Impacts on Fork Rate of Changes of Block Size and Block Generation Time for Blockchain Scalability
Taishi Nakai, Kazuyuki Shudo · 2024
Improving the scalability of blockchain is one of the most important challenges faced by blockchain technology. To enhance scalability, methods such as increasing the block size or decreasing the average block generation time can be used. However, both approaches increase the fork rate and negatively impact security. Previous research has not determined whether increasing the block size or decreasing the block generation time has a more detrimental effect on the fork rate. In this paper, we mathematically demonstrate that changes in the block generation time have a greater impact on the fork rate than changes in block size, and that this is due to delays proportional to geographical distance. Furthermore, through simulation, we show that changes in the block generation time have a greater effect on the fork rate than changes in block size.