The Heartbeat upgrade went live on eCash's mainnet almost a month ago, and the early data is very promising. This update, which introduces the Real-Time Target (RTT) algorithm, has already begun addressing long-standing challenges in block time consistency, improving both network speed and reliability.
Data from October 10th to December 2nd, 2024, provides a detailed comparison of block time stability across Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and eCash XEC (both pre and post-upgrade). Here’s what the numbers reveal:
Mean Block Times:
Standard Deviation:
Standard deviation measures how spread out the block times are compared to the average block time (mean).
Blocks Delayed (>1 hour):
While the transition phase showed some variability, recent data highlights steady and ongoing improvements:
Entire Range (November 15th - December 10th):
Recent data (November 28 - December 10th):
The Heartbeat upgrade is already proving its value by reducing block time instability and ensuring a more predictable user experience. As the data continues to accumulate, we’ll get an even better understanding of how Heartbeat enhances reliability and transaction speed. The heartbeat upgrade further enhances the 1-block transaction finality powered by Avalanche Post-Consensus, with more improvements to come from Avalanche Pre-Consensus (0-confirmations and instant transaction finality).
Stay tuned for more updates!
Originally Published: https://e.cash/blog/real-time-targeting-in-action-early-results-of-the-heartbeat-upgrade