A study conducted by the Blockchain Research Lab of Arizona State University has revealed that blocks above 0.9MB are uneconomical for Dash cryptocurrency miners.

This latest revelation was part of the $350,000 partnership announced by the research lab and Dash earlier this year.

The study which was called ‘Block Propagation Applied to Nakamoto Network’ was published recently. It highlighted some of the scaling challenges faced by the Dash blockchain as well as its potential opportunities.

The research was conducted to look into the scaling limitations that the Dash blockchain is experiencing. In this research, networks had to have a minimum of 6,000 nodes in each simulation.

In addition to that, the study ensured that the simulation periods were run extensively to guarantee that the study was reliable. A minimum of 700 blocks was required and simulated to account for variance in the research.

Dash’s three blocks propagation protocols

In the research, Blockchain Research Lab of Arizona State University assumed that all Dash miners mine similar block sizes.

In its report, which was written by Dragan Boscovic, Nakul Chawla, and Darren Tapp, the team explained that it simulated the Dash network employing three block propagation protocols.

The protocols are:

traditional block propagation where the block is broadcast in full;

compact [Cor16] block propagation; and

Xtreme thinblocks (xthin) [Tsc16] block propagation.

The study concluded that when making use of xthin block propaganda, it is feasible for the Dash network to scale to block sizes of 10MB. If Dash employs the compact propaganda protocol, then it could scale roughly 6MB to 8MB block sizes.

The research team further explained that scaling beyond block sizes of 10MB is realistic if Dash decides to use the two block propagation protocols. Minimal orphan block rate has to be maintained though.

Blocks above 0.9MB uneconomical for miners

The researchers, however, pointed out that mining blocks above 896KB were uneconomical for Dash cryptocurrency miners. This is due to the fact that the transaction fee at that level did not offer miners adequate compensation for the expanded orphan rate.

The research stated that:

As the network scales, the economic incentive of miners to include more transactions in a block should be considered. Assuming all transactions have a .01 DASH per MB fee density, a mining reward of 1.67 DASH and an economic orphan rate increase of 2.15% per MB. These results suggest that blocks over 896 kB would be uneconomical to mine.

The researchers following this discovery advised Dash that the coded limit on block size should not exceed 5MB. Dash was also advised to limit the capacity to under 890KB for every block.

Under the same partnership, the research lab is looking to include simulations that involve bigger blocks while also creating independent testnets for emulating the Dash network.

Venezuela is Dash’s second biggest market

Last week, a spokesperson for Dash revealed that Venezuela has become the second biggest market for Dash (DASH), with almost one hundred merchants accepting the cryptocurrency each week.

The cryptocurrency continues to record more usage of its cryptocurrency in the country as interest from both businesses and consumers increases.

The cryptocurrency previously made headlines when its value soared and well-known figures such as Max Keiser began publicly promoting its usage in the US.

Just like the other cryptos, the altcoins has lost over 90% of its value since its all-time high of $1,500 in December 2017.