Mastering Blockchain - Second Edition

Block propagation

In addition to the preceding proposal, pipelining of block propagation has also been suggested, which is based on the idea of anticipating the availability of a block. In this scheme, the availability of a block is already announced without waiting for actual block availability, thus reducing the round-trip time between nodes. Finally, the problem of long distances between transaction originator and nodes also contributes toward the slowdown of block propagation. It has been shown in the research conducted by Christian Decker that connectivity increase can reduce propagation delay of blocks and transactions. This is possible because, if at any one time the Bitcoin node is connected to many other nodes, it will result in ...