A prominent fund manager is raising concerns about Cardano’s scalability. Justin Bons, CIO of Cyber Capital, isn’t convinced by Cardano’s promises of future improvements. He points to the network’s current limitations as a major red flag for investors.
The 18 TPS Problem
Bons publicly questioned Cardano’s current transaction processing capacity of roughly 18 transactions per second (TPS). He finds this “pathetic” and worries about the lack of guarantees for future scaling. While upgrades like Input Endorsers aim to increase this to 400 TPS, and layer-2 solutions like Hydra exist, Bons argues these don’t address the core Layer-1 scaling problem.
Cardano’s Defense: Leios and Parallel Processing
Cardano supporters quickly responded, highlighting the potential of Ouroboros Leios, a new consensus layer. They claim simulations show Leios could achieve throughput of 10,000 TPS or more. This new system uses a three-tier block structure for parallel transaction processing. It’s similar to Solana’s approach but aims to keep Cardano’s consensus mechanism.
The Timing Issue: Promises vs. Reality
Bons remains unconvinced. He acknowledges the theoretical potential of Leios but emphasizes the lack of a concrete implementation timeline. He’s wary of repeated promises, drawing parallels to past scaling debates in Bitcoin where promised upgrades were delayed for years. He’s particularly concerned about the current 100 kB block size limit, arguing that without an increase, even Leios won’t solve the problem. He also points out that Input Endorsers, intended to boost TPS before Leios, haven’t delivered on expectations.
The Block Size Debate: Egalitarianism vs. Scalability
The discussion also touched on the rationale behind Cardano’s conservative block size limit. Some argue this keeps the network accessible to users with less powerful hardware. Bons counters that this prioritizes accessibility over scalability, echoing past Bitcoin debates. He emphasizes that he doesn’t care how the TPS increases, just that it does increase.
A Path to Conversion?
Despite his skepticism, Bons hints at a potential change of heart. If Leios is successfully implemented, he’s willing to become a Cardano supporter. His position boils down to this: show, don’t tell. Until Cardano delivers on its scaling promises, his concerns remain. At the time of writing, ADA was trading at $0.7173.