Cardano (ADA) Increases Block Size By 12.5% As It Moves To Scaling Phase
As Cardano (ADA) is heading into the Basho phase, the developer team announced upcoming gradual adjustments, mainly on optimization, scaling, and network growth.
Cardano announced in a recent blog post that they were increasing block size by 12.5% to make room for the increased traffic that is expected on the network. The 8KB increase will see the total block size now at 72KB and will allow more transactions to be fitted in a single block. The increase will allow more transactions to be processed per second, greater data throughput, in turn providing greater capacity for its users.
Increased Block Size
A year ago, Cardano averaged 10,000 transactions per day. Now this number has risen significantly to more than 200,000 and climbing. A 12.5% increase in block size may not seem large by the average margin but is important to accommodate for this increased usage.
IOHK the Cardano developer explained:
“A 12,5% increase is sizable, but not too big. It leaves room for further expansion, and allows stake pool operators (SPOs) to adjust to the increased demands”
A larger block size implies fitting more transactions into a single block, which in the end means processing more transactions per second.
Increasing Cardano’s block size comes into play as the network developers anticipate a rise in traffic, due to new dapps rolling out.
The developer said that currently there are “well over 2 million Cardano wallets in use and traffic has grown by over 20 times in a year.”
Increased Plutus Memory
Block size was not the only thing that getting an upgrade. Cardano also increased Plutus script memory units by transaction. In another 12.5% expansion, the Plutus script memory units per transaction is now 11.25 million.
According to the IOHK explained the 12.5% increase:
“[It] will be the first of a series of changes to the memory unit settings that will greatly enhance the real-world capabilities of Plutus scripts.”
The increase in memory limits will enable the development of more sophisticated Plutus scripts while allowing the existing scripts to process more data items.
The two upcoming adjustments both go “hand-in-hand,” added IOHK, as they will together help increase the network’s throughput capacity.
With its current set of parameters, the Cardano network is roughly utilizing only 25% of its capacity, revealed IOHK, noting that this is, in fact, sub-optimal.
John Woods, Director of Cardano Architecture, wrote:
“While inevitably there will be folks who want to move faster, our focus will remain on steady, secure evolution as Cardano grows in reach and adoption.”
The changes in block size and Plutus script memory units by transactions will be implemented slowly. Cardano has adopted a ‘slow and steady’ mechanism going forward with the changes. Although this may look to be moving too slow for some, a 12.5% increase shows that the developer is not rushing to make changes that would adversely affect the network.
The above changes will take effect on the testnet on November 25, while the IOHK team noted that applying them to the mainnet is scheduled for December 1.
