|
Decentralization addresses several attack vectors; a 51% attack is the most common concern.
In that regard, bitcoin probably wins, hands down.
But a 51% attack isn't the only concern, and some of the other concerns could lead to a rapid centralization of validators that could more easily allow a 51% attack to become more relevant. It's also important to distinguish between the technology and its implementation in any specific application. What holds true for BTC vs ETH may be implemented differently for other blockchains in regards to PoW vs PoS.
For instance, what happens if one or more nations decide to ban crypto or crypto mining, as China did recently? Validators within those nations are taken out of the pool, altering the distribution significantly. With PoW, it would require moving physical equipment to a new foreign location in order to re-establish the network status; PoS is no less vulnerable to legislative demands however it is a simpler matter to transfer nodes to a different server. In that sense, PoS is more resilient.
Also when analyzing validator distribution, even the proper counting of them may prove difficult. ETH has something over 6000 nodes at the moment; how many are owned by the same individuals and organizations? Bitcoin probably has far more validators running, but how many of them are controlled by sole individuals or organizations?
There is really no way to know, as one lone person might have hundreds of miners contributing to multiple pools with different addresses, but ultimately all of those miners are controlled by just one person/company.
In that sense, something like the BSC has a distinct advantage. The number of actual validators is quite low, however they are spread out over many different legal jurisdictions and there is no concern of a 51% attack because they're all controlled by one multinational corp whose entire value and reputation relies entirely upon providing correct data. The US government hit Binance's US branch with every bit of legal firepower it could muster and it had no impact on the viability of its blockchain, serving only to batter the price somewhat.
Ultimately I don't believe validation technology has fully matured yet, as none of the current major ones are ideal. Proof of Space-Time holds much promise, although it is not yet widely used. Imagine a world where everyone who has some spare flash memory space on their cell phone is a validator; that could become a reality in the coming years, and it's hard to imagine a more decentralized, democratized system.
__________________
|