Glossary
Block Time
The average interval between new blocks. 10 minutes on Bitcoin, 12 seconds on Ethereum post-Merge, ~400ms on Solana — a fundamental UX and security trade-off.
Block time is one of a chain's core parameters. Shorter blocks mean faster confirmations and better UX but more orphans / reorgs and a higher infrastructure burden. Longer blocks mean less state-churn and more node-friendly bandwidth but worse perceived latency.
Bitcoin's 10 minutes was chosen for security on a global proof-of-work network. Ethereum's 12-second slots fit its PoS attestation cadence. Solana's 400-ms blocks lean on its high-end validator hardware to keep up.