Bitcoin's Not So Decentralized Network

You might think Bitcoin is all about decentralization, but let's take a closer look at its network. Bitcoin runs on a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, which is supposed to be spread out and not controlled by any single group. However, a recent study shows that this isn't exactly the case. Researchers created a special tool, like a detective for the Bitcoin network, to find out more about the nodes, or computers, that keep the Bitcoin system running. They found out a lot of interesting things. First, the size of the network hasn't really grown much in the last year. This might be because the price of Bitcoin dropped in early 2018.

Second, most of the network is in the United States and Europe. But here's a twist: most of the mining, which is how new Bitcoins are created, happens in China. And finally, even though Bitcoin is supposed to be decentralized, the study found that only a small group of people control most of the Bitcoins. In fact, just 4. 5% of all Bitcoin addresses hold a whopping 85% of all the Bitcoins out there. So, is Bitcoin really as decentralized as it claims to be? Maybe not as much as we thought.

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