Decentralized

How it is used

A key word in whitepapers, pitches and debates: decentralized network, decentralized exchange, decentralized finance, decentralized application. People also argue about how decentralized a project really is. The opposite is centralized; the noun is decentralization.

Example sentences

1. The team says the network is decentralized, but just three companies run most of the validators.

2. Moving to a decentralized governance model will take at least a year.

Common collocations

• decentralized network
• decentralized exchange
• decentralized finance
• decentralized application
• fully decentralized

Related terms

• blockchainA shared digital record of transactions that is copied across many computers. New data is added in blocks, and each block is linked to the one before it, so past records are very hard to change.
• nodeA computer that runs the blockchain software, keeps a copy of the ledger and passes transactions and blocks on to other computers in the network.
• DeFiShort for decentralized finance: financial services such as lending, borrowing and trading that run on smart contracts instead of through banks or brokers. Users keep control of their own wallets.
• decentralized exchangeAn exchange that runs on smart contracts, letting users trade directly from their own wallets without handing their funds to a company. Often shortened to DEX.
• dAppShort for decentralized application: an app whose main logic runs on smart contracts on a blockchain instead of on a company's own servers. Users usually open it in a browser and connect a wallet.

More terms: Blockchain Basics

• block
• ledger
• hash
• immutable
• peer-to-peer
• whitepaper
• on-chain
• off-chain