Justin Bons, founder and CIO of Cyber ​​​​Capital, Europe’s oldest cryptocurrency fund, recently raised concerns about misleading transactions per second (TPS) metrics reported by Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA). In a thread, Bons argues that both networks are spreading misleading information that deviates significantly from established industry norms.

“The two biggest offenders of ‘fake’ TPS metrics are SOL and ADA: SOL misleads investors by a factor of 6.5, while ADA does so by a factor of 26.5! Both are guilty of ignoring industry standards for TPS,” Bons said in his initial post.

Cardano and Solana: Real Numbers

Bons explains that Solana’s oft-cited maximum theoretical TPS of 65,000 is far from practical capabilities. He breaks the calculation down based on the network’s per-block computation limit, which stands at 48 million Compute Units (CUs). With each basic transaction costing around 450 CUs and blocks occurring every 0.4 seconds, the theoretical TPS would initially appear to be around 266,000. However, Bons notes that cryptographic constraints, particularly the EDDSA verification process, significantly reduce this figure. The real bottleneck is bringing the achievable maximum down to around 50,000 TPS.

For Cardano, Bons criticizes the network for advertising a maximum theoretical TPS of 477, which contrasts sharply with the more realistic figure based solely on the actual configuration of block and transaction size: 90,112 bytes per block, with each transaction taking up 250 bytes, calculated over a block time of 20 seconds, resulting in only 18 TPS. Bons points out: “This is a clear example of theoretical highs being mistaken for practical capacity. The truth is much more modest and far removed from the often-quoted highs.”

To further complicate the TPS discussion, Bons criticizes both networks for their approach to calculating transaction throughput. “So why does ADA claim to have a capacity that is 26x higher than what is possible? (compared to SOL’s 6x). That’s because ADA counts multiple outputs as separate TXs! Virtually all other chains can batch TXs without any additional fees. Yet none actually count this towards TPS,” Bons argues.

He adds: “It is misleading to count multiple outputs of a single transaction as separate transactions. This artificially inflates TPS numbers, which is not the case on most other chains.” This leads him to propose a new metric, Outputs Per Second (OPS), which he believes would provide a more accurate representation of a network’s capacity.

Bons also brings in actual usage statistics to ground his argument in reality. “SOL’s current real TPS is 739, and ADA’s is 0.4, as measured by actual transactions processed on the network,” he notes, highlighting a stark difference between marketed capabilities and real-world performance.

Furthermore, the researcher focuses on the broader implications of these discrepancies. He suggests that the inflated TPS claims not only mislead investors, but may also hinder the broader adoption of these platforms. “Misleading TPS metrics may deter new users and developers from adopting these platforms due to a lack of trust or misguided expectations regarding network capacity,” he explains.

Bons’ assessment of Cardano is scathing: “The truth is that ADA is barely being used. That’s what this TPS usage figure represents, as most are now far outpacing ADA usage. Waves of adoption have passed ADA by for this reason. As a critic, I’m trying to save a huge community from becoming increasingly irrelevant.”

He concludes his critique by calling on the blockchain community for higher standards of transparency and accuracy in the way performance metrics are reported. “What is important is a consistent and comparable TPS measurement across all platforms to help investors and users make informed decisions,” Bons claims.

At the time of going to press, Cardano was trading at $0.3335.

Main image from LinkedIn, chart from TradingView.com