What Is the Trade-off in Decentralization between PoA and Pure PoW?

PoA generally offers less decentralization than pure PoW. While the PoW phase is open to all miners, the PoS validation phase often involves a smaller, sometimes permissioned, set of stakers.

Pure PoW allows for a more open and permissionless participation, leading to greater geographical and organizational decentralization. PoA sacrifices some of this openness for faster finality and energy efficiency.

Which Is Generally Faster, PoW or PoS Finality?
What Is ‘Permissionless’ Participation in a Blockchain?
What Is the Trade-off between Decentralization and Efficiency in Blockchain Design for Finance?
How Does the High Energy Cost of PoW Create a Potential Single Point of Failure (Energy Grid)?
How Does the Energy Consumption of PoA Compare to Pure PoW?
How Does the Degree of Decentralization Affect the Regulatory Classification of a Derivative?
How Does a Small Set of Stakers Increase the Risk of Collusion?
What Is ‘Transaction Finality’ and How Does It Differ across Various Blockchain Architectures?

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