In recent years, the blockchain space has seen an explosion of new public chains—each claiming to outperform Ethereum, surpass EOS, or revolutionize commercial scalability. Headlines boast "millions of transactions per second," "zero gas fees," and comparisons to traditional financial giants like Visa and PayPal. But beneath the hype, a critical question emerges: Do we really need so many high-performance public blockchains?
While technical benchmarks continue to climb, real-world adoption remains stubbornly low. The gap between performance claims and actual utility raises doubts about whether the industry is solving the right problems.
Performance vs. Decentralization: The Core Trade-Off
Many new blockchains tout impressive TPS (Transactions Per Second) numbers, often citing speeds far beyond Ethereum’s current throughput. Chains like TRON, EOS, NEO, and Qtum claim scalability advantages—but at a cost: decentralization.
Blockchain’s foundational principle is decentralization—the idea that no single entity controls the network. Yet, achieving high performance often requires sacrificing this ideal. According to the blockchain trilemma (security, scalability, decentralization), improving one aspect usually comes at the expense of another.
For example:
- EOS uses a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) model with only 21 block producers. This enables fast confirmations (0.5 seconds per block) and high throughput but concentrates power in a small group.
- NEO employs dBFT (Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance), relying on a limited set of consensus nodes. While efficient, it risks centralization—if over one-third of nodes fail or act maliciously, network integrity is compromised.
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In contrast, Ethereum, despite slower transaction finality, maintains over 13,500 nodes globally across six continents (as of late 2024). Bitcoin has around 9,930 public nodes. This extensive distribution makes Ethereum one of the most decentralized and resilient networks today.
High TPS means little if users must trust a handful of known validators. True decentralization ensures censorship resistance, permissionless innovation, and user sovereignty—values that define blockchain’s essence.
The Myth of Scalability: Are High TPS Numbers Meaningful?
Let’s examine a key contradiction:
If high-performance chains are so superior, why does Ethereum still dominate decentralized application (DApp) development?
As of 2025:
- Ethereum hosts nearly 2,000 active DApps
- Over 250,000 developers contribute to its ecosystem
- More than 94% of new smart contracts are deployed on Ethereum or EVM-compatible layers
Compare this to other high-TPS chains:
- EOS: ~70 DApps
- TRON: ~50 DApps
- NEO: ~30 DApps
Even with superior throughput, these networks struggle to attract meaningful usage. Why?
Because throughput without demand creates ghost towns, not ecosystems.
Many high-speed chains attempt to lure developers by offering EVM compatibility—allowing easy migration of Ethereum-based code. But porting a DApp is pointless if no users follow. Without organic community growth, even zero-fee transactions can't sustain activity.
Where Are the Users? The DApp Adoption Gap
Despite bold promises, real user engagement remains shockingly low.
According to DappRadar data:
- Total daily active users across all DApps hover around 10,000
- Only 13 DApps (across all chains) have more than 300 daily active users
- The vast majority of activity is concentrated in gambling, gaming, and decentralized exchanges
Consider these examples:
- EOSBet, one of EOS’s most active DApps, reported 370,000 transactions in 24 hours—but only ~600 users. That’s over 600 trades per user daily—strongly suggesting bot-driven activity.
- EOS Pixel, a trending game, attracted fewer than 1,000 users in its first five days.
- FIBOS token swap had roughly 1,000 participants.
Compare this to mainstream apps:
- Facebook: ~1.4 billion daily active users
- TikTok: ~800 million
- Even niche mobile games often exceed 1 million DAUs
Blockchain isn’t competing with legacy systems yet—it’s barely visible on the radar.
Why Ethereum Still Leads: Tools, Trust, and Ecosystem
So why does Ethereum remain dominant despite slower speeds and higher fees?
The answer lies in infrastructure and network effects.
Ethereum offers:
- Mature developer tools: Truffle, Hardhat, Remix, Infura
- Robust libraries: Web3.js, ethers.js
- Comprehensive documentation and community support
- A thriving open-source ecosystem
These resources lower the barrier to entry for developers. New projects don’t just need speed—they need stability, tooling, and predictability.
Ethereum’s slow upgrade cycle (due to decentralization) actually strengthens trust. Changes require broad consensus, reducing the risk of abrupt protocol shifts or governance takeovers.
Other chains may offer faster block times, but they lack the depth of tooling and community that make development sustainable.
The Real Bottleneck: Usability, Not Throughput
The biggest obstacle to blockchain adoption isn’t technical—it’s user experience.
Try explaining this flow to someone unfamiliar with crypto:
- Install MetaMask
- Buy ETH from an exchange
- Transfer funds to your wallet
- Connect to a DApp
- Approve transactions
- Understand gas fees
- Manage private keys
Each step introduces friction—and potential failure points.
Even popular games like Fomo3D, which briefly hit 10,000 daily users, baffled newcomers:
“What’s a smart contract?”
“Why do I need ETH to play?”
“Where did my money go?”
Users don’t care about TPS or consensus mechanisms—they want seamless experiences. Until DApps feel as intuitive as using WeChat or PayPal, mass adoption will remain out of reach.
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Building Ecosystems, Not Benchmarks
The future of blockchain doesn’t belong to the fastest chain—it belongs to the most usable one.
Instead of chasing vanity metrics, projects should focus on:
- Reducing onboarding friction
- Improving UI/UX design
- Expanding real-world use cases beyond speculation
- Fostering developer communities
Blockchain is not just technology—it’s a collaborative ecosystem. Performance matters, but only when paired with adoption.
If public chains fail to attract developers and users, enterprise-focused consortium blockchains may win the race for mainstream adoption—not because they’re more decentralized, but because they solve actual business problems efficiently.
Conclusion: Usefulness Over Hype
We don’t lack high-performance blockchains—we lack useful ones.
True progress isn’t measured in TPS alone. It’s measured in:
- Active developers
- Real users
- Sustainable applications
- Everyday utility
Let’s stop glorifying technical specs and start building systems people actually want to use.
After all, the best technology is the one you don’t notice.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Is high TPS completely useless in blockchain?
A: No—scalability is important for growth. But high TPS without security or decentralization offers limited long-term value. Real-world usage matters more than theoretical speed.
Q: Can EVM-compatible chains overtake Ethereum?
A: Some may capture niche markets, but Ethereum’s ecosystem depth—tools, talent, and trust—makes it hard to displace. Success requires more than compatibility; it needs community buy-in.
Q: Why do most DApps focus on gambling and gaming?
A: These applications are easier to decentralize and monetize directly through tokens. Complex services like social media or productivity tools face greater UX and regulatory hurdles.
Q: Are centralized blockchains doomed to fail?
A: Not necessarily—they can serve specific enterprise or regional needs. However, they lose key blockchain advantages like censorship resistance and open access.
Q: What would drive mass DApp adoption?
A: Simplified onboarding (e.g., social logins), reduced reliance on crypto knowledge, fiat integration, and killer apps that solve real problems better than Web2 alternatives.
Q: Will Ethereum ever achieve Visa-level transaction speed?
A: Direct on-chain comparison isn’t ideal—but with Layer 2 solutions like rollups, Ethereum can already process tens of thousands of TPS collectively while preserving security and decentralization.
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