Sharding is a mechanism that is used to partition a blockchain network or other type of computer network or database. Its purpose is to distribute the network's computational and storage workload across a broader set of devices, or nodes, in order to increase the throughput and transaction speed of the entire system. Each node only maintains information related to its specific shard or partition, and since each node is only responsible for processing a fraction of the overall network's transactional load, the network's overall processing capabilities and resilience can be vastly improved. As a result, the increased transaction speeds made possible through sharding have allowed many blockchain-based networks to be exponentially faster, more secure, and better suited for widespread enterprise use.
