Cardano vs Ethereum

Which is more decentralized — Cardano or Ethereum? A side-by-side on consensus, nodes, clients and governance.

	Cardano	Ethereum
Grade	A-	B
Type	L1 · PoS (Ouroboros)	L1 · PoS
Nakamoto coefficient	50+	~3*
Node / validator set	~3,000 stake pools	~1M validators · many node operators
Clients / sequencer	Mostly one node implementation (a concentration risk)	Exec: Geth ~41%, Nethermind ~38%, Besu ~16% (improving)
Governance	On-chain (CIP-1694 / Voltaire)	Off-chain rough consensus
Key risk	A few large stake pools still matter	Lido staking share; Geth client lead

Cardano A-

Very high Nakamoto coefficient (50+)
~3,000 independent stake pools
On-chain, token-holder governance

Limited node-client diversity
Founding entities still influential

Ethereum B

~1M validators across many operators
Improving client diversity (no client > 2/3)
Largest decentralized app ecosystem

Staking-pool concentration (Lido share)
Geth still the leading execution client

Bottom line

Among the most decentralized L1s by consensus, held back mainly by client monoculture. Strong on breadth; the work left is reducing staking-pool and client concentration.