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About the Ethereum Blockchain's Block Size
About the Ethereum Blockchain's Block Size
The Ethereum blockchain got its start from the first block called the Genesis Block (block number 0) on July 30, 2015 ( https://ethereum.org/en/history/#frontier), and from then on, roughly one block has been added every 12 seconds. Each block contains transaction records and so forth, but the amount of information, or in other words, the block size, varies depending on factors like the congestion on the Ethereum network.
As a result, the size of the blocks, starting with the Genesis Block (block size of 540 bytes), varies quite a bit, and as usage has increased, the average size appears to be gradually getting bigger.
Let's first take a closer look at the column for block sizes.
This data starts from block number 18,000,000 dated August 26, 2023. As can be observed from the differences between each timestamp, blocks are being added approximately every 12 seconds. Also, it's evident that the block sizes vary to some extent. For context, the segment that includes the Genesis block is as follows. While the timestamp for the Genesis block is recorded as 0, equating to January 1, 1970, it was actually created around July 30, 2015, 15:26:16 UTC. You'll notice that the block sizes are considerably smaller compared to the later ones.
About the nature of Ethereum Blockchain's Block Size
About the nature of Ethereum Blockchain's Block Size
Let's take a look at the distribution of block sizes. When looking at the size distribution of the first 100,000 blocks starting from the Genesis Block, we get a histogram. If we focus on the Mode and Count (the most frequently seen block size and the number of such blocks in this range), we can see that there are 9569 blocks of 544 bytes. Also, the average block size is 623.35 bytes, with a maximum value of 16955 bytes and a minimum value of 514 bytes, a significant gap.
When we look at the size distribution of blocks from around May 2020 (from block number 10,000,000 to the next 100,000) and blocks from around April 2023 (from block number 17,000,000 to the next 100,000), we see something different from the early days. For April 2023, the average size is 116358.38 bytes, about 186 times larger than at the start. The shape of the distribution looks like a log-normal distribution.
Some key features of the block size distribution are the large gap between the maximum and minimum values. Blocks with sizes close to the average are relatively common, but there are also a few extremely large ones. If we switch the vertical axis to a log scale, we see that there's about a 10-fold difference between the average and maximum values. However, there are only a few blocks that are this large. These properties can be observed across the entire Ethereum blockchain, suggesting that they are universal characteristics.
The Connection Between Blockchain Jewelry Concept's Works and the Ethereum Blockchain
The Connection Between Blockchain Jewelry Concept's Works and the Ethereum Blockchain
The artworks of the Blockchain Jewelry Concept are created using the block size of the Ethereum blockchain. Specifically, they use the sequence of block sizes in a certain range. Each block also has a timestamp, which represents the time when the block was created. From the sequence of block sizes and these timestamps, objects that crystallize time are created.
The artwork [Spiral Manifold] is created using the sizes of 1000 consecutive blocks. Let's take block number 16213000 as an example. Its timestamp is 2022-12-18 17:13:59+00:00 (timestamps are expressed in UNIX time, which is the number of seconds from the epoch at 1975-01-01, but here it's converted to UTC), which is UTC, and it represents the time when this block was added to the blockchain. Consider the sequence of the sizes of 1000 blocks starting from this block. The last block number is 16213999, and its timestamp is 2022-12-18 20:34:47+00:00. So, this sequence of 1000 block sizes corresponds to about 3 hours from 2022-12-18 17:13:59+00:00 to 2022-12-18 20:34:47+00:00. Because the block sizes have an element of randomness, this sequence of 1000 block sizes can be said to be almost unique.
These block sizes are normalized by the average size of the blocks in that time range and represented as the volume of spheres. Furthermore, the remainder of the block size divided by 256 is used as the Hue (color tone) in the HSB color model (assuming color tone is expressed as an integer from 0 to 255). Whether the block size is odd or even is also used to change the twisting of the orbit. The object created by these rules, this algorithm, looks like the following. Basically, no random elements other than the randomness of the block size are added. Since it's created using block sizes from the Genesis Block in increments of 1000, this artwork is labeled #16213. It's a colorful and dynamic creation. It represents the size of the data recorded as a result of activity on Ethereum in the aforementioned time interval.
Let's also look at different time intervals. The next object represents the time range from 2023-05-10T02:20:23+00:00 to 2023-05-10T05:42:11+00:00. The artwork number is #17227. As you can see, the artwork changes based on the time interval. In this artwork, the spheres towards the top are larger. This might be because the activity on Ethereum was more intense during this time period.
Next, let's show how the appearance changes according to the history of the Ethereum blockchain. The next object has the artwork number #0. This includes the Genesis Block, but as can be seen from the previous block size distribution, many blocks around this time had a block size close to 500 bytes, resulting in similar sizes and color tones. There's also little variation in size. By the way, since the timestamp of the Genesis Block is 0, if we convert that directly to UTC, the time period this object represents would be from 1970-01-01T00:00:00+00:00 to 2015-07-30T16:02:17+00:00. In reality, it's estimated that the Genesis Block was created about 3 hours before 2015-07-30T16:02:17+00:00.
Here's what #100 looks like. As the number of colors gradually increases, changes in the Ethereum blockchain become visible in the artwork, which is one of the interesting aspects of this work.
[Spiral Manifold] freezes time. The next object records the moment of a significant turning point in the Ethereum blockchain, Paris ”The Merge” (https://ethereum.org/en/history/#paris). The Merge occurred on Sep 15, 2022, at 6:42:42 AM +UTC, and the block number at that moment was 15537394. This object #15537 is composed of the sizes of each block from block numbers 15537000 to 15537999, effectively representing the Ethereum blockchain from 2022-09-15T05:07:42+00:00 to 2022-09-15T08:45:59+00:00. Would this not be an optimal memorial for the Paris event?
The creation of [Spiral Manifold] directly converts the block sizes of the Ethereum blockchain into a sculpture. The blockchain has the technological aspect of permanently recording data and making it almost impossible to alter. This fact makes it so that the sequence of blockchain block sizes uniquely determines a certain time range, and the objects created directly from them can be said to be a crystallization of that time range into a single sculpture.
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