How long does it take for a transaction to reach a given depth? (How long to reach depth N?)

Question

I realize that the time it takes to reach specific depths is not precisely calculable. Nonetheless, there must be a rule of thumb for roughly how long each block takes to process. For example, if we want to estimate how long it will take for a transaction to reach a depth of 20, what formula should we use?

Answer 1

Given the time of one slot is defined by slot_length being one second right now.

And the chain parameter active_slots_coefficient, which gives us the proportion of slots in which blocks should be issued, it is set to 0.05.

This means, that we can expect one block in average in 1 / 0.05 = 20 seconds.

However, you must account for mempool and pending transactions too.

Answer 2

Average block time is 20 seconds, so...

Average-time-to-depth-N = N x 20 seconds