<p>The transaction is 0.25 kB or 250 bytes. The bandwidth is given as 55 kbps (kilobits per second). An uppercase 'B' stands for bytes, and a lowercase 'b' stands for bits. There are 8 bits per byte.</p>
<p>So, 55 kbps are 6.875 kBps, and I calculate</p>
<pre><code>55,000 b/s × (1/8 B/b) × (1/250 tx/B) = 27.5 tx/s.
</code></pre>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-02-18T16:09:43.250Z
Thank you so very much!!
xrv0
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-02-18T13:46:31.217Z
2023-02-18T13:46:31.217Z
Murch
<p>I'm currently reading <a href="https://fc16.ifca.ai/bitcoin/papers/CDE+16.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this</a> paper on the scalability of Bitcoin and I'm struggling to understand some of the calculations.
On page 6 they calculate the 90% effective throughput, meaning the speed at which data can travel through the network if it needs to reach 90% of the network, is 55Kbps.
I don't understand how they convert that to 26tx/s. As far as I understand 55Kbps / 0.25kb (throughput / transaction size) would be 220 tx/s and not 26 tx/s.
Can someone help my find my mistake?</p>

<scalability><academic-research>
On Scaling Decentralized Blockchains Paper: How is transaction/sec calculated?
xrv0
# On Scaling Decentralized Blockchains Paper: How is transaction/sec calculated?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-02-18)

I'm currently reading [this](https://fc16.ifca.ai/bitcoin/papers/CDE+16.pdf) paper on the scalability of Bitcoin and I'm struggling to understand some of the calculations.
On page 6 they calculate the 90% effective throughput, meaning the speed at which data can travel through the network if it needs to reach 90% of the network, is 55Kbps.
I don't understand how they convert that to 26tx/s. As far as I understand 55Kbps / 0.25kb (throughput / transaction size) would be 220 tx/s and not 26 tx/s.
Can someone help my find my mistake?

**Tags:** scalability, academic-research


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2023-02-18. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

The transaction is 0.25 kB or 250 bytes. The bandwidth is given as 55 kbps (kilobits per second). An uppercase 'B' stands for bytes, and a lowercase 'b' stands for bits. There are 8 bits per byte.

So, 55 kbps are 6.875 kBps, and I calculate

```
55,000 b/s × (1/8 B/b) × (1/250 tx/B) = 27.5 tx/s.

```

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thank you so very much!!  

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