Post
Topic
Board Beginners & Help
Re: Why is the block time 10 minutes?
by
Maged
on 17/04/2013, 00:21:04 UTC
If you wait for 6 confirmations on a 10 min block chain then with equivalent hashpower you should wait 24 blocks on a 2.5 min block chain.  If you are willing to accept 4 confirmations on a 2.5 minute blockchain then 1 confirmation on a 10 minute blockchain provides equivalent security.  
This was debunked some time ago. Unfortunately, I don't have a link, but someone made a paper about it. Basically, the more blocks that are produced, regardless of how long it takes, the less volatility there is in the apparent hash power of the network. In short, someone with 1% of the hash power could quite easily create 1 block faster than the rest of the network, and maybe even 2 if they're lucky. 6 is much harder.
So 1 confirmation is as secure as 1 confirmation, no matter how fast the block time?
Yes, but only if you exclude the increased orphan rate that would result from faster block times. Hence why 1-second blocks have proven to be a bad idea (many alt-chains started with very low difficulty and didn't start stabilizing until the difficulty jumped up to take 3 seconds per block).

This was debunked some time ago. Unfortunately, I don't have a link, but someone made a paper about it.
Was this it? https://bitcoil.co.il/Doublespend.pdf
Indeed it was! Thanks!