Also, sometimes, I see the gap between block times. Sometimes, we see three blocks in ten minutes, and sometimes three blocks in an hour. Why is that? Is it fixable?
You can't fix something that is not broken, blocks are found in different intervals because of normal variation, you won't be able to fix it to 10 minutes because that would mean no matter what hashrate is added you will have the same difficulty, which to explain it as simple as it I can, it won't matter if you mine with a cpu or a trillion asics you will find the solution in the same time, which is...impossible!
stompix has it the wrong way around..
difficulty adjusts each 2016 blocks(fortnight) to adjust to try to keep blocks on track..
if there are more than 2016 blocks per fortnight. the network is too fast(too much hashrate) so makes difficulty go up so next session produces less blocks a fortnight to average out
if there are less than 2016 blocks per fortnight. the network is too slow(not enough hashrate) so makes difficulty go down so next session produces more blocks a fortnight to average out
if the network was CPU mining. the difficulty would be low. if the network was trillion asics the difficulty would be high... the difficulty wont be the same and produce the same time if cpu or or trillion asics
ill explain
if difficulty was fixed but hashrate vary (from cpu to asic) . the solve time would vary DRAMATICALLY whether it was CPU or trillion asics.. because CPU would solve in months and a trillion asics will solve in seconds with a fixed difficulty
the only way to even achieve a fixed TIME.. there would need to be fixed difficulty and fixed amount of miners (to control things somewhat) that can solve in only say 8mins or less. but then only broadcasts at the 10th minute where rejected if seen too soon
however the ramifications of putting in controls and fixed default amounts are, if the last block solved at 7m:20s it cant broadcast to the network for another 2m:40s but can secretly mine ontop of itself at that 7th min 21st sec and produce another block before any competitors get a chance. which leads to centralisation
trying to fix block times is where the decentralised competition ends
All blocks are mined approximately 10 minutes ago, with only 1 miner or millions. Each block supports x transactions, it doesn't matter if there are many or few miners, the maximum is always the same. A single miner is capable of handling millions of transactions. One block at a time as the network dictates. In other words, there is no need for millions of miners for the network to support millions of transactions.
yep no need to increase miners to sort transactions. as thats not how things works..
the actual solutions is in the data of the block itself, such as
the leanness of transactions (new validation rules of counting bytes and ensuring each byte has a purpose for the transaction)
the block space limit
penalising bloaty transactions that waste bytes (bloaters get penalised not everyone)
penalised transactions that spend every block (too often) (spammers get penalised not everyone)
thus allowing more people to make daily transactions without as many delays or excess costs