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The starving rider, and the "half-full" block at 3 AM
The delivery rider took on 7 orders at the same time, with only one outcome: I waited for 40 minutes and received a thoroughly cold meal.
The system thinks it has won because it has "maximized efficiency"; the rider thinks he has done his best because he is apologizing profusely while sweating; but as a user, my experience completely collapsed.
This is the price of over-exploiting "redundancy".
This logic is equally deadly in Web3. Many chains, in order to boast high performance, wish they could fill every block to 100% capacity. Once the market fluctuates or trading volume surges, gas fees skyrocket instantly, and the network goes down. This kind of "full running" system has no fault tolerance at all.
Recently, I read the white paper of @MidnightNetwork , and one parameter made me exclaim: the block utilization target is set at 50%, rather than 100%.
At first glance, it seems wasteful, but upon deeper reflection, it is top-notch wisdom.
• Leaving half the space is for "saving lives": When demand suddenly doubles, the network can digest it without queuing, and user experience won’t plummet due to unexpected situations.
• Dynamic adjustment: Lower prices to stimulate trading during idle times, and automatically filter priorities with price signals during busy times.
• Awe of the unknown: It acknowledges that the network cannot predict the future.
The design logic of $NIGHT actually leaves “blank space” for the crazy market. Just like top race car drivers never push the tachometer into the red zone, leaving that 50% margin is not for inefficiency, but for ensuring that when the storm arrives, your and my transactions can still arrive on time, as smooth as a serene morning.
In this era of extreme harvesting, protocols that understand the importance of “leaving blank space” are the ones that truly have a moat.
#night #Web3 #区块链架构