MIT Researchers: “Distributed Ledger Technology Has Drawbacks”

Experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as part of a project to study the digital currency of the Central Bank revealed that distributed ledger technology has performance problems.

The project was announced in 2020 under the name “Project Hamilton”. Its main task is to learn different methods of transaction processing, including distributed ledger technology (DLT). During the study, the MIT team tested the volume and speed of transactions, as well as the stability of systems in general. Researchers have found that distributed ledger technology using a single computer has performance issues.

The experts developed two software systems with different source codes. The first used DLT and processed transactions using one central computer, entering them into blocks – more than 99% of transactions were completed in less than a second. The second processed transactions in parallel on several computers without transaction history and was able to process 1.7 million operations per second. MIT Fellow Neha Narula said:

“It is important to note that the results of this project are not a commentary on whether the US should issue a national digital currency. But the project is important as a platform on which we can build and compare more viable non-DLT systems.”

Recall that in early 2021, MIT launched a project to study Bitcoin. The Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) has raised $4 million from major investors to develop Bitcoin’s core code and explore key elements of the network.

Source: Bits

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