Impossibility of Full Decentralization in Permissionless Blockchains
Yu‐Jin Kwon, Jian Liu, Minjeong Kim, Dawn Xiaodong Song, Yongdae Kim · 2019
Bitcoin uses the proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism where nodes earn rewards in return for the use of their computing resources. Although this incentive system has attracted many participants, power has, at the same time, been significantly biased towards a few nodes, called mining pools. In addition, poor decentralization appears not only in PoW-based coins but also in coins that adopt proof-of-stake (PoS) and delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) mechanisms.