Throughput Oblivious Latency

Definition ∞ Throughput Oblivious Latency describes a characteristic of certain distributed systems or consensus protocols where the time it takes for a transaction to achieve finality (latency) remains consistently low, irrespective of the system’s overall transaction processing capacity (throughput). This means that even under heavy network load, individual transaction confirmation times do not significantly increase. It represents a design goal for high-performance decentralized networks seeking predictable user experience. This attribute prioritizes rapid individual transaction completion.
Context ∞ Throughput oblivious latency is a key performance metric and design goal in the development of next-generation blockchain protocols, particularly those aiming for real-time applications. News often compares different consensus mechanisms based on how well they maintain low latency even as throughput scales. Achieving this balance is crucial for applications like instant payments or interactive decentralized applications that require immediate feedback.