Is it possible in future to reduce the confirmation time of the transactions? Can it somehow be reduced to less than 10 minutes? Can it be made faster?
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Related: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/43700/how-does-the-lightning-network-work-in-simple-terms http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/44416/lightning-network-scaling-alternatives http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/46618/lightning-network-and-lightweight-clients – UTF-8 Feb 16 '17 at 17:04
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You could browse the Bitcoin Improvement Proposals; that's the standard way to suggest innovations. – Nate Eldredge Feb 16 '17 at 22:06
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Yes and no. Any change to the protocol is possible if and only if > 50% of the active nodes "agree" to it by adopting that protocol change.
Getting everyone to agree is very hard though. For example, Bitcoin Cash (BHC) exists as a fork of Bitcoin because of a dispute over increasing the block size. It seems likely such a push to lower the block time would lead to a similar messy debate and ultimately a split.
noctonura
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My understanding is that the difficulty level is adjusted every 2 weeks by consensus (I.e. > 50%). It’s adjusted up or down with the goal of keeping the block time at 10 minutes. So if only some nodes wanted to create blocks faster they would create blocks at a lower difficulty level, which would mean they would have a different notion of what a valid block hash is. Part of the network would see those hashes as valid and part would not. The majority rules. The others must fall in line or exist as a fork. – noctonura May 08 '21 at 16:40
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2The difficulty is not set by consensus; it is protocol rule. If miners produce blocks that do not follow the protocol's difficulty rule, those blocks are invalid - period. You need a fork of the system to adjust this rule, meaning a separate currency if both the old and new rules remain popular to some. – Pieter Wuille Jun 05 '21 at 20:52