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What is the average time between blocks on Polygon? What was the maximum and minimum recorded time between two blocks? How many transactions are done in a block on average? How do these numbers compare to L1 such as Flow or Solana, or other L2 such as Arbitrum or Optimism?
Objective:
In this dashboard, our goal is to explore:
- Average time between blocks on Polygon, coupled with description stats, such as maximum and minimum time between blocks
- Average number of transactions contained in a block on Polygon
- Compare Polygon’s time between blocks and average number of transactions to other blockchains, such as Solana, Flow, Arbitrum and Optimism
Methodology:
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The analysis is conducted using data from 2022-06-06 to 2022-07-21.
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We use the corresponding fact_blocks tables for all the blockchains used in this analysis to calculate the average difference in time between consecutive blocks, and to calculate the average number of transactions in a block for all the blockchains.
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What is Polygon?
In a nutshell, Polygon is a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum built to increase transaction throughput and reduce fees through the use of side-chains. Side chains are run adjacent to Ethereum’s main chain and are responsible for grouping together transactions in batches, confirming them, and then sending them to Ethereum. This reduces network congestion on Ethereum that can lead to higher gas prices.
The Importance of time span between blocks
An important metric in measuring blockchain speed is block finality, which measures the time a block needs to be confirmed on the blockchain. A blockchain can process 50,000 transactions per second, but if it takes a long time to confirm those transactions, the user experience will be cumbersome. Finality is used to define the time needed for a block to be confirmed on the blockchain, meaning the transaction is part of the block that cannot be changed.
Polygon’s average finality time is around 2.2 seconds. This rapid speed of processing transactions helps improve the functionality of Ethereum, which has a finality of over 60 seconds. As can be seen from the area curve on the right, Polygon has a stable finality time, hovering around 2 seconds, as compared to Optimism and Flow, whose finality time fluctuates from time to time. The stability in Polygon’s block time indicates that the underlying mechanics, including the Commit Chain and More Viable Plasma L2 scaling solution is reliable and working well. Solana currently is the fastest in terms of block times due to its novel proof of history consensus mechanism. However, its fast block time is sometimes obstructed by distributed denial of service attacks that it frequently experiences.
The average transactions in a block on Polygon is around 75; Ethereum’s block contains 184 transactions on average. Usually a bigger block size makes the consensus slow as it takes these blocks more time to propagate through the network for other validator nodes to verify it. It’s possible Polygon’s small block size is one reason for its fast processing and low gas fees. Arbitrum, Flow, and Optimism also have the same trait of smaller block size. Solana, on the other hand, averages 2000 transactions in a block.
In conclusion, Polygon’s stable finality time has proven beneficial to dApps on Ethereum, as they port over to Polygon to enjoy fast speeds and low costs. This reliability is evident as even the maximum finality time is only 25 seconds. Polygon’s 2.24 second is highest when you compare that to other blockchains, such as Solana, Flow, Arbitrum, Optimism, who are fast, but also have greater variance in finality time. Currently, Polygon only uses its Commit Chain to improve its transaction time; however, in the future, it could be even faster than some of its counterparts as it makes use of Optimistic Rollups.
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