I've noticed a pretty significant slowness in actions performed here. Initially I thought it was an issue with just eSteem and the mobile app, but I've started using the webpage directly and still see it.
Not crippling by any means, but for sure a sluggishness. Seconds for a vote to process, etc.
My question is: Is this just inherently part of using a block chain as a data store? Or is it a matter of server resources/load? Or is it some combination of the two?
Any insight is appreciated.
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In terms of implementation, as far as I know, everything is stored in a database like any other blog, forum, social network, etc. I don't think the blockchain makes things inherently slower but the specific implementation in terms of how the data is stored and served up could. It also depends on available bandwidth and other resources the server(s) have.
Interesting, I was under the impression the whole thing was stored in the block chain, distributed.
It is but the "blockchain" is stored in a database. It isn't in a single database. For instance, it is propagated to all witness nodes. At least if I understand it correctly.
Ahhh, I see.
From my understanding it depends on context. Most witnesses will just run on the block itself, they are simply adding new data to it.
Hard to say how the steemit website functions, they might push the chain into a database so it can be indexed and queried.
I know one witness runs a live SQL image of the block, SteemSQL. But I think that is more for others to use, it is not used to run a site.
The chain is actually complex with a lot of different interactions so depending how far back you look, running over the block is probably just as fast. That might change as user count increases because the activity will be far higher and more to scan.