8 Distributed Ledger Technology
425
8.9 Other Aspects of DLTs
8.9.1 Scalability and Other Practical Considerations
When it comes to adopting DLTs in an organization, practical considerations
become important. These considerations are to do with common-sense parameters:
memory size and speed. For DLTs and blockchains, these parameters are transaction
size, block size, and transactions per second (TPS). Before each DLT technology is
examined, some information about VisaNet (the credit card processing system) is
useful. It is reported that VisaNet can handle an average of 150 million transactions
per day [20]. This is equivalent to about 1736 transactions per second on average.
8.9.1.1 Bitcoin
Bitcoin generates 1 block every 10 minutes. The size of the block is 1 megabyte
(1,048,576 bytes). This block is broadcasted to the Bitcoin network which had
10,198 nodes on January 17, 2019. The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology reported
that, on January 17, 2019, it took 13,989.42 milliseconds or approximately 14 seconds to propagate the block to 99% of the nodes on the Bitcoin network [21]. This
means that the block propagation time of Bitcoin is about 14 seconds.
The average Bitcoin transaction size is 380.04 bytes on January 17, 2019 [21],
although on May 12, 2019, it was 352.23 bytes per transaction on average [22].
Among the 380.04 bytes, 346 bytes are overheads for the transaction, and only 34
bytes are real data for the transaction.
Therefore, the average number of transactions per block in Bitcoin is
1,048,576/380.04 = 2759.12. This gives 2759.12/(60 × 10) = 4.548 transactions
per second. This is far less than the 1736 transactions per second of VisaNet. In
summary, Bitcoin has the following parameters as shown in Table 8.5.
8.9.1.2 Hyperledger Fabric
The performance of Hyperledger Fabric [23] is a function of the number of endorsing peers, number of channels, endorsement policy, ordering service configuration
Table 8.5 Bitcoin performance data
Block
generation
time
Block
size
Transactions
per
block
Block
propagation
time
Transaction
size
Actual data
in
transaction
Overhead
of
transaction
Transactions per
second
(TPS)
10 minutes 1 MB 2759
14 seconds
(99% of
nodes)
380.04
bytes
34 bytes
346
bytes
4.548
425
8.9 Other Aspects of DLTs
8.9.1 Scalability and Other Practical Considerations
When it comes to adopting DLTs in an organization, practical considerations
become important. These considerations are to do with common-sense parameters:
memory size and speed. For DLTs and blockchains, these parameters are transaction
size, block size, and transactions per second (TPS). Before each DLT technology is
examined, some information about VisaNet (the credit card processing system) is
useful. It is reported that VisaNet can handle an average of 150 million transactions
per day [20]. This is equivalent to about 1736 transactions per second on average.
8.9.1.1 Bitcoin
Bitcoin generates 1 block every 10 minutes. The size of the block is 1 megabyte
(1,048,576 bytes). This block is broadcasted to the Bitcoin network which had
10,198 nodes on January 17, 2019. The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology reported
that, on January 17, 2019, it took 13,989.42 milliseconds or approximately 14 seconds to propagate the block to 99% of the nodes on the Bitcoin network [21]. This
means that the block propagation time of Bitcoin is about 14 seconds.
The average Bitcoin transaction size is 380.04 bytes on January 17, 2019 [21],
although on May 12, 2019, it was 352.23 bytes per transaction on average [22].
Among the 380.04 bytes, 346 bytes are overheads for the transaction, and only 34
bytes are real data for the transaction.
Therefore, the average number of transactions per block in Bitcoin is
1,048,576/380.04 = 2759.12. This gives 2759.12/(60 × 10) = 4.548 transactions
per second. This is far less than the 1736 transactions per second of VisaNet. In
summary, Bitcoin has the following parameters as shown in Table 8.5.
8.9.1.2 Hyperledger Fabric
The performance of Hyperledger Fabric [23] is a function of the number of endorsing peers, number of channels, endorsement policy, ordering service configuration
Table 8.5 Bitcoin performance data
Block
generation
time
Block
size
Transactions
per
block
Block
propagation
time
Transaction
size
Actual data
in
transaction
Overhead
of
transaction
Transactions per
second
(TPS)
10 minutes 1 MB 2759
14 seconds
(99% of
nodes)
380.04
bytes
34 bytes
346
bytes
4.548