Mastering Blockchain - Second Edition

Block interval reduction

Another proposal is to reduce the time between each block generation. The time between blocks can be decreased to achieve faster finalization of blocks but may result in less security due to the increased number of forks. Ethereum has achieved a block time of approximately 14 seconds.

This is a significant improvement from the Bitcoin blockchain, which takes 10 minutes to generate a new block. In Ethereum, the issue of high orphaned blocks resulting from smaller times between blocks is mitigated by using the Greedy Heaviest Observed Subtree (GHOST) protocol whereby orphaned blocks (uncles) are also included in determining the valid chain. Once Ethereum moves to Proof of Stake (PoS), this will become irrelevant as ...