Author: Gavin Andresen 2015-07-23 15:04:39
Published on: 2015-07-23T15:04:39+00:00
A recent study analyzed the maximum throughput of reachable nodes in the Bitcoin network to determine if it could handle larger block sizes. The testing methodology involved randomly selecting nodes from a peers.dat and downloading a random selection of blocks from each peer. Results showed that 37% of connected nodes failed to upload blocks faster than 1MB/s, while 16% uploaded blocks faster than 10MB/s. This suggests that the current state of the network does not support increased block sizes, as 37% of nodes would fail to upload a 20MB block to a single peer in under 20 seconds. Additionally, 69% of the network fails when using the metric of taking only 1% of block time (6 seconds) to upload one block to one peer for 20MB blocks. However, most hashing power is now using Matt Corallo's fast block propagation network, which means slow block propagation to merchants/end-users doesn't really matter as long as it doesn't get near the 10-minute block time.
Updated on: 2023-06-10T03:34:53.271737+00:00