A metric that measures how many transactions a blockchain network can process each second, indicating its throughput and scalability.
Transactions Per Second (TPS) is a key performance metric that measures how many transactions a blockchain network can process each second. It serves as an indicator of a network's throughput and scalability, with higher TPS generally suggesting better performance for high-volume use cases.
"Bitcoin processes approximately 7 TPS, while Visa's centralized payment network claims to handle an average of 1,700 TPS with the capability to scale up to 24,000 TPS during peak periods."
Different blockchain networks have vastly different TPS capacities due to their design choices, consensus mechanisms, and optimization priorities:
Bitcoin (BTC): ~3-7 TPS (prioritizing security and decentralization) Bitcoin Cash (BCH): ~116+ TPS (increased block size) Ethereum (ETH): ~15-30 TPS (pre-upgrades) Solana: Claims up to 65,000 TPS (optimized for performance) Ripple (XRP): ~1,500 TPS (optimized consensus) EOS: Claims up to 4,000 TPS (delegated proof of stake)
"Bitcoin Cash increased its block size to 32MB, theoretically allowing for over 100 TPS, while maintaining compatibility with the core Bitcoin protocol."
TPS figures should be interpreted carefully due to several limitations:
Theoretical vs. Practical: Advertised TPS often reflects theoretical maximum rather than sustained real-world performance Security Trade-offs: Higher TPS often comes with trade-offs in decentralization or security Transaction Complexity: Simple transfers vs. complex smart contract executions have different resource requirements Network Conditions: Actual TPS can vary based on network congestion and node distribution Measurement Methodology: Different methods of calculating TPS can yield different results
"While some layer-1 blockchains claim thousands of TPS in controlled test environments, real-world performance under actual network conditions and varied transaction types is often significantly lower."
Various approaches are being developed to increase blockchain TPS:
Block Size Increases: Larger blocks can contain more transactions (e.g., Bitcoin Cash) Layer-2 Solutions: Off-chain processing systems like Lightning Network or Optimistic Rollups Sharding: Dividing the network into parallel processing segments Alternative Consensus Mechanisms: Moving from Proof of Work to other mechanisms Sidechains: Separate but connected blockchains that can process transactions independently State Channels: Private payment channels between parties that settle on the main chain
"Ethereum 2.0's implementation of sharding aims to dramatically increase the network's TPS by splitting the blockchain into multiple parallel chains that can process transactions simultaneously."
All terms and definitions may update as the Cryptionary improves.