Bitcoin services provider Coinbase recently rebranded its exchange service as GDAX, which stands for Global Digital Asset Exchange, and added Ether trading via the ETH/BTC and ETH/USD crosses.



In a blog post, Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam has shared his views on how Ethereum is ahead of Bitcoin. He noted that within a short span, the level of app development taking place in the Ethereum network is faster as compare to Bitcoin.



“Ethereum has taken what was a four function calculator of a programming language in Bitcoin and turned it into a full fledged computer”, Ehrsam said. “Ethereum would never have existed without Bitcoin as a forerunner. That said, I think Ethereum is ahead of Bitcoin in many ways and represents the bleeding edge of digital currency.”



The first argument he puts forth in support of Ethereum is regarding the programming language. Ehrsam said that while Bitcoin’s scripting language is intentionally restrictive, Ethereum’s programming languages allows much more. He said:



“In contrast, Ethereum’s programming languages (Solidity for those who like Javascript, Serpent for those who like Python) let you do pretty much anything an advanced programming language would let you do… It is simple for any developer to pick it up and quickly write their first app.”



Secondly, he noted that Bitcoin’s developer community feels fairly dormant and that Bitcoin failed to make it past the stage of simple wallets and exchanges. On the other hand, Ethereum’s developer community is vibrant and growing and trying entirely new things on the platform.



He went to say that while Ethereum’s core development team is healthy, the same in case of Bitcoin is dysfunctional pointing out the “leadership vaccum” ever since Gavin Andresen stepped aside. Ehrsam goes a step further and says that Ethereum has a growth mindset while Bitcoin has a “false sense of accomplishment”.



He further brings attention to the fact that Ethereum is actively making advancements that are core to even basic transactions. Ehrsam noted that Ethereum mining allows for much quicker blocks, and thus, transaction confirmation times — about 14 seconds on Ethereum compared to 10 minutes on Bitcoin.



However, as Ethereum is young, Ehrsam also presented counterarguments, highlighting the risks posed by the platform including regulatory and security risk. Noting the possibility of Ethereum to attempt to move to proof of stake, he said that this could present a large risk.



Bitcoin And Ethereum Are Complementary



As Bitcoin protocol is more stable and reliable, people might prefer it for storing their value, allowing Ethereum to continue to take more risk by trying less tested advancements, he said.

“In this scenario, Bitcoin is more of a settlement network while Ethereum is used to run decentralized applications (where most of the transaction volume occurs is up in the air). The two could be quite complementary”, Ehrsam added. “What is very real, though, is the possibility that Ethereum blows past Bitcoin entirely. There is nothing that Bitcoin can do which Ethereum can’t…First mover advantage is challenging to overcome, but at current pace, it’s conceivable.”