Bitcoin was the first blockchain, but Bitcoin was only meant for payments. People started discovering that Bitcoin could be used for other scenarios; we call this Colored Coins. Bitcoin had a surprisingly open design and one guy, Vitalik Buterin, decided to start developing Ethereum on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. But, due to limitations in Bitcoin, Ethereum now has its own blockchain.
The following table shows the differences between Bitcoin and Ethereum:
Bitcoin |
Ethereum |
Used for payments |
Used for code and logic |
It is a digital currency |
It is a smart contract platform |
Average block time/transaction processing time of 10 minutes |
Average block time/transaction processing time of only ... |