Glossary · Consensus

Block.

An ordered batch of transactions appended to the chain by the slot leader.

In depth

A block contains transactions, a header referencing the previous block, and consensus metadata. On Cardano, slots elect a leader who has the right to produce the next block.

Example

Roughly every 20 seconds on average, a stake pool produces a new block of pending transactions.

Next on this path

  1. Slot A one-second unit of time in Ouroboros consensus. Each slot may produce a block.
  2. Transaction A bundle that consumes input UTxOs and creates output UTxOs, atomically.
  3. Blockchain An append-only sequence of blocks, each linking to the previous one by hash.