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Central, but not too central — Stuart
Centralization is better than decentralization for early formation but decentralization is better when you have network effects.
This is the takeaway from a research paper on the topic. By Mason Borda
The problem of centralization
For the past four years, cryptocurrency has been the darling of Silicon Valley. It’s been the hot new thing, touted as a revolutionary new technology that is going to change the world and make us all rich. This belief has led to a Cambrian explosion of new coins and tokens. Over the past four years, over 5,000 new cryptocurrencies have launched, with many disappearing almost as quickly as they came. This is the problem of centralization.
The space is too crowded, too noisy, with too many projects and teams competing for attention. As a result, the barrier to entry is too high. On CoinMarketCap alone, there are over 9,000 cryptocurrencies listed. There is no way to discover the best projects, nor is there any way to understand the differences between projects.