Ethereum vs Cardano

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

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

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

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

Bottom line

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