Back to: Crypto Fundamentals from Zero
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Not all crypto is equally decentralized
Every token calls itself decentralized, but decentralization is a measurable property, not a marketing word. Think of it as a set of questions:
- Who writes the code? One team, or many independent contributors?
- Who runs the network? Do a handful of validators control most of the mining/staking power?
- Who can change the rules? Is there a governance upgrade path, and who can trigger it?
- Who can stop you? Can any organization block your transaction, freeze your funds, or censor your app?
When one entity answers “me” to too many of these, the network is centralized under that entity — regardless of how many users it has.
Preview: In the Certified Decentralization Analyst course, you will quantify these with the Nakamoto Coefficient and the full W3D methodology. Here, we finish with a guided first look at the live data.