# What is the difference between Ethereum and Bitcoin?

By [closewindow.eth](https://paragraph.com/@closewindow) · 2023-05-15

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Launched in 2015, Ethereum builds on Bitcoin's innovation, with some big differences.

Both let you use digital money without payment providers or banks. But **Ethereum is programmable**, so you can also build and deploy decentralized applications on its network.

Bitcoin enables us to send basic messages to one another about what we think is valuable. Establishing value without authority is already powerful. Ethereum extends this: rather than just messages, you can write any general program, or contract. There is no limit to the kind of contracts which can be created and agreed upon, hence great innovation happens on the Ethereum network.

While Bitcoin is only a payment network, Ethereum is more like a marketplace of financial services, games, social networks and other apps that respect your privacy and cannot censor you.

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*Originally published on [closewindow.eth](https://paragraph.com/@closewindow/what-is-the-difference-between-ethereum-and-bitcoin)*