Protocol Scalability

Definition ∞ The capacity of a blockchain protocol to manage an increasing number of transactions and users without performance degradation. This involves achieving higher transaction throughput, lower latency, and reduced costs as network activity grows. Effective protocol scalability is essential for widespread adoption and practical application of blockchain technology.
Context ∞ Protocol scalability remains a central challenge and a key area of development within the blockchain industry. Innovations aimed at improving scalability, such as sharding and layer-2 solutions, are frequently subjects of news and technical analysis. The successful enhancement of a protocol’s scalability directly impacts its viability for supporting large-scale decentralized applications and global user bases.