[FEATURE] Introducing the Empty Block Period

[YoshihitoAso]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

In the ibet Network, the block generation interval is set at 1 second, but there is a time bias in transaction generation, resulting in many empty blocks.
This leads to unnecessary storage consumption.

Describe the solution you'd like

In v22.7 of Quorum, the Empty Block Period feature was added. We would like to consider using this feature in our network.
It should be noted that the use of this feature will have no small impact on applications participating in the network. Therefore, coordination with consortium members is necessary.

[YoshihitoAso]

Because of the significant impact this specification change will have on each product on the network, we will engage in long-term discussions with network participants.
We will continue to consider the introduction of this feature in v2.2 (January 2024) and beyond.

[YoshihitoAso]

Note that the following bugs may become apparent by activating this feature.

BoostryJP/quorum#24