Description of work

In this work, we want to compare the Near with Ethereum, Flow, and Solana blockchains in terms of performance and speed from the beginning of Apr 2022 to now.

This comparison includes the following sections

1 - Total number of transactions and Transactions Per Minute (TPM)

2 - Number of failed transactions and Transaction Failure Rate (TFR)

We consider the calculations from the beginning of May 2022 because from May onwards, there are heavy price drops in the market. In this situation, the activity on different blockchains increases; for example, many people convert their assets to stable coins or swap to other assets to avoid further losses. This market condition is a good measure to evaluate the speed and reliability of different blockchains.

The transaction data related to Avalanche and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) blockchains are available from May 30, 2022, and June 15, 2022, respectively. For this reason, we ignore these blockchains in comparison.

Apart from Ethereum, other blockchains use the PoS (Proof of Stake) mechanism to process transactions. Of course, Ethereum will migrate from PoW(Proof of Work) to PoS shortly.

Proof-of-Work Blockchains

The PoW consensus mechanism is among the most widely utilized methods in blockchain and was popularized first by Bitcoin. The defining components of PoW systems are miners and the electricity they expend to make the calculations that verify transactions. Miners operate computer hardware to run network nodes that employ computational power to algorithmically solve mathematical puzzles called proofs of work.

Proof-of-Stake Blockchains

Proof of Stake is another most popular consensus mechanism and solves many of the disadvantages found on Proof-of-Work blockchains like lack of speed, poor scalability, inefficient energy consumption, and high barrier to entry. Instead of miners validating transactions, PoS blockchains simply have validators. Validators are network node operators that validate data, similarly to PoW systems, but there is no energy-intensive computational process to earn the right to validate. Instead of working to solve proofs of work, validators “stake” some of the blockchain’s native tokens to become eligible for selection as a validator node.

Source: gemini.com

You can check the status of blockchains in Blockchain Explorers related to each network.

Methodology

To calculate the number of transactions on each network, we use the [transactions] table related to that blockchain.
To calculate Transactions Per Minute (TPM) in each day, we calculate the total number of transactions (both successful and failed transactions) in one day and divide the result by 1440 (each day contains 1440 minutes).

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In the [transaction] table related to different blockchains, different fields show the status of a transaction.
- In Solana, SUCCEEDED field shows the status of a transaction.
- In Flow TX_SUCCEEDED field shows the status of a transaction.
- In Ethereum STATUS field shows the status of a transaction.
- In Near, the status of a transaction is in tx_receipt field that extracts with the following query:
  - substr(tx_receipt[0]:outcome:status ,3 ,7)

1 - Total number of transactions and Transactions Per Minute (TPM)

Solana’s TPM is in a different league!

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The highest average TPM from May 1 onwards belongs to Solana (27.5K) by a wide margin. After Solana, Ethereum (768), Flow(535), and Near (407) are ranked second to fourth.
When we check the number of transactions (successful and failed), the situation is the same. Solana (3.16B) has made the highest number of transactions since May 1. After Solana, Ethereum (88.5M), Flow (61.6M), and Near (46.9M) are ranked second to fourth.
When we check the "TPM over time" chart, we notice that on the days when the fall in the price of Bitcoin caused a heavy price drop in the market (May 10-12), TPM has decreased in all blockchains except Solana (in Solana, TPM has reduced) Increased.

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The volatility of TPM in the Ethereum blockchain is much less than in other blockchains.

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After the heavy price drop on May 12, the TPM of the Near blockchain has decreased, which could be due to fewer transactions on the network.
The highest TPM for Solana was on July 12 (36749), and the lowest was on May 1 (11677). About 68.22% reduction.

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The highest TPM for Flow was on Jun 25 (1356), and the lowest was on May 1 (96). About 92.9% reduction!

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The highest TPM for Ethereum was on May 13 (932), and the lowest was on Jun 26 (638). About 31.54% reduction. what stability!

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The highest TPM for Near was on May 10 (1060), and the lowest was on July 10 (209). About 80.26% reduction.

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2 - Number of failed transactions and Transaction Failure Rate (TFR)

The lower the TFR (Transaction Failure Rate) criterion, the better the network performance.
Solana’s TFR is Awful!

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The highest TFR from May 1 onwards belongs to Solana (33.3%) by a wide margin. It means that 1 out of every 3 transactions on Solana failed!

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After Solana, Near (19.7%), Flow(12.1%), and Ethereum(4.03%) are ranked second to fourth.
The situation is the same when we check the number of failed transactions! Solana (1.053B) has the highest number of failed transactions since May 1. After Solana, Near (9.23M), Flow (7.47M), and Ethereum(3.56M) are ranked second to fourth.
In terms of Transaction Success Rate (TSR), Ethereum is by far the best blockchain. (0.96 TSR) After Ethereum, Flow(0.879 TSR), NEAR (0.803 TSR), and Solana (0.667 TSR) are ranked second to fourth.
Solana's highest number of failed transactions was on July 8 (18920769), and the lowest was on May 1 (6423067).

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Flow's highest number of failed transactions was on May 30 (968289), and the lowest was on May 8 (13390).

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Ethereum's highest number of failed transactions was on July 4 (75859), and the lowest was on May 8 (22013).

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Near's highest number of failed transactions was on May 10 (836392), and the lowest was on Jun 26 (40023).

Conclusion

In the reviewed criteria (TPM), Solana is the best blockchain in terms of speed.

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After Solana, Ethereum, Flow, and Near are ranked second to fourth.
In the reviewed criteria (TFR), Ethereum is the best blockchain in terms of reliability.

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After Ethereum, Flow, Near, and Solana are ranked second to fourth.

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