It’s no secret that Bitcoin’s transaction speed is slow. It has struggled to scale efficiently and adapt to the demands of its users for quite a while. Now, it even offers off-blockchain, second-layer solutions as a quick way to carry out micro-transactions.
This scalability problem is not unique to Bitcoin, though. It affects all cryptocurrencies, and it has led to the creation of many different ones, all claiming to have solved the problem.
But, how can you measure a cryptocurrency’s transaction speed? And, what is the fastest cryptocurrency?
How Do You Measure a Cryptocurrency’s Transaction Speed?
A cryptocurrency’s transaction speed is just its ability to process and store data. Once we realize this, we can calculate its speed by just using a few data points. All you need to know is how big each block is, how large the average transaction is, and how frequently a new block is added to its blockchain.
So, if Bitcoin’s blocks are 1MB (one million bytes) and the average Bitcoin transaction is about 400 bytes, it means that each Bitcoin block can fit around 2,600 transactions. Finally, because a new Bitcoin block is added to the blockchain every 10 minutes, Bitcoin ends up with an average transaction per second (TPS) throughput of roughly five.
Transaction Verification Time & Transaction Finality
Although increasing the number of transactions per second a blockchain can execute improves scalability, another important factor that affects how the end-user perceives transaction speed is transaction verification time (all known as transaction finality).
As its name implies, it is the time it takes for a blockchain transaction to be verified, thus making it final. You can calculate it by multiplying the number of block-verifications required by a blockchain to consider a transaction final by the time it takes for a new block to be added to the said blockchain.
So, if Bitcoin requires that transactions be verified between three and six times for them to be considered final, and a new block is added every 10 minutes, it means that Bitcoin’s transaction finality is between 30 and 60 minutes.
The Fastest Blockchains
Old and Secure
Bitcoin
- Transactions Per Second: 5
- Transaction Finality: 30 to 60 minutes
Ethereum
- Transactions Per Second: 25
- Transaction Finality: 25
Slow but Steady
Bitcoin Cash
- Transactions Per Second: 300
- Transaction Finality: 60 to 180 minutes
Bitcoin SV
- Transactions Per Second: 224
- Transaction Finality: 60 minutes
Litecoin
- Transactions Per Second: 56
- Transaction Finality: 30 minutes
Monero
- Transactions Per Second: 4, with an estimated capacity of over 1,000
- Transaction Finality: 30 minutes
Bitcoin Gold
- Transactions Per Second: 116
- Transaction Finality: 60 minutes
Ravencoin
- Transactions Per Second: 116
- Transaction Finality: 100 minutes
Reasonably Fast
Cardano
- Transactions Per Second: 250
- Transaction Finality: 10 minutes
Ontology
- Transactions Per Second: 5,300
- Transaction Finality: 10 minutes
ICON
- Transactions Per Second: 9,000
- Transaction Finality: 10 minutes
Dogecoin
- Transactions Per Second: 33
- Transaction Finality: six minutes
Under Five Minutes
Tron
- Transactions Per Second: 2,000
- Transaction Finality: 5 minutes
DigiByte
- Transactions Per Second: 560
- Transaction Finality: 2 to 3 minutes
IOTA
- Transactions Per Second: 1,500
- Transaction Finality: 1 to 5 minutes
Under One Minute
Ripple
- Transactions Per Second: 1,500
- Transaction Finality: 4 seconds
Stellar
- Transactions Per Second: 1,000
- Transaction Finality: 4 seconds
Avalanche (AVA)
- Transactions Per Second: 5000
- Transaction Finality: 1 to 2 seconds
Algorand
- Transactions Per Second: 1,000
- Transaction Finality: 45 seconds
Solana
- Transactions Per Second: 29,000
- Transaction Finality: 2.5 seconds
What Is the Fastest Cryptocurrency?
As you can see, two important factors affect a cryptocurrency’s speed: the number of transactions per second it can execute and its transaction verification finality. This means that a cryptocurrency is only fast if it has both a high TPS and low verification finality. Following this logic, with a TPS of 29,000 and a transaction finality of 2.5 seconds, Solana is the fastest cryptocurrency and takes the crown.
Read Next
About The Author