Bitcoin, Ethereum Need Only Three Entities to Influence Block Production, Glassnode Says; Solana Needs 19

Bitcoin and Ethereum each need only three entities to reach a threshold that could materially influence block production, according to a joint study by Glassnode and Ark Invest.

In a report published on September 1, Glassnode and Ark Invest analyzed the degree of decentralization across major blockchains including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana.

The study found that Bitcoin and Ethereum each require three entities to accumulate enough computing power or stake to influence block production. Solana, by contrast, would need 19 entities to reach the same threshold.

The report said those figures should not be interpreted as the same as direct control over a network. In Bitcoin, multiple miners contribute hash power to a single mining pool. In proof-of-stake networks such as Ethereum and Solana, many users delegate assets to validators.

As a result, even when a specific mining pool or validator accounts for a large share of the network, that operator does not necessarily directly own all of the underlying hash power or stake.

The study also found differences in how decentralized each blockchain's infrastructure is. Bitcoin's nodes were relatively evenly distributed geographically, and about 63% of all nodes operate through Tor, the anonymous communications network.

Ethereum showed a higher reliance on cloud services, with about 20% of all nodes running on Amazon Web Services. Solana was found to run a substantial share of its network infrastructure through data centers.

The report said assessments of blockchain decentralization should look beyond the number of entities involved in block production and also consider mining pools, staking delegation structures, the geographic distribution of nodes and how infrastructure is operated.