The single most-cited decentralization metric — and its blind spots.
The Nakamoto coefficient is the minimum number of entities that must collude to compromise a chain. Above 20 is reasonably decentralized; below 5 is dangerous. But it only measures one layer — consensus concentration — and can understate chains like Bitcoin, where the underlying miners are many even if pools coordinate them.
A low-coefficient example (~3) that is still broadly decentralized by node count — showing the metric’s limits.
Use the Nakamoto coefficient as one input, not a verdict — pair it with node count, client diversity and governance.