GlossaryIntermediate
Decentralization
Spreading control across many independent participants instead of one central party.
Decentralization means spreading control, decision-making, or infrastructure across many independent participants, rather than concentrating it with a single company, person, or authority.
Decentralization exists on a spectrum, not as a simple yes-or-no property: networks and applications can be more or less decentralized across different dimensions, such as who runs nodes, who mines or validates, and who controls development.
Examples
- A network run by thousands of independent, geographically spread nodes is generally more decentralized than one run by a handful of servers.
- Evaluating decentralization often means looking at several different dimensions, not just one factor alone.