The day Satoshi Nakamoto disappeared, Bitcoin reached a level of decentralization the planet had never seen. Without the creator’s vision guiding the project, development and maintenance fell into the community’s hands. Thirteen years later, the Bitcoin network is still working hard to improve on the decentralization front.

There’s still a lot of work to be done. The game is afoot, and, in Lenny Kravitz’s immortal words, it ain’t over ‘till it’s over.

Centralization is easy to picture, the concept refers to the concentration of power in a single point. On the other hand, the definition of decentralization varies depending on who you ask. However, considering the previous idea, we could define it as taking decision-making and resources away from that central head.

It’s important to notice that decentralization is a spectrum and no project achieves pure decentralized status. However, Bitcoin was designed to tend towards it and the network participants go to extreme lengths to keep Bitcoin grounded on its founding ideas. Decentralization is, and probably will continue to be, a key factor in many of the major decisions the network has faced and will face throughout the road to hyperbitcoinization.

• Decentralization And The Early Internet
• Decentralization And Bitcoin
• Mechanisms in Bitcoin to Achieve Decentralization
• Pros And Cons
• Centralizing Forces: Exchanges
• Centralizing Forces: Mining Pools and Mining in General
• The Bitcoin Network Fights Back Against Mining Centralization
• Centralizing Forces: Bitcoin Core
• Conclusion

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