Justin Bons, founder and CIO of Cyber Capital, Europe’s oldest cryptocurrency fund, just lately took to X to specific his considerations about deceptive transactions per second (TPS) metrics reported by Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA). In a thread, Bons argues that each networks propagate deceptive info that deviates sharply from established trade requirements.
“The 2 largest offenders for ‘faux’ TPS metrics are SOL & ADA: SOL is deceptive buyers by an element of 6.5, whereas ADA does so by an element of 26.5! Each are responsible of ignoring trade requirements for TPS,” Bons acknowledged in his preliminary publish.
Cardano And Solana: Actual Numbers
Bons explains that Solana’s usually cited most theoretical TPS of 65,000 is way from its sensible capabilities. He breaks down the calculation based mostly on the community’s compute restrict per block, which stands at 48 million Compute Models (CUs). With every fundamental transaction costing about 450 CUs and blocks occurring each 0.4 seconds, the theoretical TPS would initially look like round 266,000. Nonetheless, Bons notes that cryptographic limitations, particularly the EDDSA verification course of, considerably decrease this determine. The true bottleneck brings the possible most right down to roughly 50,000 TPS.
For Cardano, Bons critiques the community for promoting a most theoretical TPS of 477, which starkly contrasts with the extra lifelike determine based mostly solely on its precise block and transaction measurement configuration—90,112 Bytes per block with every transaction taking over 250 Bytes, calculated over a 20-second block time, leads to a mere 18 TPS. Bons emphasizes, “This can be a clear occasion the place theoretical highs are being mistaken for sensible capability. The reality is rather more modest, and much from the lofty figures usually quoted.”
Additional complicating the TPS dialogue, Bons criticizes each networks for his or her method to calculating transaction throughput. “So why does ADA declare to have a capability 26x greater than what is feasible? (in comparison with SOL’s 6x). It’s as a result of ADA counts a number of outputs as separate TXs! Nearly all different chains are in a position to batch TXs with out extra prices. But none truly rely this towards TPS” Bons argues.
He provides: “It’s deceptive to rely a number of outputs from a single transaction as separate transactions. This inflates TPS figures artificially, which isn’t the case with most different chains.” This leads him to suggest a brand new metric—Outputs Per Second (OPS)—which he believes would supply a extra correct illustration of a community’s capability.
Bons additionally brings in precise utilization statistics to anchor his argument in actuality. “SOL’s present true TPS is 739, and ADA’s is 0.4, when measured by precise transactions processed on the community,” he notes, underscoring a stark disparity between marketed capabilities and real-world efficiency.
Moreover, the researcher addresses the broader implications of those discrepancies. He means that the inflated TPS claims not solely mislead buyers however may doubtlessly hinder broader adoption of those platforms. “Deceptive TPS metrics can deter new customers and builders from adopting these platforms attributable to a lack of belief or misaligned expectations relating to community capability,” he explains.
Bon’s verdict on Cardano is devastating: “The reality is that there’s hardly any utilization of ADA. That’s what this utilization TPS determine represents, as most far exceed ADA’s utilization now. Waves of adoption have handed ADA by because of this. As a critic, I’m trying to salvage a large group from changing into more and more irrelevant.”
He concludes his critique with a name to the blockchain group for greater requirements of transparency and accuracy in how efficiency metrics are reported. “What issues is having a constant & comparable TPS metric throughout all platforms to help buyers and customers in making knowledgeable choices,” Bons asserts.
At press time, Cardano traded at $0.3335.
Featured picture from LinkedIn, chart from TradingView.com
