GreenAddress (Droid) vs. BreadWallet (iOS) payment verification. Decentralized?

[Geremia]

Is simplified payment validation (SPV) decentralized?

Viz., when an SPV client wants to verify a payment, does it connect to a central server or to several random peers, checking that their Merkle tree traversals for the transaction to be verified all agree?

"Choose your Bitcoin wallet" from Bitcoin.org says (e.g., for GreenAddress's Android wallet) "Decentralized validation," which it describes as:

This wallet connects to a random server from a list. This means some trust in third parties is required when verifying payments. However, it is not as secure as a full node like Bitcoin Core.

How is "connect[ing] to a random server from a list" decentralized?

However (e.g., for iOS's BreadWallet) it says "Simplified validation" instead, which it describes as:

This wallet uses SPV and the Bitcoin network. This means very little trust in third parties is required when verifying payments. However, it is not as secure as a full node like Bitcoin Core.

_{(cf. the related Bitcoin StackExchange question)}

[1715326414]

1715326414

[dan91]

I believe green address uses some of their own servers and some electrum servers for verification. BreadWallet does use full nodes as i have seen some userid's with BreadWallet connect to mine.

[unamis76]

You need to have a login on GreenAddress (and that's a big no no, at least for me), so they do use some kind of private servers for their app to work. breadwallet seems definitely more decentralized or at least more in favor of privacy.

But anyways, I'm a bit biased, as I'm a big fan and user of breadwallet So take this with a grain of salt. Test both apps and see which one you like best.