ARK Invest and Glassnode map the decentralization spectrum across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana

ARK Invest and Glassnode have released a joint white paper titled “The Decentralization Spectrum: Design Tradeoffs In Digital Assets,” offering what amounts to a report card for the three largest Layer-1 blockchains. The research evaluates Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana across four design features and six measurable dimensions, building a comparative framework that treats decentralization not as a binary quality but as a sliding scale shaped by deliberate architectural choices. What the framework actually measures The report maps each network against four distinct design features and six quantifiable dimensions to assess decentralization, security, and resilience. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana each make fundamentally different engineering decisions. Bitcoin prioritizes simplicity and security through its proof-of-work consensus. Ethereum balances programmability with decentralization through its proof-of-stake transition. Solana optimizes for speed and throughput, which inherently requires different compromises. The white paper’s core argument is that these aren’t accidental differences. They’re deliberate tradeoffs, and understanding them requires looking at verifiable network prop...