7 transaction per second limit still true?

[mkc]

Why bitcoin has 7 transaction per second limit? Do we have any plan to increase this limit any time soon?
I mean, 7 is very small number, you don't expect many people to use bitcoin if every second can only process 7 transactions.

[achow101]

Why bitcoin has 7 transaction per second limit? Do we have any plan to increase this limit any time soon?
I mean, 7 is very small number, you don't expect many people to use bitcoin if every second can only process 7 transactions.

In reality the network only handles around 2-3 transactions per second. 7 tps is only a theoretical maximum with optimal conditions; it's a scenario that never happens.

Yes there are plans on increasing this, it's the whole block size/scalability debate that is happening and has been for a while. In Bitcoin Core, the current plan is to implement Segregated Witness which has an effect of essentially doubling the block size limit which will increase the number of transactions the network can handle. Then later there will be additional scaling plans which may also include increasing the block size limit.

[DannyHamilton]

Why bitcoin has 7 transaction per second limit?

It doesn't.

It has a 1 MB per block limit and an average of 1 block every 10 minutes.

Given the typical size of the average transaction, if you divide the block size by the transaction size and divide that result by 600 seconds you'll get an average number of transactions that can realistically confirm per second.  That number is less than 7.  It is somewhere around 3 transactions per second.

The person that calculated 7 transactions per second made an assumption that all transactions in the block would be a minimum possible size.

Do we have any plan to increase this limit any time soon?

Bitcoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer consensus based system. Making changes to the consensus rules is a difficult thing to accomplish since there is no authority that can force everyone to accept what anyone else says.  If a consensus is reached among an overwhelming majority of users to make a change, then a change can happen quickly.  If a consensus is not reached among an overwhelming majority of users, then a change may never happen.

Developers and users have been discussing this since late in the year 2010.

I mean, 7 is very small number, you don't expect many people to use bitcoin if every second can only process 7 transactions.

Not all transactions have to occur on the blockchain.  There are off-chain solutions available.  There is also a possibility that consensus could be reached eventually to increase the number of transactions that can confirm.

[mkc]

Thank you for both of you, knightdk and DannyHamilton.
You have been very helpful and I appreciate your input very much.

[tobacco123]

Why bitcoin has 7 transaction per second limit? Do we have any plan to increase this limit any time soon?
I mean, 7 is very small number, you don't expect many people to use bitcoin if every second can only process 7 transactions.

This is in theory and indeed 7 tps is low. In reality, 2-3 tps is almost the max and this is why we have the blocksize debate, hopefully will increase this.

If Bitcoin Classic successfully takes over, are we expecting an effective 4-6 TPS for a blocksize of 2MB?

[nanonymousx]

Not all transactions have to occur on the blockchain.  There are off-chain solutions available.  There is also a possibility that consensus could be reached eventually to increase the number of transactions that can confirm.

I am very interested in this topic as well. I am wondering how transaction can be done off chain?

[phibay]

I hope Gavin and the Dev team agrees on a road forward soon. This lack of agreement and consensus among the key players in the Bitcoin community makes me nervous. Advancing the Bitcoin core should be a priority.