Block time is the time it takes for a blockchain to produce a new block.

After a block is successfully produced, it appears on the ledger and extends the blockchain.

Block time determines the speed of transaction confirmation, and thus influences the transactions per second (TPS) rate.

Block Time of the most popular blockchains

Block time differs for every blockchain. Some allow faster block times than others. Depending on the blockchain, a new block can be mined in a matter of seconds, or it can take a few minutes.

Here are the block time metrics for the most popular blockchains. You can also check them on our dashboard.

Blockchain — Block Time

1. Hedera — 2s
2. Solana — 0.43s
3. BNB Chain — 3.05s
4. Polygon — 2.12s
5. Arbitrum — 0.25s
6. Ethereum — 2.12s
7. Bitcoin — 9m 43s
8. Algorand — 3.35s
9. Optimism — 2s
10. Celo — 5s
11. Base — 2s
12. Telos — 0.49s
13. Fantom — 1.13s
14. Avalanche — 2.05s
15. Gnosis Chain — 5.1s
16. Cronos — 5.6s
17. Polkadot Relay Chain — 6.06s
18. Tron — 3s
19. Starknet — 1m 44s
20. Scroll — 3.06s
21. Polkadex — 11.99s
22. Zeitgeist — 12.48s
23. IntegriTEE — 12.05s
24. Crust — 12.42s

Check out TPS, Block Time, and other relevant metrics to select the best blockchain for your needs on chainspect.app

Block Time Across Major Blockchains was originally published in The Capital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In the fast-changing world of blockchain, there’s a lot of talk about TPS (Transactions Per Second), but let’s dig deeper and find out what those numbers really mean. No fancy words or unnecessary details, just straightforward insights!

When it comes to blockchains, projects often boast about their “Max Theoretical TPS” numbers, making it sound like a big deal. But with the transparency of blockchain, we, the users, can see through the hype. Moreover, there’s usually a big difference between real-time TPS and the max TPS shown on those impressive websites. Today we will use metrics available at chainspect.app and compare them to “Max Theoretical TPS” numbers from blockchain network websites.

Let’s take a look at the TPS of Solana, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Ethereum, and Bitcoin.

Solana

Solana said it had “65,000 transactions per second,” but the reality is different. The real-time TPS? A solid 292.45! That’s a big 222 times difference. Yes, you read that right. The truth is a lot more down-to-earth.

Arbitrum

Arbitrum claimed “40,000 transactions per second,” but our research found a different story. The real-time TPS? A decent 12.43! That’s a significant difference — 3218 times to be exact. It’s an eye-opener.

Avalanche

Avalanche said it could handle “4,500 transactions per second,” but the real-time number is just 2.01 TPS. Crunch the numbers, and you’ll see a big 2500 times difference. It’s like seeing behind a magic trick.

Ethereum

Ethereum didn’t boast about TPS, but let’s see. The max TPS is 56, and the current TPS is 11.14. The difference is just 5 times, which is reasonable. They’re not trying to exaggerate.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin has never been a TPS superstar, and that’s okay. Theoretical TPS is around 7, and in the real world, it’s 2.97. It’s just a 2.35 times difference. Bitcoin is more about trust than flashy numbers.

Closing Thoughts

What’s the takeaway? These findings show a big difference between what blockchains claim and what really happens. While impressive numbers are nice, the real value comes from how much these blockchains are actually used.

Check out TPS, Block Time, and other relevant metrics to select the best blockchain for your needs on chainspect.app

Unveiling Blockchain Performance: Real-Time TPS vs. Max TPS Claims was originally published in The Capital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Ease of Use and Speed

SWIFT

SWIFT, short for The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, has been the backbone of international payments since its inception in 1973. Facilitating communication between banks, SWIFT involves a complex process requiring details like International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs), SWIFT codes, and intermediary bank information. For example, if John in Canada intends to send $1000 to Bob in Germany, he must acquire Bob’s IBAN, the SWIFT code of Bob’s bank, Bob’s legal name, and details of any intermediary banks (sometimes there are several).

Example of IBAN: AL472121100900000002356987411 (Notice its similarity to a crypto address, though far from memorizable).

John must then be ok with SWIFT fees and potential currency conversion. What makes it interesting is that neither the fee nor the conversion rate is known at the time of initiating the SWIFT transfer. They depend on intermediary banks and current currency exchange rates when the transfer is executed. In most cases, SWIFT fees range from $15 to $50. Subsequently, after John initiates the transfer, he finds himself waiting for 1–5 days for the funds to reach Bob, provided no Anti-Money Laundering (AML) or security checks are triggered. If such checks are activated, the transfer might extend further, demanding additional documentation from John to validate the source of funds and the purpose of the transfer. As you can see, this entire process gives some vintage charm, akin to a trip back to 1973.

Top Blockchains

Instead of delving into the details of each blockchain, let’s focus on the broader picture. Typically, when John in Canada wants to send $1000 to Bob in Germany via blockchain, they need to agree on the currency and network. John can then send money to Bob’s address. The time it takes to initiate and finalize a transaction varies by blockchain, ranging from 15 seconds to 1 hour, with costs typically spanning from 20 cents to $10–15. It’s important to note that once a blockchain transaction is finalized, it’s irreversible (except for extremely rare cases of hard forks).

Throughput

SWIFT

According to the latest data from Statista, the SWIFT system handles an average of 45.2 million transactions per day. This translates to approximately 523.14 transactions per second.

Top Blockchains

The top 10 most popular blockchains, including Hedera, Solana, BNB Chain, Polygon, Tron, Arbitrum, Ethereum, Bitcoin, Algorand, Optimism, Base, Avalanche, Celo, Telos, Fantom, Scroll, Gnosis, Cronos, and Polkadot, collectively process approximately 3149.24 transactions per second, according to our TPS dashboard.

In Summary

In terms of ease of use and speed, blockchains hold a significant advantage over SWIFT. Also, as we found out today blockchains process 6 times more transactions per second compared to SWIFT. Moreover, blockchains have been in existence for just over a decade, while SWIFT reigned as the sole international money transfer method for over 50 years. Given these factors, we can cautiously believe in a promising future for the blockchain space. The journey has only just begun.

Check out TPS, Block Time, and other relevant metrics to select the best blockchain for your needs on chainspect.app

When we assess a blockchain we typically look into these 4 focus areas:

1. Technicals

Support for EVM/WASM standards. Size of transaction fees (average and peak), throughput measured by TPS and block size, level of decentralization measured by number of active nodes and node requirements.

2. Community & Team

Size of Twitter/Discord/Reddit communities of the network together with all projects building on it, quality of posts in these communities, average engagement level. Number of unique addresses on-chain, number of active wallets per day (at least 1 emitted transaction). Then we take a look at the blockchain’s core team, it’s important to understand who stands behind the project and whether these people have a track record of success. Another important thing is developer activity, which can be measured by Git (e.g. number of commits and pull requests in project-related repos).

3. Liquidity

Liquidity available on-chain measured by TVL, the market cap of stablecoins, the number and quality of DeFi protocols building on chain, size of liquidity in DeFi apps. Also, another aspect is native token liquidity health (ratio between trading volume and total coin market cap). Better liquidity health means that you can sell more tokens without influencing the price.

4. Infrastructure

The available infrastructure needed for dApp projects to build on the chain and for average users to easily interact with the network. This can be measured by the number and quality of wallets, block explorers, node providers, custodians, etc.

Check out TPS, Block Time, and other relevant metrics to select the best blockchain for your needs on chainspect.app

In the blockchain world, transactions per second (TPS) metrics measure the number of transactions a blockchain can process in a second.

There are 3 most common types of TPS:

1. Real-time TPS
2. Max Recorded TPS
3. Max Theoretical TPS

Real-time TPS

Real-time TPS shows how many transactions per second the blockchain is processing. It’s probably the most important of all three metrics because it is based on real-time blockchain data and can’t be inflated. It shows the adoption level of the blockchain and its actual throughput.

Max Recorded TPS

Max recorded TPS indicates the peak TPS blockchain has ever reached. It shows how many transactions a blockchain can process during times of high workload. Typically, it happens when the market is volatile, and a lot of people want to transact at the same time.

Max Theoretical TPS

Max theoretical TPS shows how many transactions per second the blockchain is theoretically capable of handling. To calculate this metric, divide the block size measured in gas or bytes by the size of the smallest transaction possible. In most blockchains, the least possible transaction is a transfer of a native token.

For example, the Ethereum block size is 30 million gas, the block time is 12 seconds, and the transfer of Ether takes 21,000 of gas. It means each block can contain 30 million / 21,000 = 1428 transactions. So, the maximum theoretical TPS is 1428 transactions / 12s = 119 transactions per second. Of course, the reality is often different due to the different block times, block sizes, and other real-world nuances.

TPS metrics of the most popular blockchains

The following metrics are relevant on Feb 12, 2024. For real-time TPS check out our dashboard.

Algorand TPS is 18.02 transactions per second

Algorand Max TPS is 3,227 transactions per second

Arbitrum TPS is 10.6 transactions per second

Arbitrum Max TPS is 380 transactions per second

Avalanche TPS is 2.41 transactions per second

Avalanche Max TPS is 92.74 transactions per second

Base TPS is 5.41 transactions per second

Base Max TPS is 34.52 transactions per second

Bitcoin TPS is 8.59 transactions per second

Bitcoin Max TPS is 10.92 transactions per second

BNB Chain TPS is 42.42 transactions per second

BNB Chain Max TPS is 1,731 transactions per second

BNB Greenfield TPS is 0.13 transactions per scond

BNB Greenfield Max TPS is 2.25 transactions per second

Celo TPS is 4.39 transactions per second

Celo Max TPS is 268 transactions per second

Cronos TPS is 0.31 transactions per second

Cronos Max TPS is 142 transactions per second

Crust TPS is 0 transactions per second

Crust Max TPS is 0.01 transactions per second

Ethereum TPS is 11.75 transactions per second

Ethereum Max TPS is 62.34 transactions per second

Fantom TPS is 3.2 transactions per second

Fantom Max TPS is 181 transactions per second

Gnosis Chain TPS is 2.36 transactions per second

Gnosis Chain Max TPS is 80.9 transactions per second

Hedera TPS is 1,332 transactions per second

Hedera Max TPS is 3,287 transactions per second

Integritee TPS is 0.0006 transactions per second

Integritee Max TPS is 0.04 transactions per second

IoTeX TPS is 0.13 transactions per second

IoTeX Max TPS is 223 transactions per second

opBNB TPS is 46.44 transactions per second

opBNB Max TPS is 229 transactions per second

Optimism TPS is 4.59 transactions per second

Optimism Max TPS is 32.87 transactions per second

Polkadex TPS is 0.0036 transactions per second

Polkadex Max TPS is 0.45 transactions per second

Polkadot TPS is 0.15 transactions per second

Polkadot Max TPS is 112 transactions per second

Polygon TPS is 44.33 transactions per second

Polygon Max TPS is 282 transactions per second

Scroll TPS is 3.01 transactions per second

Scroll Max TPS is 25.86 transactions per second

Sirius TPS is 0.01 transactions per second

Sirius Max TPS is 0.02 transactions per second

Solana TPS is 896 transactions per second

Solana Max TPS is 1,608 transactions per second

Starknet TPS is 1.89 transactions per second

Starknet Max TPS is 22.87 transactions per second

Telos TPS is 3.2 transactions per second

Telos Max TPS is 7.5 transactions per second

Tron TPS is 56.52 transactions per second

Tron Max TPS is 236 transactions per second

Zeitgeist TPS is 0.0011 transactions per second

Zeitgeist Max TPS is 0.08 transactions per second

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