it looks like the average time these pools are mining empty blocks is 16 seconds (F2Pool) and 35 seconds (AntPool) before switching to non-empty blocks. Like you said, why are these numbers so big if processing the blocks is so fast?
I think these metrics should specifically exclude the two pools above as they are the ones who were SPV mining and not switching to using a validated block-header as soon as possible.
Don't get put-off from posting by Greg's feedback as it is easy to be silenced by someone-who-knows-best and let them run the show.
My big takeaway from his comment is how you got him into arguing from a position that big blocks are OK (handclap and kudos to you). In fact, I have learnt now that even 7.5GB blocks are
today theoretically tolerable in at least one respect (validation where tx are pre-validated), although l suspect not in quite a number of other crucial respects.
Wasn't Gavin's doubling end-point 8GB in 2036? Effectively the same end-point!
I am reminded of Mike Hearn's
words of wisdom:Scaling Bitcoin can only be achieved by letting it grow, and letting people tackle each bottleneck as it arises at the right times. Not by convincing ourselves that success is failure.
One less bottleneck to expect with larger blocks.