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What is the lowest block time of any cryptocurrency? I don't mean the time of an individual block, but the target time per block.
What is the shortest reasonable block interval?
Which cryptocurrency has the smallest block time?
Answers
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There was a coin called Flashcoin that tried to do 6-second block times. I don't think that's being actively mined anymore as another Flashcoin appeared a year later (60-second block times).
Ethereum is planning a 12-second block time. Vitalik makes an argument for why that's probably the minimum for now here. Of course, ethereum hasn't been released yet, but Fastcoin with its 12-second block time is probably considered the lowest block generation time currently.
1Lower block time is not a feature, it's an outright bug and security risk. There are very good reasons for the 10 minutes and any alt coin that tries to sell anything less as a feature is scamming people. Shorter blocktimes waste hashing power and favor centralization. – Jannes – 2015-02-07T14:32:25.173
Unless centralization is what you want/need – MagikCow – 2015-02-13T16:24:53.070
if that's their evil secret plan, then yes. Honest centralization can do away with the entire blockchain and be more efficient altogether. – Jannes – 2015-02-13T17:51:11.653