Cardano: More Decentralised Than Ethereum and Solana

When it comes to blockchain networks, decentralisation is not just a buzzword, it's a benchmark of trust, resilience, and true peer-to-peer value exchange. Ethereum may have set the standard, and Solana might be pushing speed and throughput, but there’s a growing argument backed by data that Cardano is, quietly but convincingly, emerging as the most decentralised of them all.

What is Decentralisation?

Decentralisation isn’t just about how many nodes are on a network or how fast blocks are processed. It’s about who holds the power, how distributed that power is, and how decisions get made. A decentralised system should be difficult to manipulate, resilient to failure, and governed by the collective, not the few.

In this light of this, decentralisation can be measured in two main ways: consensus and governance decentralisation. The former is concerned with who validates the blocks, if those validators are geographically and economically diverse or if they're only clustered among a few players while the latter is all about who gets to propose and vote on changes to the network.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

The University of Edinburgh’s EDIN (Edinburgh Decentralisation Index) provides one of the most comprehensive measurements on this topic. It analyses hundreds of factors across different blockchains, including validator concentration, geographic spread, client diversity, and governance mechanics.

According to the latest EDIN dashboard:

Cardano ranks as the most decentralized chain among the top networks.

The image above illustrates the scores of different blockchains using the Gini coefficient. The Gini coefficient represents the degree of inequality in distribution. Values close to 0 indicate high equality, while values close to 1 indicate high inequality. From this, you can see Cardano leading the way, beating the likes of Ethereum and Litecoin.

The graph above uses the Herfindahl-Hirschman index to measure the market concentration of these blockchains. The HHI index is the sum of the squares of the market shares of entities in the system.

Values close to 0 indicate a low concentration, meaning that many entities produce a similar number of blocks. Values close to 10,000, on the other hand, indicate a high concentration, where one entity produces most or all of the blocks. From the graph, you can see Cardano’s value falls on the low side while other blockchains score significantly higher.

The 1-concentration ratio represents the share of blocks that are produced by the single most powered entity, that is, the entity that produces the most blocks. From this, you can deduce that Cardano has a better value on the graph.

When compared to Ethereum and Solana, you can see that Cardano’s validator set is large, globally distributed, and more evenly spread out. No single staking pool or validator controls an outsized portion of block production. Cardano actively discourages over-concentration through its protocol parameters.

Compare that with Ethereum, where Lido Finance, a staking pool, controls over 30% of staked ETH, sparking debates around centralization risk. Solana has also faced similar criticism, especially around its validator hosting relying heavily on centralized cloud providers.

Cardano’s Protocol-Level Decentralization

Cardano doesn’t just talk about decentralisation, it's part of its DNA. At the heart of Cardano’s consensus mechanism is Ouroboros, a provably secure, peer-reviewed proof-of-stake protocol. Unlike Ethereum, where staking tends to favor large capital holders, Cardano makes delegation simple and accessible. You don’t need to lock up your ADA or run a node yourself, just delegate to one of over 2,000 active stake pools, each competing for delegates by offering competitive rewards.

Crucially, Cardano’s stake pool saturation mechanism prevents any one pool from growing too large by reducing its rewards past a certain point. This ensures a healthy distribution of power among validators, instead of concentrating it in a few dominant pools.

The second pillar of Cardano's decentralised system is governance. Cardano’s Voltaire era, now underway, introduces a groundbreaking governance framework that truly puts power in the hands of its users through:

●      Voting System: Every ADA holder can vote on proposals, ranging from software upgrades to funding community projects. This is not a symbolic process; votes determine the future of the chain.

●      Treasury System: Cardano funds its own development through a built-in treasury, sourced from a portion of transaction fees and staking rewards. Proposals for funding go to a vote, and if approved, funds are released transparently and autonomously. No venture capital strings attached.

This level of user-driven decision-making doesn’t exist in Ethereum or Solana at the protocol level. Cardano is on a mission to make governance scalable, inclusive, and self-sustaining; qualities that align directly with the idea of true decentralization.

Conclusion

Ethereum still leads in developer adoption and DeFi activity. Solana’s blazing speed makes it a favorite among traders and NFT users. But if the metric that matters most is decentralisation, Cardano is clearly ahead of the curve.

While other chains chase throughput, Cardano is quietly building a future where everyone has a seat at the table, from block production to treasury management. And in a world that’s increasingly wary of centralised control, that might just be the most valuable feature of all.