Let's talk about block time for 1002nd time

CHIP-2025-03 Faster Blocks for Bitcoin Cash has been advancing nicely, and there's been a nice show of support for it at Bliss 2026 Bitcoin Cash conference.

BTW, recently I discovered that this idea is as old as 2015, even Gavin Andresen was in support of 1-min blocks! as a means of increasing capacity. While they would slightly increase orphan rates smaller blocks actually help with scalability: because blocks are just batches of transactions, and it's easier to deal with stuff in smaller batches -> reduced memory requirements for nodes and servers, and they make smaller pools feasible due to 10x more frequent payouts.

I believe we can safely have 1-minute block time WITHOUT sacrificing anything in scalability / decentralization - because tech has advanced so much since 2009. Even worst-case orphan rate would be under 2% (case of full block download), and, thanks to compact blocks relay, typical rates would be in 0.4%-1.0% range (full analysis), but probably on the low side. Dogecoin has had 0.6% in 2016 (source) and 0.15% in 2020 (source).

Can it be changed on a live network? Of course it can! And first change is hardest, but with the 1st change we can make it be changeable, refactor to make it into just another operational parameter in the code! If any doubt: Zcash has changed it from 150s to 75s back in 2019, and they are doing it again now! There's a proposal to further reduce from 75s to 25s, and they're calling it a "small upgrade"!

Worried about SPV? Solvable. Check out CHIP-2026-02: Simplified Header Verification for Bitcoin Cash which Electron Cash already partially implements!