What Are the Trade-Offs of Implementing Centralized Checkpointing in a Decentralized Network?

The main trade-off is sacrificing decentralization for security. Centralized checkpointing, where developers broadcast a signed 'correct' block hash, effectively prevents blockchain reorganizations beyond that point, offering a strong defense against 51% attacks.

However, this introduces a single point of failure and a high degree of trust in the development team. It undermines the core principle of a trustless, decentralized network by giving a central authority the power to dictate the canonical history of the ledger.

This can deter users and businesses who value censorship resistance and immutability above all else.