ARK, Glassnode Rank Bitcoin Most Decentralized – Ethereum, Solana Face Different Trade-Offs

• In a joint study by ARK Invest and Glassnode, Bitcoin led in auditability, ownership distribution, and geographical resilience, with 63% of its nodes operating behind Tor.
• Just three Bitcoin mining pools could cross the network’s 51% hash-rate threshold, while ETH also had a coefficient of three and Solana had 19.
• ARK and Glassnode said no blockchain leads across every measure, with each network making different trade-offs between decentralization, security and performance.

Bitcoin (BTC) ranked as the most decentralized of Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL) across several key measures according to a new joint study from ARK Invest and Glassnode published on Tuesday.

The report examined the three networks across areas, including a disability, security governance ownership node participation, and geographic concentration. Bitcoin scored strongest in auditability, ownership distribution, and geographic resilience, while Ethereum occupied the middle ground and Solana leaned more towards performance and coordination speed.

However, the researchers stressed that no blockchain leads across every measure, with each network making different trade-offs between decentralization, security, and performance.

Just Three Mining Pools Could Cross Bitcoin’s Threshold

One surprising result was the Bitcoin Nakamoto coefficient, which measures how many entities would need to collude to gain a significant degree of control over a network. 

Three mining pools alone control over 51% of the Bitcoin network's hash rate. Ethereum also had a coefficient of three with a 33% threshold for staking, while Solana’s was much higher at 19 entities. 

However, ARK and Glassnode noted that mining pools do not necessarily own the basic Bitcoin mining hardware, as miners can move their hashing power between pools.

Bitcoin Nodes Show Wider Resilience

Bitcoin also stood out in its infrastructure. Around 63% of Bitcoin nodes operate behind Tor, while only 16% are hosted in data centers, making the network less dependent on centralized hosting providers. Ethereum has roughly 49% of its nodes on cloud providers, including about 20% on Amazon Web Services (AWS). 

Solana, meanwhile, runs nearly all of its infrastructure in data centers, reflecting the heavier hardware demand of its network.

Bitcoin’s price was trading around $77,820, down by 0.9% over the past 24 hours. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around Bitcoin has dipped to ‘neutral’ from the ‘bullish’ zone, with chatter levels decreasing from ‘high’ to ‘normal’ levels over the past day.

Ethereum’s price was trading around $2,444, down by 1% over the last 24 hours. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around ETH stayed in the ‘bearish’ zone, while chatter levels remained at ‘normal’ levels over the past day.

Solana’s price was trading around $102, down by 1% over the past 24 hours. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around Solana remained in the ‘bullish’ zone, with chatter persisting at ‘high’ levels over the last day.

Read also: Bitcoin Stalls At $78K While Hyperliquid, Zcash, Ethena Ride Fresh Catalysts

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