Decentralization Scaling

Definition ∞ Decentralization scaling refers to increasing a blockchain’s transaction capacity without compromising its distributed nature. This involves developing methods to handle more transactions per second while maintaining a high number of independent nodes, preventing central points of control or failure. Solutions aim to preserve the core tenets of censorship resistance and network robustness, which are fundamental to blockchain technology. It seeks to avoid trade-offs where increased speed comes at the expense of distributed participation.
Context ∞ Decentralization scaling represents a primary challenge and active area of research in the cryptocurrency space. Many proposed solutions, including sharding, layer-2 protocols, and new consensus algorithms, are evaluated based on their ability to improve throughput while preserving or enhancing decentralization. The ongoing debate concerns the optimal balance between performance gains and the integrity of a truly distributed system.