How decentralized would you want your app be?

Blockchain aims for decentralization, and it's not a new topic per se. But have you considered how decentralized the dApps and blockchain are? 

Blockchain

Bitcoin, uses proof-of-work, allows anybody to pick up as a node validator to validate transactions. Anybody literally means anybody: as people start joining to earn passive income from validating transactions, they can have more than 10,000 nodes (See the exact number here); and this is because not everybody is into crypto yet. Imagine in the future when many joins crypto, how many nodes can it go? 100,000+? or 1,000,000+?

It's also equivalently true for Ethereum if people participated in node validation, but it has far less node than Bitcoin currently (the exact number here). Previously it has far more node, but this article uncover the lost of many Ethereum nodes, which you can read about yourself. As of writing, Ethereum have less than 3000 nodes; which is still a lot but not as much as Bitcoin. Similarly, less nodes most probably means less decentralized (though we still have to look at their distribution; Ethereum nodes being distributed heavily within certain countries compared to Bitcoin nodes being distributed worldwide, resulting in less decentralization for the former). 

Now take a look at Proof-of-Stake (PoS). Since one is familiar (and a fan of) with NEAR Protocol, we shall use that as example. Proof of stake is much different from proof of work in which not any random person can become a node; which means it's less decentralized than proof of work. In fact, NEAR Protocol currently only have 100 nodes (the restriction they apply to how much node they could have now, but might increase in the future). Without considering where the nodes are located physically, 100 nodes is really little compared to Bitcoin total nodes count. To become a node, the validator needs to have a certain amount of wealth; hence nodes are limited only to the wealthy. To become a node, the validator also needs to wait for someone to stop being a validator for whatever reasonings, as the max number of nodes is 100. 

Hence, if in the Bitcoin case authority wants control and destroy all nodes in their country, there are still nodes available in other countries. If multiple countries work together and destroy all nodes in, well, all their countries whom work together; anybody in any other country could still pick up and become a node validator. In contrast, NEAR Protocol requirement of wealth means it's only limited to wealthy people, but you could also say it's limited to more wealthy country. It's not just start their home computer and rent out their CPU/GPU and you can become a node validator. Until anyone could become a validator, NEAR Protocol will suffer from less decentralization. 

(Of course, this article only talks about decentralization, ignoring other issues. Example, Ethereum is popular for its dApps, not its decentralization. NEAR Protocol is popular for its low gas fee [hence sharding technology], not decentralization. They have their own focus and trade-offs, so don't get confused about their different use cases). 

dApps

Next, let's look at how decentralized are dApps. One have to say, one isn't an expert in DeFi or dApps, so one will most probably look through one's rose-colored glasses. You, as the more expert, might not agree with what one says. That's okay, one is learning too. And you're welcome to have your say based on your experience. 

In particular, one would look more at gaming dApps, since that's what one plays most with, at least to an extent. A game component can be classified as: decentralized component, and centralized component. What this means is, you have a part of the game focusing on the decentralized component, and other parts focusing on the centralized component. In fact, most gaming dApps are not really dApps; they're just focusing on "letting the players Play to Earn". Blockchain integration is not-as-much a decentralization feature, but rather a earning feature. Player earns money, great! How decentralized is the application isn't much of our concerns. 

And that's true. The games aren't really decentralized, at least not of my knowledge (you are allowed to challenge and change my thought based on what you know, with proof). You have a game server, most probably held on a web-2 equivalent, so that's centralization. The game server at least handle some function calls, whatever you're dealing with. These function calls could be built on-chain, but that means paying gas fee with every single transaction (layer-1, one doesn't understand how layer-2 works yet except it's building a layer on top of layer 1). Where are the game data stored? Is it on IPFS, or also on the game server? And how much control over the game application does the team has? 

It make sense to have full control when you're developing your game, and to kill all bugs that are out there. All in all, centralization means you don't need a consensus, hence you can do things as quickly as possible. But launching such app also means you still have much control of an entity. Imagine a game that had not thought about strategy to go against farmers, and the developers now want to implement strategy for such. In a decentralized manner, DAO needs to agree on deploying the strategy to implement, at which the farmers might have already siphon much funds out of the network (for a game that distribute funds to players when they play, taken advantaged by farmers). Centralization means acting as quickly and as bold as possible; funds are siphoned less than in the former case. Of course one is explaining the advantage from the view of centralization, but you can see how decentralized it is with their control over the application. Next time when you play a game or use a dApp, consider how much decentralization has the team made the application be. 

Conclusion

Not everything on the blockchain is much decentralized. If you aim for decentralization, you might want to consider which altcoins (or even Bitcoin) you want your app to built on and use. Of course, how much transaction per seconds can the network support, and other considerations like gas fee, are another story and another consideration. How much trade-offs you're willing to make on decentralization for other perspective? It's the choice of you and your team.