Throughput

Throughput describes how much work a blockchain actually gets done, not just how many transactions it could theoretically queue up. It is shaped by block size, block time, transaction complexity, and how efficiently validators propagate and execute data, which is why raw TPS figures from different networks are rarely an apples-to-apples comparison.

Real-world throughput often falls well short of a chain's advertised maximum. Bitcoin's roughly 7 TPS ceiling comes from its fixed block size and 10-minute block interval, both deliberate trade-offs favoring decentralization and security over raw speed. Ethereum's base layer sustains around 15 to 30 TPS for a similar reason, pushing most high-volume activity onto Layer 2 rollups that batch thousands of transactions before settling back to mainnet. Solana advertises a theoretical maximum near 65,000 TPS thanks to its parallelized execution engine, but sustained real-world throughput, excluding validator vote traffic, typically runs in the low thousands.

Higher throughput matters because it directly affects fees and confirmation times during congestion: when demand exceeds capacity, users effectively bid against each other for block space, driving transaction costs up. Networks pursue several strategies to raise throughput, including sharding, faster consensus mechanisms, larger blocks, and off-chain scaling layers. Each approach involves trade-offs, since raising throughput can concentrate the hardware or bandwidth required to run a validator, shrinking the pool of participants who can realistically help secure the network.

Because of this tension, throughput is best read alongside decentralization and security, not in isolation, when comparing blockchains.