Author: Ilan Oh 2017-10-20 17:24:34
Published on: 2017-10-20T17:24:34+00:00
The bitcoin-dev mailing list is discussing the possibility of decreasing block time to improve scalability. The current 10-minute block time was chosen by Satoshi as a tradeoff between confirmation time and wasted work due to chain splits. However, advances in technology and a lack of a rigorous formula for determining the optimal rate have some wondering if it could be lowered. While shorter block times would result in more chain splits, it may be possible to go lower than 10 minutes without much issue. Some argue that fast confirmation times lead to reduced security due to a high stale rate, as blocks take time to propagate through the network. Additionally, centralization becomes an issue as one mining pool with a large percentage of hashpower may have de facto control over the mining process. If the block interval is short enough for the stale rate to be high, this effect is compounded. Another possible implication of reducing block time is the need to reduce block size accordingly to prevent bloat and maintain decentralization. However, proponents of faster block times suggest protocols like the Greedy Heaviest Observed Subtree (GHOST) protocol to overcome these issues. It is noted that Bitcoin's goal may be to eventually have a block time of one second or less, which would enable decentralized high-frequency trading and other applications, but current technology is not developed enough for this. A script has also been written to avoid "sybil attack" from 2x, but the efficacy and ethical implications are up for debate.
Updated on: 2023-06-12T21:44:56.222413+00:00