user277: I have heard that the maximum block size means that the Bitcoin network has a maximum throughput. What is this maximum?

user136: From the Scalability on the wiki page

Today the Bitcoin network is restricted to a sustained rate of 7 tps by some artificial limits. These were put in place to stop people from ballooning the size of the block chain before the network and community was ready for it. Once those limits are lifted, the maximum transaction rate will go up significantly.

I also found this talk by Peter Todd from  keepbitcoinfree.org on using off blockchain transactions to avoid hitting the main block chain with the full transaction load which was followed by good Q&A
There's also some charts comparing to other payment networks

user575: The current block size limit is 1MB, but this is likely to be changed in the future.
Transactions are about 500B, so the current limit is 2000 transactions per block, or about 3 per second.

277: <p>I have heard that the maximum block size means that the Bitcoin network has a maximum throughput. What is this maximum?</p>
 136: <p>From the <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Scalability" rel="nofollow">Scalability on the wiki</a> page</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Today the Bitcoin network is restricted to a sustained rate of 7 tps by some artificial limits. These were put in place to stop people from ballooning the size of the block chain before the network and community was ready for it. Once those limits are lifted, the maximum transaction rate will go up significantly.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>I also found <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d3LA8KpdMQ" rel="nofollow">this talk</a> by Peter Todd from  <a href="http://keepbitcoinfree.org" rel="nofollow">keepbitcoinfree.org</a> on using off blockchain transactions to avoid hitting the main block chain with the full transaction load which was followed by good Q&amp;A</p>

<p>There's also <a href="http://coinometrics.com/bitcoin/btix" rel="nofollow">some charts comparing to other payment networks</a></p>
 575: <p>The current block size limit is 1MB, but this is likely to be changed in the future.</p>

<p>Transactions are about 500B, so the current limit is 2000 transactions per block, or about 3 per second.</p>
