<p>A delay of some kind is unavoidable.</p>

<p>Say you see some transaction, say Alice sending a unit to Bob. Before you can accept that transaction as reliable, you need to be sure that everyone will not eventually agree that Alice sent that unit to Charlie first.</p>

<p>Alice can compose a transaction sending to Bob and a transaction sending that same unit to Charlie. She can send half of the nodes one transaction and half of the nodes the other. It will always take some time for the system to agree on which of those two transactions to execute and to assure itself that there isn't some third transaction, also sending that same unit, that won't be agreed on.</p>

<p>That agreement will necessarily take some time as nodes have to talk to each other. You can avoid it by having a designated master whose word is law, but it's not clear how that could be decentralized. Among other problems, you need to detect the failure of the master and change the master. Which means you need to make sure that others know the master didn't fail -- because just because you think the master is working doesn't mean the master's messages are getting to others.</p>

<p>You also need to protect against the master telling half the nodes to accept the transaction to Charlie and half the nodes to accept the transaction to Bob. If they don't make sure the master is honest, then the system is, again, not decentralized.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-22T06:11:09.820Z
2018-01-22T06:11:09.820Z
David Schwartz
<p>Block time or delay is often a problem in Bitcoin. Then would it be possible to develop a decentralized cryto currency with zero delay/block time? Any reference will be appreciated. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-22T02:18:05.803Z
This doesn't make sense - if the block time were zero, there'd be infinity blocks per second, and you'd need infinity bytes of data transfer and storage per second to keep track of them all.
Nate Eldredge
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-22T02:26:23.713Z
I mean that each transaction will form a block. My question is rather whether it is possible to avoid delay or is it inherently impossible in decentralized crypo currency system.
180118
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-22T02:27:51.977Z
The problem is that if blocks are created very rapidly, it is likely that many get created simultaneously and don't form a chain.  It gets much harder for the network to settle on a chain, and harder to ensure that all desired blocks are included in it.  Also, if each block needs some proof of work, that takes time to produce, so in that sense delay is inevitable.
Nate Eldredge
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-22T02:42:28.050Z
Is it true that the first problem is more like bookkeeping and common with other systems (like Visa)? Then for the second problem, is it ever possible to have any proof of work system (different from bitcoin system) without delay?
180118
<bitcoin-core><block>
decentralized cryto currency without block time
180118
# decentralized cryto currency without block time

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-01-22)

Block time or delay is often a problem in Bitcoin. Then would it be possible to develop a decentralized cryto currency with zero delay/block time? Any reference will be appreciated.

**Tags:** bitcoin-core, block

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: This doesn't make sense - if the block time were zero, there'd be infinity blocks per second, and you'd need infinity bytes of data transfer and storage per second to keep track of them all.  
> **username_0**: I mean that each transaction will form a block. My question is rather whether it is possible to avoid delay or is it inherently impossible in decentralized crypo currency system.  
> **username_1**: The problem is that if blocks are created very rapidly, it is likely that many get created simultaneously and don't form a chain.  It gets much harder for the network to settle on a chain, and harder to ensure that all desired blocks are included in it.  Also, if each block needs some proof of work, that takes time to produce, so in that sense delay is inevitable.  
> **username_0**: Is it true that the first problem is more like bookkeeping and common with other systems (like Visa)? Then for the second problem, is it ever possible to have any proof of work system (different from bitcoin system) without delay?  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2018-01-22. Score: 0

A delay of some kind is unavoidable.

Say you see some transaction, say Alice sending a unit to Bob. Before you can accept that transaction as reliable, you need to be sure that everyone will not eventually agree that Alice sent that unit to Charlie first.

Alice can compose a transaction sending to Bob and a transaction sending that same unit to Charlie. She can send half of the nodes one transaction and half of the nodes the other. It will always take some time for the system to agree on which of those two transactions to execute and to assure itself that there isn't some third transaction, also sending that same unit, that won't be agreed on.

That agreement will necessarily take some time as nodes have to talk to each other. You can avoid it by having a designated master whose word is law, but it's not clear how that could be decentralized. Among other problems, you need to detect the failure of the master and change the master. Which means you need to make sure that others know the master didn't fail -- because just because you think the master is working doesn't mean the master's messages are getting to others.

You also need to protect against the master telling half the nodes to accept the transaction to Charlie and half the nodes to accept the transaction to Bob. If they don't make sure the master is honest, then the system is, again, not decentralized.


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