i o b l o x

Below are a number of stats on blockchain scalability. It's important that we compare apples with apples so note that some of these blockchains are public ('unpermissioned' - such as Bitcoin) and some are private (permissioned). Due to the consensus and associated security mechanisms required to maintain integrity in public blockchains it's typically far less challenging to achieve higher transaction rates (transactions per second, or tps) and faster settlement times in permissioned networks (where Proof of Work for example may not be required, or preemptive voting can be achieved).

As a point of reference for the financial industry:

• VISA estimates it can handle up to 50,000 tps, and approximately 1,667 tps on average
• Paypal estimates up to 450 tps, and approximately 200 tps on average
• Settlement times using traditional industry methods are typically in the order of 3-5 days

In order for blockchain to support large-scale payment networks (e.g. Visa), stock markets (e.g. Nasdaq, NYSE, FTSE), as well as IoT and sensor networks, it will need to handle hundreds of thousands of transactions per second

Transactions per Second (TPS)

Where appropriate the average, or the lower and upper bounds (l -> u) will be indicated:

Settlement Times

Settlement times are listed below:

Notes

1. Red Belly appears to be distributed across a single datacentre. This number needs further clarification
2. Not a blockchain, a distributed ledger
3. Not a blockchain, a distributed directed graph
4. Settlement typically takes an hour to be assured double spending has not occurred

Some of these numbers are hard to pin down, and depend on context (permissioned, transaction size, type, hardware, single datacentre etc.), therefore any errors are my own. If you have any input on these metrics or additional ones feel free to email me and I will update the data.