How to measure blockchain decentralization?

[Gayong88]

1. The concept of decentralization is not new, but the technology behind blockchain will bring it to a whole new level,  It’s being implemented around the world for various uses including serving as a foundation for cryptocurrencies.
2. The cryptocurrency space is in the all-out war when it comes to decentralization, There are many ways to measure decentralized structures, including the “godlike concept” and economic blockchains with voting mechanism (Voting with dollar protocol) to address the issue of consensus in public chains)
3. The coinmarketcap website just tracks the price and volume of individual cryptocurrencies with ease and accuracy – giving investors greater capital gain exposure than traditional assets.

[SquallLeonhart]

1) What is blockchain decentralization for you? How do you understand this concept?

If the project owners do not have too much control over the blockchain itself then it is a blockchain decentralization. It doesn't mean they can't improve it, they could do it if the public wants to, like ethereum is decentralized but we are moving to 2.0, does that mean it is not decentralized just because we are moving from PoW to PoS? No of course not, it is still decentralized and everything depends on what public wants to, if we didn't want to move to 2.0 then we wouldn't move to it, it is just an "offer" from the developers that we will most likely accept.

2) How to measure blockchain decentralization? What is a fair way to measure decentralization of different blockchain protocols?

If creators of it suggest something but can't force people to do it, then it is a good decentralization and works perfectly like intended.

3) What blockchain protocol represented on Coinmarketcap is the most decentralized one at this moment? Who are underdogs of this nomination?

I would say BTC is by far the biggest because its ranked one and decentralized fully, followed by ETH, and I believe monero is undervalued right now and not appreciated enough.

[Abiky]

Decentralization is a synonym to Bitcoin because it can't be controlled by anyone, not even a government can manage to destroy it because its peer to peer and is managed by the consensus which the users are part of.

There are projects claiming to be decentralized but the level of decentralization only belongs to the ecosystem but if the government interferes with the team, they may be able to point a gun at the heads of the CEO. The known teams with CEOs I guess you can consider the underdogs.

Exactly. There are so many projects claiming to be decentralized, but the way they're organized tells us otherwise. Newcomers into crypto are made to believe everything is decentralized, when in fact, it is not. Only a very small portion of Blockchain networks are as decentralized as they claim to be. Bitcoin is the most decentralized cryptocurrency in the world with a vast number of nodes and miners supporting it every step of the way. The project has no leading figure, unlike Ethereum. True decentralization is what makes crypto achieve its purpose in the real world. Without it, you'd get nothing more than a traditional banking system manipulated by the likes of a few.

Unfortunately, not everyone cares about decentralization these days. The vast majority of projects will go down the drain as governments will be able to take them down easily. Only Bitcoin, Ethereum, and some other old cryptocurrencies will be able to survive in the long run. The crypto land is in urgent need of decentralization to help prevent governments and banks from taking over the entire ecosystem. Centralized exchanges have done more harm than good to crypto's decentralization, so the future looks bleak right now. There's hope things will go back the way they were with decentralized exchanges and other solutions. Time will tell us what will lie ahead with crypto/Blockchain tech's prominence in the mainstream world. Just my thoughts