Cardano’s Leios Upgrade Achieves Significant Throughput Gains Amid Economic Challenges
- The Leios upgrade achieved a peak throughput of 26.8 transaction kilobytes per second during its first public testnet phase.
- Leios processed up to 18 times the transaction count compared to Cardano’s mainnet over a similar period, with artificial traffic used for testing.
- Cardano’s staking rewards are increasingly dependent on transaction fees as reserve contributions decline, which could fall by approximately 43% by the end of the decade.
- To maintain monthly rewards of around 20.64 million ADA, approximately 36 to 50 transactions per second are needed continuously.
- The testnet lasted for a total of **41 days**, producing over **127,000 blocks** and approximately **30,000 Endorser Blocks** validated by committees.
While the Leios upgrade enhances network capacity significantly, it raises questions about whether users will pay for the additional blockspace necessary to sustain economic viability as reserve funding decreases.
With a need for sustained transactions at rates between **36 and **50 TPS**, Cardano faces an economic challenge in converting increased capacity into revenue-generating activity.(Source)
