What follows below is the rundown of L2 blockchains and their average time between blocks, maximum time between blocks, and block size (# of transactions):

After looking at the average and maximum block-to-block gaps, we discover that of the blockchains can process blocks quickly when the stars align. For all chains this dashboard examines, the smallest gap between blocks over the past month has been 0 seconds: All chains can process several blocks per second at their speediest.

What does a birds-eye view of the block data reveal?

• On average, L1s process blocks quicker than L2s (chart on the left).
• However, Polygon is very fast. The Polygon network is processes blocks not just quickest among L2s, but on average faster than L1s as well (chart on the right).

A rundown of L1 blockchains and their average time between blocks, maximum time between blocks, and block size (# of transactions):

About this Dashboard

• Author: mar1na (catscatscode) - reach out on Twitter!
• Date: 27 July 2022
• Data Source: Flipside Crypto.

The two charts below show that:

• On most days in the past month, L2s have had longer gaps between blocks, compared to L1s (chart below on the left).
• But that’s because of Optimism and Arbitrum -- not speedy Polygon’s fault! 🏃‍♀️ (chart below on the right).

The visualization on the right illustrates that:

• Polygon’s block output is quite consistent day-to-day (around 34-39k blocks a day), especially compared to other L2 blockchains like Optimism & Arbitrum.
• Among L1s, NEAR and Flow have some variation, however not as much as the two volatile L2s (Polygon being the exception).
• The next portion of the dashboard will take a look at block performance statistics by chains, first L2s and then L1s.

Images

Polygon logo:

Arbitrum logo:

Optimism logo:

Ethereum logo:

Algorand logo:

Avalanche logo:

Flow logo:

NEAR logo:

Osmosis logo:

Introduction

Polygon bills itself as a faster, cheaper alternative to Layer 1 Ethereum.

My previous dashboard explored Polygon fees, that are indeed miniscule compared to the fees on mainnet Ethereum. In turn, this dashboard looks at Polygon’s block performance, comparing it not only to Ethereum, but to several Layer 1 and 2 blockchains with data availability on Flipside Crypto.

What you will find in this dashboard

• An analysis of on-chain block data over the past month (June 25 - July 25, 2022)
• To allow a comparison of Polygon with a variety of chains, the dashboard analyzes the metrics for three Layer 2 (L2) blockchains including Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism,
• and six Layer 1 (L1) blockchains: Ethereum, Algorand, Avalanche, Flow, NEAR, and Osmosis.
• The metrics include:
  • Average time between blocks (in seconds)
    • by layer and by blockchain
    • over the past month & daily
  • The maximum and minimum time between blocks (in seconds)
  • The number of blocks
  • The number of transactions per block
• Note #1: What you won’t find in this dashboard is the data on another L1 -- Solana. While Flipside Crypto provides a variety of Solana on-chain data, the relevant Solana data retrieval at the time of creating this dashboard had encountered technical issues.
• Note #2: This dashboard contains many visualizations. Some of them may take a minute to load. If not all of the charts show up right away -- please give it a moment, grab a cup of coffee, a drink of water, or maybe scroll on crypto Twitter while the visuals pull themselves together 😉.

Concluding Thoughts

• Do Polygon’s claims of being fast and efficient check out (when it comes to block performance)? Yes, they kind of do! In the time that it takes Ethereum to write one block (0.07 seconds on average), Polygon writes two blocks (0.03 seconds between each block).
• Ethereum writes up to 200 transactions in a block, and Polygon only ~73 -- but that is still higher than almost all blockchains we analyzed, and higher than all L2s we looked at.
• Even when Polygon lapses, its block production gets back on track quicker than all L2s in this analysis, and most of L1s. The largest gap between blocks was 26 seconds over the past month. That’s compared with 146 seconds maximum for Ethereum, 46sec for Optimism, and 219sec for Arbitrum.
• While L2s in general carry the promise of fewer bottlenecks in block production, other L2 blockchains in this analysis lag behind L1s.
• Polygon is the exception. With fast block production, and high block weight (especially for a Layer 2 chain), it appears to show infrastructure ready to help alleviate the block pressure on mainnet Ethereum.

The chart on the right shows that:

• Most blockchains maintain day-to-day consistency for how many transactions fit into each block.
• An exception is Osmosis, whose blocks recently stretched and began to fit 10x+ more transactions each.
• Ethereum wins the most tx per block, with 200 transactions per block on average.
• Until Osmosis’ recent leap, Polygon had been the second after Ethereum, with ~70 transactions/block.