Explained: Why a blockchain's size and scalability matter

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Blockchain has revolutionised the decentralised technology with its public ledger system of storing and securing data. It has changed how we see online network security, bringing transparency and immutability.Instead of using a central authority or data server to store information, blockchain utilises a public ledger distributed to different participants, each having a copy of the ledger stored in their respective nodes as a measure of security. Each transaction information is stored in blocks, and that’s how it gets the name blockchain.

And just like any modern storage hardware, you can store only a certain amount of data in a single block.The block size has been a topic of contention in the blockchain community for years since it affects both the network’s speed and scalability. Let us see try to understand why the block size matters.Also Read | Blockchain usage beyond cryptos: From money transfer to tax filingIs bigger block size better?The size of each block in a blockchain substantially impacts the network speed and capacity. But increasing the block size may also have some trade-offs.Every block has a size limit, known as the block limit.

Bitcoin, for instance, has a block limit of 1 MB. Its creator set the limit to prevent miners from creating blocks larger than other miners could accept.But this had the downside of limiting the speed of transaction per second (TPS). With a low limit, a transaction that can be stored in a block will have to wait to generate a new block.

It limits the speed of transactions being validated in the blockchain. It slows the process down for all the users in the network.But, as mentioned above, increasing the block size also comes with its own set of problems. The obvious problem would