Changelog Master Feed The 1000x faster financial database (Changelog Interviews #635)
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Apr 2, 2025 In this interview, Joran Dirk Greef, creator of TigerBeetle, dives into his revolutionary financial database that boasts unmatched transaction processing speed. He discusses the challenges posed by traditional systems and how TigerBeetle's design overcomes them. Joran also sheds light on innovative testing methods for distributed systems and the role of simulations in ensuring database integrity. Plus, he reveals why he chose the Zig programming language and the intersection of open-source software with modern business practices.
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The 76 TPS Limit
- Joran Dirk Greef consulted on a central bank switch project and faced a performance optimization challenge.
- The system, using MySQL, couldn't exceed 76 transactions per second, despite hardware upgrades.
Row Locks as Bottleneck
- The bottleneck wasn't hardware but row locks held during transactions across network latency.
- This limited the database to around 1000 transactions per second, regardless of hardware.
Contention and the Pareto Principle
- The problem of row locks is amplified by the Pareto principle, where most transactions target a few hot accounts.
- This further intensifies contention and limits throughput.