The Impact of Blockchain Propagation Time on Bitcoin Block Time Analysis
Bitcoin’s block time is a crucial factor in understanding the overall speed and efficiency of the network. In this article, we will explore the impact of blockchain propagation time on analyzing block times for both ascending and descending order of blocks.
Assumptions
Before we dive into the analysis, we will assume two important parameters:
- Network Propagation Time
: The average time it takes for a transaction to be broadcast to the network and verified by a node.
- Block Time: The interval between the creation of new blocks, which is currently set to 6 seconds.
Analysis
For our analysis, we will consider two scenarios:
- Ascending Orders: A blockchain order where transactions are inserted in ascending order. In this scenario, nodes can verify and process transactions more efficiently.
- Descending sort: A blockchain sort where transactions are inserted in descending order. This is the opposite of ascending sort.
Time = t0 analysis
At time t0, 6 seconds have passed since the network was launched. Let’s consider two blocks, b1 and b2, inserted at times t1 and t2 respectively.
- For
ascending sort: Since both nodes verify and process transactions in ascending order, they can see each other’s previous block as soon as it is created.
+ Node A sees b1 and verifies its validity. If there are no transactions to verify (e.g. a transaction with an empty list), node A waits 6 seconds for the next new block to be verified by another node.
- For
descending sort: Since nodes verify and process transactions in descending order, they must see all previous blocks before verifying the current one. This means that nodes have no information about “b1” until they receive “b2”.
+ Node A sees b1 but does not know if there are any other transactions to verify (e.g. a transaction with an empty list). If node A has to wait for another node to add or delete transactions, this can take up to 6 seconds.
Convergence time
Continuing the analysis over time, we can observe that the convergence time between “t0” and subsequent blocks is different for ascending and descending orders. For ascending orders, the convergence time is approximately equal to the block time (6 seconds) because nodes verify transactions in ascending order.
For descending orders, however, the convergence time is significantly longer because nodes have to wait for all previous transactions before verifying a new one. This can lead to a significant increase in the average transaction processing time.
Conclusion
In summary, the analysis of block times and propagation time shows that both ascending and descending sorts have different characteristics when it comes to transaction verification efficiency on the Bitcoin network. While ascending sorts achieve faster convergence times, descending sorts are more efficient from a latency perspective. Understanding these differences is crucial for optimizing the development and deployment of Bitcoin-based systems.
References
- [1] “Bitcoin block time” (Wikipedia article)
- [2] “Blockchain propagation time” (CryptoSlate article)
