Bitcoin vs Ethereum

Bitcoin3.9/5

VS

Ethereum4.3/5

Feature	BitcoinVisit	EthereumVisit
Ratings
Our score	3.9/5	4.3/5
User rating	No reviews yet	No reviews yet
Performance	3.5	3.0
Fees	3.5	3.5
Ecosystem	4.0	5.0
Decentralization	5.0	5.0
Developer experience	3.0	4.5
Specs
Layer	Layer 1	Layer 1
Consensus / design	Proof of Work	Proof of Stake
Native token	BTC	ETH
EVM compatible	No	Yes
Smart contract languages	Bitcoin Script	Solidity, Vyper
Block time	~10 minutes	12 seconds
Typical transaction fee	Low processing fees	0.15 to 0.5 gwei
Finality	Not disclosed	12.8 minutes
Validators / sequencer	Proof-of-work miners	Not disclosed
Mainnet since	2,009	2,015
Sequencer	Not applicable	Not applicable
Data availability	Not disclosed	EIP-4844 blobs and calldata
Gas paid in	BTC	ETH
Company
Founded	2009	2015
Headquarters	—	Switzerland
Investors	Not disclosed	Public crowdsale participants
Strengths and weaknesses
Pros	Operates without a central authority or bank Bitcoin uses proof of work, and nodes validate transactions against its consensus rules The Bitcoin Project is released under the MIT License Worldwide network availability	Uninterrupted 100% network uptime since its July 2015 launch Nearly $50B in total value locked in October 2026 Hosts approximately $180B of stablecoins on mainnet as of July 2026 Open client ecosystem with no single point of corporate failure
Cons	Blocks arrive roughly every 10 minutes Proof-of-work requires energy Bitcoin is not EVM compatible Lost keys or wrong addresses can cause permanent loss	Base-layer transaction fees spike significantly during periods of heavy congestion Layer-1 execution throughput remains limited to under 30 transactions per second Complex smart contract interactions can become costly during peak network demand
Best for	Self-custody BTC holders, Peer-to-peer payments, Users prioritising decentralisation	DeFi liquidity providers and traders, Smart contract developers using Solidity, Layer-2 rollup deployment teams

Highlighted cells show the stronger value in each row. Data comes from each provider's site and public sources; check details before you sign up.

More comparisons