TPS Distortion — What really matters in a blockchain
For those that are new to blockchain, it can often be difficult to evaluate the quality of a startup or project. At some point, TPS, or transactions per second, became the main standard for measuring a blockchain project’s technology, and countless investors regard TPS as a “value reference.” The prevalence of TPS as a benchmark for merit has seemingly offered investors a clear way to judge projects in the intense market competitions, but also allowed some low quality projects to hide their flaws behind a high TPS number. Even though there is a myriad of TPS data released regularly and it has become such a standard reference point in the Blockchain industry, many observers do not understand it beyond a shallow idea of “the higher the score, the better the project.” But is this really the case? Take, for example, Taobao’s peak TPS of 325,000, and then compare that to modern blockchains. It still appears that reaching a million TPS is a far off dream.
While these extraordinary numbers may sound nice in theory, for most people, a technology is useless unless it has direct applications. While it is certainly not a bad thing for companies to approach that ultimate goal of reaching 1 million TPS, blindly rushing towards that number without focusing on other aspects of a blockchain will be harmful for the industry as a whole.
TPS is only one way to measure the value of a blockchain technology, and cannot be the sole judge of the pros and cons of a project. The blockchain triangle paradox is worth mentioning here, as decentralization and security are also key parts of a blockchain, not just speed. It’s also necessary to consider the design of the consensus mechanism, or how data storage can affect a project.
So why is there such a focus on TPS? At the end of 2017, the product “CryptoKitties” was released, and quickly became a widespread phenomenon. For the first time, the public’s eye moved from boring technology reports to exciting dApps. Commercial interest had reached a new height, but the mere 30 TPS of Ethereum was unable to carry such a large amount of traffic. The congestion made the entire blockchain network slow to a crawl, and the public seemed to unite behind the quest for higher and higher TPS.
This led a to large number of projects driving solely to increase their TPS, believing that was what they needed to do to please investors. Naturally, this race became increasingly absurd, with various projects claiming 100,000, 500,000, and even 1 million TPS. One project even stated that they could achieve 10,000 TPS without even releasing any code or proof online. Obviously, these outrageous claims deserve close scrutiny. Consider this: if a project is really achieving millions of TPS, how decentralized can it really be? Centralized networks are able to achieve extremely high numbers already, so what good is there in just replicating those results through a ‘blockchain’ network that is so ‘centralized’ as to defeat the entire point of being a blockchain?
In the blockchain world, technology improvements are certainly the driving force behind the recent wave of commercialization, but widespread adoption still remains the real goal. The aelf project has sought to achieve much more than just high TPS and to eventually become the go-to platform for dApps. Their innovation alliance is leading the way for widespread adoption. Aelf founder, Ma Haobo, said that “Professional uses need a professional team, you cannot create unlimited value with limited energy.” So what does this mean? Basically, that the right people or projects have to be put towards the right use cases. It is unnecessary to make a dApp for a public chain. It is also unnecessary to pursue the ultimate infrastructure construction for a dApp team. The aelf Innovation Alliance brings professional people together and lets them specialize in areas where they excel, while other members of the alliance work to fill in the gaps. This leads to innovation through technology being much better for everyone.
While progress in the blockchain industry may seem slow, each one of our efforts, no matter how small they may seem, helps to push everyone forward. At the end of the day, a blockchain is more than just a string of cold numbers or codes. Evaluating a project only from a single perspective will limit not just public perception of that project, but of the entire industry. In contrast, focusing on all the key elements of blockchain will allow the industry to start developing all aspects of the technology again, and set a healthy precedent for future projects to follow.
