Routes to decentralization
Even though there are systems that existed before bitcoin or blockchain that can be classed as decentralized to a certain degree, such as BitTorrent or Gnutella file sharing, with the advent of the blockchain technology many initiatives are being taken in order leverage this new technology for decentralization. Usually, the bitcoin blockchain is the first choice for many as it has proven to be the most resilient and secure blockchain with a market cap of almost 12 billion dollars. An alternative approach is to use other blockchains, such as Ethereum, which is currently the tool of choice of many developers for building decentralized applications.
How to decentralize
A framework has been proposed by Arvind Narayanan and others that can be used to evaluate the decentralization requirements of a variety of things in the context of blockchain technology. The framework basically proposes four questions that, once answered, provide a clear idea as to how a system can be...