market. If the BTC price goes up or down, the rest of the cryptocurrencies typically follow. We saw this in the last year since the crypto peak in 2021. The price of Bitcoin fell more than 60% from $65K to under $20K, and the rest of the crypto market followed. However, Bitcoin is also the most robust cryptocurrency, and fell less than ETH and others.
So, ETH or BTC?
ETH is a more powerful platform, with more applications and growth potential than Bitcoin. However, Bitcoin is still the favorite coin of the crypto market and is seen as more of a store of value. This means the smartest choice for any cryptocurrency investor is to own both BTC and ETH.
If you’d like to simply buy and hold cryptocurrency for the long term, then hold more BTC in your portfolio. However, if you’d like to become involved in Web 3.0 and the decentralized application movement, then you should certainly hold more ETH in your portfolio. If you’d like to rebalance your portfolio using anonymous transactions, then the Godex exchange — https://godex.io — is a great place to start.
