Glassnode
ARK Invest and Glassnode's joint report scores Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana across four design features and six measurable dimensions of decentralization. It treats decentralization as a spectrum shaped by design choices, not a binary label. Bitcoin and Ethereum cross their critical control thresholds with three entities each, while Solana requires 19, although pool structure and staking delegation complicate the comparison.
Why it matters
The framework covers auditability, security, governance and ownership. Auditability lets anyone verify the ledger by running a full node. Distributed consensus raises the real-world cost an adversary must bear, community-driven governance limits unilateral upgrades, and dispersed ownership reduces the risk of insider control.
Its six dimensions are ownership distribution, exit fluidity, network verification overhead, critical resilience threshold, blockchain reconstruction overhead, and geographic and provider resilience. Together, they turn the blockchain trilemma into a measurable set of tradeoffs. Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana emphasize decentralization, security and scalability differently, so a high-throughput payment network and a high-value institutional settlement layer can be designed for different risk profiles.
Market impact
Security concentration is only one part of the picture. The report measures hash-rate and stake concentration, the capital required to acquire 1% of each network, exit fluidity and client diversity. A Bitcoin miner can exit a 1% position in roughly 30 seconds by switching off hardware, while unstaking the equivalent on Ethereum can take weeks under stress.
Geography adds another layer of resilience. Bitcoin's node footprint is the most evenly spread, and 63% of its nodes operate behind Tor. Ethereum leans on cloud providers, with AWS alone hosting roughly 20% of its nodes, while Solana runs essentially all of its infrastructure in data centers. The scorecard gives Bitcoin the strongest showing on auditability, ownership distribution and geographic resilience, puts Ethereum in the middle ground, and shows Solana trading decentralization for performance and coordination speed.
Frequently asked questions
-
Which four design features does the report evaluate?
The report evaluates auditability, security, governance and ownership. It links them to ledger verification, resistance to coordinated attack, upgrade control and the distribution of decision-making power.
-
What six dimensions make up the decentralization scorecard?
They are ownership distribution, exit fluidity, network verification overhead, critical resilience threshold, blockchain reconstruction overhead, and geographic and provider resilience.
-
How do the networks compare at the critical control threshold?
Bitcoin and Ethereum cross their critical control thresholds with three entities each, while Solana requires 19. Mining pools and staking delegation add nuance to the comparison.
-
What does node geography show about Bitcoin and Ethereum?
Bitcoin has the most evenly spread node footprint, with 63% of nodes behind Tor. Ethereum relies more on cloud infrastructure, and AWS alone hosts roughly 20% of its nodes.
-
Why does Solana score differently from Bitcoin?
Solana trades decentralization for performance and coordination speed, while Bitcoin is strongest on auditability, ownership distribution and geographic resilience. Ethereum occupies the middle ground, and no network leads on every dimension.
Benjamin Cowen
CoinDesk
TheBlock
Whale Alert
Crypto News
CoinTelegraph