For the very first time since 2016, Bitcoin managed to surpass Ethereum’s number of nodes. Even considered as a project with several advantages when compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum currently possesses 10,078 nodes, while the original coin accomplished 10,266 active users in the network.
Bitcoin vs Ethereum
What you should also think of is the size of the ETH’s blockchain, which is around 100GB. If it’s up to the BTC’s one, we’re speaking for around 200GB. Anyway, they both need a computer and constant internet connections, and the sync time for both can take awhile, so space is what actually might matter at some point. In 2018’s summer, Ethereum’s nodes halved from 16k to 8k. Speaking of Bitcoin, there were only 5k nodes in 2015/2016 while now they have doubled to more than 10k.
Ethereum Observations
Some time ago an Ether node was needed to create a smart contract, this is currently no longer the case. There are multiple platforms to make one, instead of running a whole node setup on your home PC. Even the ETH node is considered more convenient because of its size and some improvements from technical and organizational point of view, the project is going to change for real after changing its mechanism from a Proof-of-Work to e Proof-of-Stake as planned to happen soon.
Bitcoin Estimations
Bitcoin’s community managed to dramatically increase since 2015/2016, so this might be one of the reasons for the number of nodes, which keeps increasing. There are more users willing to support the network and the original coin’s Satoshi idea. Ultimately, there are multiple users joining the crypto sphere every day. It’s considered to be less likely for common users to run a full node. Apparently, business organizations have the attitude to do so more frequently.