Bitcoin vs. Ethereum: Unbiased Analysis by Dev

Tony Cai is one of those very rare developers who has experience building on both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). As such, he decided to analyze the differences between the two with his Web3 dev hat on. He managed to avoid both maximalisms and indicate the strong points of the two blockchains.

Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH): Which one is better for developer?

First of all, building on Bitcoin (BTC) is much safer. It offers less surface area for potential attackers. By contrast, with Ethereum (ETH) smart contracts, a flaw in two lines of code might cost millions of dollars for the team, users and investors, Cai outlined in his recent Twitter thread.

Having spent time building on ETH first before pivoting to building on BTC, I’ve seen the best and worst parts of both communities.

I’m probably gonna get some hate for this, but screw it…

BTC vs ETH: An Honest Reflection from a Builder.

Here are 6 things I noticed:👇 pic.twitter.com/3sBZKrZlRn

— Tony Cai ⚛️ #SoundFinance (@TonyCai_) August 16, 2023

Also, Bitcoin’s (BTC) development track is more focused while, on Ethereum (ETH), the “next big things” are popping up here and there. In the Bitcoin (BTC) community, developers go through a “clear path of innovation” with no distraction.

Bitcoin (BTC) developers do not have to worry about creating balanced and attack-resistant tokenomic designs as no token can go live on Bitcoin (BTC) as is. For Ethereum (ETH) applications, creating viable and attractive tokenomics is of paramount importance to sustainable product development.

Instead, Bitcoin (BTC) developers can focus on a single product and its user-centric design:

With Bitcoin, it’s all about pure product building in order to provide more value to our users. Our goal? Achieving product-market fit without the noise.

As covered by U.Today previously, in February 2023, the Wall Street Journal accused Bitcoin Core of making the Bitcoin (BTC) development process centralized and vulnerable to censorship; analysts from CoinShares busted this narrative.

Ethereum (ETH) celebrates devs, not podcasters

At the same time, Cai has to admit that Ethereum (ETH) has a far more developed and mature infrastructure for engineers. Lightning apps, fiat on-ramps, multi-sigs and wallets represent all classes of apps that can be deployed on Bitcoin (BTC).

Also, Ethereum (ETH) makes new developer onboarding more streamlined through its hackathons of various types. This is why Ethereum (ETH) engineers feel like they are welcome from day one.

Finally, the Bitcoin (BTC) community should hear the voices of its developers just like Ethereans do, Cai concluded. But all in all, he finds development on Bitcoin (BTC) “feeling right” despite all of its pros and cons.

It should be noted that the Ethereum (ETH) community always accuses Bitcoin (BTC) of being centralized in a number of ways.