Is Bitcoin a Decentralized Currency?
Arthur Gervais, Ghassan Karame, Vedran Čapkun, Srđjan Čapkun · IEEE Security & Privacy · 2014
Bitcoin has achieved popularity by promising users a fully decentralized, low-cost virtual currency system. However, a limited set of entities controls Bitcoin's services, decision-making, mining, and incident resolution processes. These entities can decide Bitcoin's fate, bypassing the will of the multitude of users that populate the network.