Categories: Business

How Ethereum Is Outshining Bitcoin In 2023

The crypto world is interesting in that for years at this point, Bitcoin has been at the top of the food chain with Ethereum closely behind.

While the two are essentially the faces of the industry, Bitcoin has always had a leg up in terms of market cap and overall popularity.

In the last few years, however, Ethereum has gained an edge over Bitcoin in several ways and some industry watchers even speculate that it could overtake Bitcoin at some point. This became more apparent in 2023 with the following factors:

IMAGE: UNSPLASH

Use Cases

The most obvious way that Ethereum outshines Bitcoin is in its relative lack of use cases. Bitcoin as a token is used as a means of payment and as an investment vehicle but not much more. Ethereum, on the other hand, has a plethora of use cases.

The Ethereum blockchain is the backbone of the billion-dollar Decentralised Finance (DeFi) sector and this drives millions of dollars in fees to the network.

The Ethereum blockchain is also a go-to for the development of Decentralised Applications (dApps) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to the point that NFT prices are usually listed in ETH by default.

Many smart contracts, which are a major selling point of blockchain as a whole, are built on Ethereum, which has cornered the market on their development.

Over the years, Ethereum has established itself as the go-to blockchain for building all sorts of digital assets and applications and this shows no signs of stopping soon.

Moving forward, Ethereum seems committed to improving its security and scalability which means that it can be used for even more development in the future. While it is not yet competing with Bitcoin in terms of market cap, it is an industry leader in use cases.

Fee Structure

Ethereum as a token has seen a lot of use for domestic purposes and this is partially due to its fee structure. Take gambling, for example.

One of the reasons why consumers prefer to gamble with crypto is so that they can enjoy cheaper transactions compared to traditional payment methods. And when it comes to crypto casinos, the current fee structure is one of the benefits of choosing Ethereum.

Ethereum allows users to choose several fee tiers, with the most expensive ones ensuring that transactions are completed as fast as possible and the cheaper ones being completed slowly. This means that users can spend as much or as little on fees as they want.

They can also decide how fast they need their transactions to be.

A user who wants to make a deposit or withdrawal with their crypto casino very quickly can opt to pay more and end up at the front of the line while others who aren’t as pressed for time can pay less and wait longer.

While Bitcoin is also used on platforms like casinos, Ethereum has an edge thanks to its more affordable and flexible pay structure. And as crypto casinos become more popular, it will be interesting to see which token comes out on top.

Environmental Impact

One of the major criticisms of cryptocurrency is the fact that token mining is very energy-intensive and causes adverse impacts on the environment.

Bitcoin, for example, has been called out for using as much electricity in one year as entire countries, as well as the incidents of people stealing electricity to mine tokens. These criticisms are levelled mainly against cryptos that are based on a proof-of-work consensus.

Previously, both Bitcoin and Ethereum were based on the proof-of-work consensus but the Ethereum Foundation took the bold step to switch to a proof-of-stake consensus earlier this year. By doing this, Ethereum cut down its energy consumption by over 95% and has become much more environmentally friendly.

This gives it a leg up over Bitcoin in several ways. It means that it is better for the planet, which is a good thing for its long-term presence.

There is also a lot more emphasis these days on saving the planet and cryptos like Bitcoin will come under more scrutiny for their energy use in the future.

But while that happens, Ethereum will enjoy a positive reputation as a crypto for those who want to protect the planet.

Scalability

A core advantage of Ethereum is that it is simply more scalable than Bitcoin. On average, the Bitcoin network can process up to 7 transactions per second. Ethereum, on the other hand, can process up to 30 transactions per second.

And while this is impressive in itself, Ethereum is on track to process up to 10,000 transactions per second once the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade goes live.

This shows that Ethereum intends to dominate within the blockchain industry for years to come and secure even more use cases for itself outside of being a speculative asset.

Ethereum – Conclusion

Bitcoin might be the biggest crypto in the world right now but Ethereum seems to be outshining it in certain respects. Ethereum is faster and more affordable to use for consumers, has more current and potential use cases, and is better for the environment as a whole.

While Ethereum is still behind Bitcoin as a speculative asset, the sheer number of things it is doing to make itself viable long-term means that we could see Ethereum overtake Bitcoin at some point in the future.

And while we wait for this to possibly happen, Ethereum seems only to evolve.

Disclaimer: The above references an opinion of the author and is for information purposes only. Never gamble for more than you can afford to lose. Gambling can lead to a serious addiction. Gamble responsibly.