ARK Invest and Glassnode research finds Bitcoin and Ethereum each need just 3 entities to reach critical control thresholds in block production, while Solana requires 19, with infrastructure risks varying by chain.
Regulation & Gov ·
ARK Invest and Glassnode released joint research examining blockchain decentralization mechanics across major chains. The study identified that Bitcoin and Ethereum each need only 3 entities to reach critical control thresholds in block production, whereas Solana requires 19, according to findings shared by the two firms. The gap reflects structural differences in how each network distributes validation responsibilities, though the researchers cautioned that mining pools and staking delegation arrangements complicate direct translation of entity counts into actual network control.
Infrastructure vulnerabilities also diverge by chain. Bitcoin maintains the most geographically dispersed node distribution, with roughly 63% operating via Tor, while Ethereum shows greater concentration through cloud providers—approximately 20% of its nodes run on AWS. Solana's infrastructure relies predominantly on data center operations, creating distinct centralization risks specific to each protocol's operational topology.
The research leaves unresolved how these structural findings translate into practical attack vectors or resilience under real-world conditions, and whether the entity thresholds identified represent merely theoretical control points or actionable vulnerability windows.