Bitcoin Tops Decentralized Rankings Amid Concentration Risks

A new study by ARK Invest and Glassnode has ranked Bitcoin (BTC) as the most decentralized among three major networks, including Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL). The report examined auditability, ownership distribution, geographic resilience, and other factors across the three networks. According to the researchers, no blockchain leads in all areas, with each network making different trade-offs between decentralization, security, and performance.

Bitcoin scored highest in auditability, ownership distribution, and geographic resilience, while Ethereum occupied a middle ground and Solana leaned towards performance and coordination speed. The study also found that just three mining pools control over 51% of the Bitcoin network's hash rate, with Ethereum having a coefficient of three and Solana at 19 entities.

However, ARK and Glassnode noted that mining pools do not necessarily own the basic Bitcoin mining hardware, as miners can move their hashing power between pools. The researchers also highlighted the resilience of Bitcoin nodes, with around 63% operating behind Tor, making the network less dependent on centralized hosting providers.