Explanation

A transaction is only complete once it has been recorded onto the blockchain. This would normally be within ten minutes of the sender initiating the transaction but could take longer due to network congestion or insufficient transaction fees.

This process requires that a transaction is “mined” into a block, meaning that only actualised transactions are recorded by our metric. Unlike the Mastercard network, this means transactions are not instant. There is a trade-off between speed and decentralisation.

Each Bitcoin block contains approximately 3,000 transactions. This means the Bitcoin Network has a capacity constraint of around 5 transactions per second (TPS). Additional transactions can take place on other platform linked to the blockchain such as the Lightning Network.