jamin006:
Theoretically, Bitcoin and other crypto networks are very decentralized. But practically, they tend to become more centralized over time for many reasons. Bitcoin was designed so that anyone in the world could use their computer to start mining it. As Satoshi Nakamoto said, “Proof-of-work is essentially one-CPU-one-vote.”

This would have made the network very decentralized. But, today, without ASIC machines, Bitcoin mining is not possible. Standard computers can’t mine Bitcoin today because of the high mining difficulty.

1. Bitcoin

Despite the problem of mining centralization described above, Bitcoin remains the most practically decentralized network in the world. Even large mining pools wouldn’t be able to exercise control over the Bitcoin network. The main reasons are economic incentives and network size. It’s still by far the largest network in the world, with a large number of miners, including cloud miners that simply mine with their smartphones, either after buying Bitcoin or browsing the web.

2. Ethereum

Ethereum is another highly decentralized network. In fact, some studies even suggest that Ethereum is even more decentralized than Bitcoin. Such a suggestion is based on a principle that, if put quite simply, proclaims that the more nodes the network has, the more decentralized it is.

What other decentralized networks do you know apart from these two?