The recent push towards Blockchain technology has brought a lot of cryptocurrencies to the scene and many more are on their way. In fact, there are around 1,500 cryptocurrencies out there that are being traded all over the world right now.
With such a high number, it can quickly become overwhelming for an investor to decide on a good investment. Well, among all other factors, speed is a good benchmark to decide which one to invest in.
Obviously, the fastest crypto coin would be your preference, especially when you’re using it for making payments to other parties. In addition, fast transaction times take the frustration out of the process and make cryptocurrencies more desirable.
So, if you’re interested in determining the fastest cryptocurrencies around, here we have detailed everything for you. Read on to find out!
Why is transaction speed relevant?
When it comes to trading in cryptocurrencies, transaction speed refers to the time it takes for the system to complete one transaction. With better transaction speed, the process will be faster and higher customer satisfaction can be achieved.
Factors affecting transaction speeds
In reality, the speed of any given cryptocurrency keeps on varying all the time. Some real-time factors are responsible for that and they should be taken into consideration when determining which crypto coin is the fastest. These factors include:
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Current average fee
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Transaction type being included in blocks’ creation
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Network conditions
Always remember that the impact of the transaction fee will only be on the first confirmation, which refers to the single block where the miners collect fees. All the confirmations that follow happen because the transaction was already a part of some preceding block rather than the fee being responsible for them.
Fastest crypto coin options with transaction speeds
Among all other factors, network conditions can also have a direct impact on the transaction speed of any cryptocurrency out there.
So, here we’ve listed average transaction speeds of major crypto coins for the confirmed transactions from the first block. In case, confirmation doesn’t come in the first block then the approximate time can be longer and it depends on network conditions. So, let’s find out which is the fastest crypto coin out there.
1. Bitcoin
The average transaction speed for Bitcoin is 78 minutes. There’s an artificial block size that limits it to only three transactions per second. However, it can be increased by 100 transactions per second. Bitcoin fees are also continuously on the rise and, even when blocks are full, transactions aren’t getting quick confirmations. The current limit on block size is one MB.
2. Ripple
The average transaction speed for Ripple is four seconds. In the last six weeks, daily Ripple transactions have quickly gone over one mln.
3. Bitcoin Cash
The average transaction speed for Bitcoin Cash is 60 minutes while the current limit on block size is eight MB. Large numbers of confirmations have been received by exchanges as it’s prone to double spend attack. Due to the issues with its stability and security, Bitcoin Cash can keep you waiting for an awfully long time.
4. Litecoin
The average transaction speed for Litecoin is 30 minutes and the maximum capacity is 56 transactions per second. Transaction verification is done instantly and there’s a very low cost involved.
5. Ethereum
The average transaction speed for Ethereum is six minutes. As far as the block generation time is concerned, Ethereum is probably the fastest crypto coin around. According to some earlier tests, its maximum capacity is 25 transactions per second. Ethereum’s scalability has seen improvements with PoS and Sharding as well.
6. Dash
The average transaction speed for Dash coin is 15 minutes and its current capacity limitation is 28 transactions per second. And, with a two MB change in block size, the limit can be doubled to 56 transactions per second.
7. Augur
The average transaction speed for Augur is six minutes. It makes for safe, secure, fast and automated payments.
8. Monero
The average transaction speed for Monero is 30 minutes and its block size is amongst the most dynamic options around. Theoretically, it can manage 1,000 transactions per second with modern hardware and sufficient bandwidth availability.
9. Cardano
The average transaction speed for Cardano is five minutes and all the nodes on its network can accept transactions and verify them.
10. IOTA
The average transaction speed for IOTA is three minutes. The good thing is that there are no scaling limitations and transaction fees involved. It continues to get faster as you throw more on it. Besides, for transmitting the current transaction, IOTA requires confirmation of previous two transactions first.
11. Steem
The average transaction speed for Steem is three seconds and it doesn’t require you to pay any transaction fees. The technology used by this platform is called Graphene and it’s the same that is used by BitShares.
12. Stratis
The average transaction speed for Stratis is six minutes. The fee varies according to the transaction and the transactions are made directly through peer-to-peer over its decentralized Blockchain network.
13. Ardor
The average transaction speed for Ardor is 60 seconds. Recently, quite a few of its transactions were disabled in the main chain for reducing bloating of the platform and improving its performance.
14. NEM
The average transaction speed for Nem is 30 seconds. In an experiment, NEM’s average transaction rate was determined at 3085.77 transactions per second within an hour. At present, it hosts 10.8 mln accounts.
15. Stellar
The average transaction speed for Stellar is five seconds. The transaction cost is almost negligible i.e. 0.00001 lumens per transaction.
16. Spectrecoin
The average transaction speed for Spectrecoin is 30 seconds. It comes with zero transaction fees and offers decentralization with a proof-of-stake method. All transactions are made anonymous with stealth transactions technology.
17. Golem
The average transaction speed for Golem is five minutes. Its transaction records are entered on the Ethereum Blockchain.
18. NEO
The average transaction speed for NEO is 15 seconds. It comes with a more streamlined PoS protocol and offers 1,000 transactions per second capacity which can go as high as 10,000 transactions per second.
19. Electroneum
The average transaction speed for Electroneum is 75 minutes. Its recommended transaction fee remains at around 0.01 ETN. The best part is that a higher transaction fee, up to 0.2 ETN, can be specified should you need faster speed.
20. BitShares
The average transaction speed for BitShares is two seconds. It utilizes Graphene technology which is also used by Steem along with Business Logic Processor that order matches and process transactions. With referral earning, a part of transaction costs would be yours.
So, these are some of the top rated and most highly traded cryptocurrencies each with its average transaction speed. Now that know what speeds you can expect, you can make investments accordingly and choose the fastest crypto coin around.