Reserved IP Address°C
02-14-2025
BSV
$40.09
Vol 24.51m
0.38%
BTC
$97073
Vol 31906.85m
1.04%
BCH
$338.72
Vol 161.2m
1.31%
LTC
$127.07
Vol 1175.11m
4.33%
DOGE
$0.26
Vol 1350.85m
2.02%
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Many like to argue against blockchains and cryptocurrencies, stating that the networks aren’t capable of handling the transaction loads necessary to be considered a true form of cryptocurrency. In making their argument, they often refer to the speed of the Visa network, pointing out that Visa processes around 24,000 transactions per second (tps). The problem with this comparison is that it is completely wrong.

Visa doesn’t process 24,000 tps, or even 56 tps. The higher numbers that have been represented are only theoretical figures—in real-world applications, the Visa network only processes around 1,700 tps.

1,700 tps is still a substantial number by any standards and is more than what most blockchains can handle. Some blockchains, like NEO and EOS, attempt to skew the numbers in an effort to make their networks appear stronger than they really are, but what they boast of with their speeds is gained at a cost of decentralization.

By today’s standards, network speed and decentralization are proportional—the higher the speed, the lower the decentralization. However, improving technology is allowing better speeds, or scaling, without risking decentralization.

To that end, Bitcoin BCH is leading the way. A recent Twitter post by Reina Nakamoto highlighted the fact that Bitcoin Unlimited was able to process 166,302 transactions using a block of almost 32 megabytes (MB). She was responding to a post by Andrew Stone, who first tweeted about that 166,302 transactions were completed on a block of 31,999,125 bytes, or just under 32MB. The processing took place on a testnet, but it is still a step in the right direction.

Given the number of retail transactions currently seen on the Bitcoin BCH blockchain, it is more than capable of handling the load. As the September stress test showed the network is capable of easily handling blocks of up to 10MB and even as large as 21MB.

At this juncture, with cryptocurrency constantly receiving more support across the globe, it would make sense that all implementations of the network focus on scaling to continue to drive the capabilities and set the foundation for what will invariably be a massive adoption of Bitcoin BCH as the world’s leading peer-to-peer currency.

Recommended for you

Evaluating Bitcoin upgrade proposals
As sCrypt says, these proposals aim to enable Bitcoin's limited functionalities rather than tackling the broader need for expressivity and...
February 12, 2025
Bitcoin OP_CAT use cases series #5: Drivechain
sCrypt has created a smart contract operating similarly to the hashrate escrow mechanism in Bitcoin’s Drivechain proposal.
February 10, 2025
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement