Sharding
Sharding is a database partitioning technique to improve a network’s scalability and enable more transactions per second (tps). It involves splitting a blockchain into multiple ‘shards’ and storing them across a number of databases. Each shard consists of its own data and is independent of other shards.
Sharding is one of several solutions to increase transaction throughput and disperse the computational workload across nodes on a peer-to-peer (P2P) network. In doing so, it eases the computational burden and allows for simultaneous processing of data. Additionally, sharding ensures that no single node is responsible for processing an entire network’s transaction load.
Key Takeaway
Sharding is a scaling method in which a large database is separated into smaller and more easily managed parts in order to increase the transaction load capacity and improve a network’s efficiency.