Definition ∞ A linear scalability barrier describes a system limitation where its performance or throughput only increases proportionally to the addition of resources, rather than exponentially or super-linearly. In many distributed systems, adding more nodes or computational power does not automatically result in a corresponding linear increase in processing capacity due to bottlenecks. This constraint restricts the system’s ability to handle substantially larger workloads efficiently. It often arises from communication overhead or sequential processing requirements.
Context ∞ The linear scalability barrier represents a fundamental challenge for many blockchain networks, where transaction processing capacity often scales linearly with block size or validator count, if at all. This limitation hinders the widespread adoption of digital assets for high-volume applications. Current research focuses on layer-2 solutions, sharding, and new consensus algorithms to overcome this barrier. Future advancements aim to achieve super-linear or logarithmic scalability, allowing blockchain networks to process significantly more transactions without proportional increases in resource demands.
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