Expanded Block Size Limitation on Cardano's Network Warned as Potential Concern by Fund's CIO
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Unleashing the Potential: Scaling Up Cardano's Transaction Speed
It's high time we talk about the elephant in the room, and that's Cardano's transaction speed. Justin Bons, the fearless leader of Cyber Capital, has reignited the debate over Cardano's current capacity of just 18 transactions per second (TPS), questioning whether this is sufficient for future scale.
Cardano's TPS Limit Under Scrutiny
"Gimme a reason to back Cardano's scaling efforts, will ya?" Bons bluntly shared on Twitter. He goes on to boldly state, "ADA's TPS is pathetic! Input Endorsers ain't saving the day... Hydra ain't either. So where's the catch I'm missing?"
Naturally, the Cardano community couldn't let this slide. Jaromir 'Cardano YODal' Tesar fired back with a screenshot from IOG's Ouroboros Leios paper, claiming that the new consensus layer can potentially handle 10,000 TPS or more, while maintaining a single global state.
But Bons, ever the skeptic, isn't so easily swayed. He says, "This sounds good in theory, but promises are just promises. No strong guarantees? Then the roadmap is too speculative."
The Dawn of Ouroboros Leios
Ouroboros Leios, first introduced in a research paper back in 2023, proposes a three-tier block structure that allows nodes to process transactions in parallel before final ordering. The design echoes the "local fee market" strategy popularized by Solana, yet aims to retain Cardano's stake-weighted Nakamoto consensus for settlement.
For critics, the main concern isn't design elegance, but rather the delay in bringing it to mainnet. Bons isn't driven by mere skepticism, but by bitter memories of the Bitcoin scaling wars. He isn't convinced that the block size limit will be increased, fearing that the same excuse might be used to delay or discard Cardano's scaling promises.
The Road Ahead
Whilst Leios is under active development and testing, a specific timeline for its implementation has yet to be announced. The focus is on refining its design and understanding its implications for scalability and sustainability.
In the end, Bons remains unconvinced, insisting that Cardano should focus on increasing transaction capacity, whether it's through block size, number, or speed, sooner rather than later.
At press time, ADA was trading at $0.7173. The future of Cardano hinges on its ability to scale and meet the demands of its growing user base. So let's hope the Ouroboros Leios becomes more than just a promising theoretical solution and starts making its mark on mainnet soon.
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Current Status and Timeline for Ouroboros Leios
Ouroboros Leios is a proposed consensus upgrade for the Cardano blockchain, aimed at enhancing scalability and addressing scaling concerns. The current status and ongoing work on Leios include:
- Development Progress: Sundae Labs, in collaboration with Input Output and Well-Typed, has been refining Leios' design over the past six months. They have developed a Rust simulation to analyze the protocol's behavior at scale, focusing on metrics like network-wide CPU utilization and transaction inclusion times.
- Technical Enhancements: Leios is designed to improve Cardano's transaction per second (TPS) capacity, but it also involves trade-offs that require careful consideration by stakeholders. The protocol's security is well understood, but implementing it effectively is a complex task.
- Community Engagement: The Leios team has been making progress on trace verification and simulation tooling. However, the implementation timeline is not explicitly detailed, and significant community discussions are anticipated to determine how to deploy Leios effectively.
- Cardano's Preparation: The Cardano development team has been preparing for major refactoring efforts related to Leios. This includes updates to the ledger team and improvements to the consensus layer, such as the UTXO-HD feature, which is not directly part of Leios but is part of broader scalability efforts.
In summary, while Leios is being actively developed and tested, a specific timeline for its implementation has not been publicly announced. The focus is on refining its design and understanding its implications for scalability and sustainability.
"Indeed, technology plays a crucial role in addressing Cardano's scaling issues, as the Ouroboros Leios proposal aims to improve transaction per second capacity through a proposed consensus upgrade."
"Subsequently, the success of Cardano hinges not only on the implementation of Ouroboros Leios but also on the ability to navigate the complexities of technology and engage the community effectively in the process."
