Polygon Block Performance

Question:

What is the average time between blocks on Polygon?

What was the maximum and minimum recorded time between two blocks? How many transactions are done in a block on average? How do these numbers compare to L1 such as Flow or Solana, or other L2 such as Arbitrum or Optimism?

NOTE: The data on some chains are from 15th June. So, only limited content has been shown from 15th June.

Summary:

We will be looking into the following comparisons:

Average Transactions per block on various chains
Maximum Transactions per block on various chains
Minimum Transactions per block on various chains
Average Time Taken per block
Average Time taken per block over time
Average Time taken per block Distribution
Conclusions

Methodology:

For average, maximum and minimum transactions in a block, the blocks table would be used. It will also be used for finding the average time taken between blocks, the average time taken over time and the average time taken per block distribution
The max, min and avg functions were used for the maximum, minimum and average transactions in a block
For average time between blocks , block X and block X+1 was taken and timestampdiff was used to get the seconds difference and the average of this was taken daily and then averaged over time.

Introduction:

Polygon is one of the most popular chains and has been an established chain .

Polygon's strengths include:

Ability to process transactions quickly (It is claimed to be at about 2.1 seconds)
Transaction fees are consistently low (in at about 0.001$)

Among Polygon’s weaknesses are:

Not an autonomous blockchain: (Dependent on ETH network).
Limited use cases forMATIC

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In summary, some of it’s features are:

Lesser Fees
More transactions

Definitions & Notes:

As the data starts from 15th June, while comparing with other chains , we compare from 15th June.

Next, we divide the page into 2 sections: One would have the queries on the left and the other would have insights+ visuals on the right

Query 1:

with ava as ( SELECT avg(tx_count) as avg_txs_per_block, max(tx_count) as max_txs_per_block, min(tx_count) as min_txs_per_block, 'avalnche' as chain from avalanche.core.fact_blocks), opt as ( SELECT avg(tx_count) as avg_txs_per_block, max(tx_count) as max_txs_per_block, min(tx_count) as min_txs_per_block, 'optimism' as chain from optimism.core.fact_blocks), arb as ( SELECT avg(tx_count) as avg_txs_per_block, max(tx_count) as max_txs_per_block, min(tx_count) as min_txs_per_block, 'arbitrum' as chain from arbitrum.core.fact_blocks) , poly as ( SELECT avg(tx_count) as avg_txs_per_block, max(tx_count) as max_txs_per_block, min(tx_count) as min_txs_per_block, 'polygon' as chain from polygon.core.fact_blocks) , bsc as ( SELECT avg(tx_count) as avg_txs_per_block, max(tx_count) as max_txs_per_block, min(tx_count) as min_txs_per_block, 'bsc' as chain from bsc.core.fact_blocks) , osm as ( SELECT avg(tx_count) as avg_txs_per_block, max(tx_count) as max_txs_per_block, min(tx_count) as min_txs_per_block, 'osmosis' as chain from osmosis.core.fact_blocks) , sol as ( SELECT avg(tx_count) as avg_txs_per_block, max(tx_count) as max_txs_per_block, min(tx_count) as min_txs_per_block, 'sol' as chain from solana.core.fact_blocks) , flow as ( SELECT avg(tx_count) as avg_txs_per_block, max(tx_count) as max_txs_per_block, min(tx_count) as min_txs_per_block, 'flow' as chain from flow.core.fact_blocks)

SELECT * from osm UNION ALL SELECT * from BSC UNION ALL SELECT * from opt UNION ALL SELECT * from poly UNION ALL SELECT * from arbUNION ALL SELECT * from ava UNION ALL SELECT * from sol UNION ALL SELECT * FROM flow-- LIMIT 100

Some Explanation/Insights at the time of analysis:

For Maximum transactions in a block, Solana leads as it has about 7.6k transactions in a single block
Solana is followed by polygon, osmosis, bsc,flow, avalanche, arbitrum and optimism with values of 1250, 600, 317, 265,165, 125 and 100
Polygon has about 75 transactions in a block on an average and has the largest average after Solana and BSC!
It is followed by omosis, flow, avax, arbitrum and optimism.
Among L2s, Optimism also takes the least number of transactions per block while other L2s like Polygon take about 2.1 sec and Arbitrum has a different rate ranging from 0.5 sec to 1.5 sec.
On an average over time, Polygon takes about 2.2 seconds without much deviation from this
The most Polygon has taken is 2.3 while 2.1 is the least and hence, Polygon moves in a tight band.
Optimism and Arbitrum both have a range of about 0.5-1.5 seconds but Optimism processes more blocks in a day as compared to Arbitrum but lesser than that of Solana
Only Optimism has no zero transaction blocks while all others have their minimum transactions in a block to be zero
Polygon has an average of about 2.25 seconds over time between blocks while Optimism has it’s average less than 1 second per block
Polygon takes the most time between blocks after Osmosis and BSC
Solana takes the least time between blocks and the most transactions in a block making it a very fast chain
Polygon on the other hand processes a lot of transactions on an average but takes 2.2 seconds to block finality and hence compensates equivalently
Whereas, Optimism process very few transactions per block but processes them quickly. So, Optimism compensates equivalently and might be slower than Polygon currently
Strictly sticking only to the average time taken per block, while other L2s like Arbitrum and Optimism are the second and the third fastest among the chains in comparison. Polygon is the third slowest chain
But when one looks into the average number of transactions in a block and the average transactions per second, Polygon is fare better than other L2s

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Next, let’s view what can be concluded:

Conclusions:

Now, we’ll conclude as to how Optimism performed overall and some special insights:

Yes, Polygon stood it’s claim of having about 2.1 seconds between blocks as the least time it takes is at about 2.1 while the most is 2.3 and hence an average of about 2.25 seconds over time.
For details solely on Polygon, Polygon has about 1250 transactions in a block second only to Solana for the maximum transactions in a block
On an average, it has about 75 transactions in a block and at worst it has no transaction in a block
Hence, it can be said that Polygon has a very good performance when it comes to number of transactions per second
But when only the time between blocks is considered, Polygon is third slowest

Detailed Analysis on other chains to Polygon:
For Maximum transactions in a block, Solana leads as it has about 7.6k transactions in a single block
Solana is followed by polygon, osmosis, bsc,flow, avalanche, arbitrum and optimism with values of 1250, 600, 317, 265,165, 125 and 100
Polygon has about 75 transactions in a block on an average and has the largest average after Solana and BSC!
It is followed by omosis, flow, avax, arbitrum and optimism.
Among L2s, Optimism also takes the least number of transactions per block while other L2s like Polygon take about 2.1 sec and Arbitrum has a different rate ranging from 0.5 sec to 1.5 sec.
On an average over time, Polygon takes about 2.2 seconds without much deviation from this
The most Polygon has taken is 2.3 while 2.1 is the least and hence, Polygon moves in a tight band.
Optimism and Arbitrum both have a range of about 0.5-1.5 seconds but Optimism processes more blocks in a day as compared to Arbitrum but lesser than that of Solana
Only Optimism has no zero transaction blocks while all others have their minimum transactions in a block to be zero
Polygon has an average of about 2.25 seconds over time between blocks while Optimism has it’s average less than 1 second per block
Polygon takes the most time between blocks after Osmosis and BSC
Solana takes the least time between blocks and the most transactions in a block making it a very fast chain
Polygon on the other hand processes a lot of transactions on an average but takes 2.2 seconds to block finality and hence compensates equivalently
Whereas, Optimism process very few transactions per block but processes them quickly. So, Optimism compensates equivalently and might be slower than Polygon currently
Strictly sticking only to the average time taken per block, while other L2s like Arbitrum and Optimism are the second and the third fastest among the chains in comparison. Polygon is the third slowest chain
But when one looks into the average number of transactions in a block and the average transactions per second, Polygon is fare better than other L2s

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