Description
Metric Overview
The data footprint of a blockchain are a function of the network data efficiency (protocol engineering), and the type and usage of applications deployed on-top (demand and application engineering). This is especially relevant for smart contract blockchains like Ethereum, where the design space for applications is very large.
The Value per Byte metric is a tool that attempts to model the relative value capture-to-data efficiency of a blockchain over time.
When a blockchain is very 'efficient' by this metric, it would capture a large amount of value (high market cap) compared to a relative small data footprint (large value per byte), thus returning a high metric value. Conversely, poor efficiency would suggest low value capture per byte stored, and thus return a low value.
The chart above plots market cap vs the following levels which have historically bounded Ethereum performance:
Baseline (blue): where Ethereum is capturing $1.00 in value per Byte of blockchain data.
Top (red): where Ethereum is capturing $5.00 in value per Byte of blockchain data.
Bottom (green): where Ethereum is capturing $0.15 in value per Byte of blockchain data.