Ethereum block generation time falls following Constantinople upgrade

Ethereum’s block generation time has lowered to an average of 13 seconds following the successful implementation of the Constantinople upgrade last week.

The Constantinople upgrade lowered the mining reward for Ethereum blocks from three Ether to two Ether. This reduction is being labelled as the ‘thirdening’ by many in the crypto space.

Before the thirdening occurred, the Ethereum blockchain had a block generation time between 15-20 seconds. It was expected that after the upgrade, the block generation time would be reduced to 15 seconds or lower.

Since last Thursday’s upgrade, the block generation time has lowered to an average of 13.37 seconds – according to Ethstats.net.

Block generation time is tied to both network hash rate and mining difficulty.

The hash rate of a network is determined by the number of miners currently mining a coin (in this case, Ethereum). The mining difficulty refers to the complexity of the task the miners need to solve.

When fewer miners are working, the difficulty lowers, and vice versa. This happens so that the network can continuously have blocks generated to enable it to run consistently.

Mining difficulty and network hash rate are not the only factors in block generation time, however – sometimes miners crack the cryptographic puzzle quicker or later than the average time.

Interested in learning how to mine Ethereum? Discover how to mine Ether with our beginner’s guide.