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"The energy sector is a complex ecosystem in which many actors participate. In the EU, the energy sector is changing significantly as part of the energy transition. One important change is decentralization of energy, for example the bilateral trade of energy between households generating energy by solar panels and consuming energy. A key question is how to design the decentralized governance structure of such an ecosystem. We propose the DECENT (decentralized) ontology, which results from an extensive literature study in the field of decentralized governance in the energy sector, which allows to describe governance in ecosystems in a structured way. Its intended user-base are business developers and ecosystem designers. The DECENT ontology provides the terminology to represent and analyze important governance constructs for these stakeholders. We demonstrate the practical use of the ontology by means of a case study about peer-to-peer energy trading."

"The term decentralized finance (DeFi) refers to an alternative financial infrastructure built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. DeFi uses smart contracts to create protocols that replicate existing financial services in a more open, interoperable, and transparent way. This article highlights opportunities and potential risks of the DeFi ecosystem. I propose a multi-layered framework to analyze the implicit architecture and the various DeFi building blocks, including token standards, decentralized exchanges, decentralized debt markets, blockchain derivatives, and on-chain asset management protocols. I conclude that DeFi still is a niche market with certain risks but that it also has interesting properties in terms of efficiency, transparency, accessibility, and composability. As such, DeFi may potentially contribute to a more robust and transparent financial infrastructure. "

"This analysis shows that permissioned and private ledgers form a subclass of Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT), which are distinguished from the original blockchain. DLTs operate with databases known as "ledgers," copies of which are distributed among multiple nodes, but not anyone can create and validate new blocks of data in such a ledger; they are not decentralized. On the contrary, blockchain was designed as a decentralized, open, and competitive peer-to-peer system. The widespread misconception is to call any technology "blockchain" when it has some chunks of data connected through cryptographic hashes. The technology of creating a sequence of timestamped records connected with hashes is not new, it was designed in the early 90s, but nobody has ever called it "blockchain," as it has never dealt with decentralized consensus protocols and did not operate in a distributed network. Hence, not every chain of blocks is the blockchain. The paper dives into the details of various of DLTs and blockchains. It aims to bring rigor into terminology and academic discourse. It also raises the alarm on false expectations that may appear across industries and the public about a decentralization effect that some DLTs might not bring."

The Journal of Financial Regulation (JoFR) published a paper that offers a framework to assess the factual decentralization of blockchain-based decentralized finance (DeFi) financial infrastructures, which is crucial for regulatory assessments. It explores various potential sources of centralized control, either endogenous or through inherited dependencies on other projects ("centralization vectors"). It finds that many DeFi projects are subject to such vectors that are likely critical, and taking them into account substantially reduces the number of DeFi projects that are genuinely decentralized. The paper argues that if a project has significant centralization vectors it can and likely should be regulated. On the other hand, for truly decentralized projects, the regulatory focus should remain on the on- / off-ramps to / from the spheres of on-chain centralized finance (CeFi) and (traditional) CeFi.

"I study an entrepreneur's incentives to build a decentralized platform using a blockchain. The entrepreneur can either build the platform using a regular company and retain control of the platform, or build the platform using a blockchain and surrender control of the platform. In either case, the platform's users experience a locked-in effect. I show that a decentralized implementation of the platform is both (i) more profitable for the entrepreneur and (ii) a Pareto improvement, if and only if the size of the locked-in effect exceeds some threshold. Further, progressive decentralization through airdrops can be optimal."

Economist Stephen Moore, who recently lost out on a bid to join the board of the Federal Reserve, is joining the "Decentral" algorithmic stablecoin team. Decentral bills itself as "the world's decentralized central bank."

Microsoft is building a decentralized identity network atop of the bitcoin blockchain. The Identity Overlay Network is based on an evolving set of open standards developed in conjunction with the Decentralized Identity Foundation.

This Cleveland Fed paper shows that while the decentralized nature of the Bitcoin network "democratizes" payments, it is not obvious that the approach increases the equity or efficiency of markets or that the costs of the decentralized control structure won't outweigh the benefits in the long run.

Decentralization, when executed properly, results in systems that offer more transparent, secure and higher-performing solutions. It is an essential building block for systems to build trust. Successful implementation of decentralized technology means empowerment for millions of people, whereas failure will result in the loss of all its benefits.

A decentralized exchange or DEX is a place where people can go to trade cryptocurrencies without an intermediary. To better identify what a decentralized exchange is, it's important to first understand how centralized exchanges work.

Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) have recently gained more attention for being one of blockchain's most exciting use cases, and the hype is well founded. In concept, DIDs aim to use cutting-edge cryptography and unique identifiers to enable users to validate themselves online, while still dictating when and how that identity data is used. Put simply, Decentralized IDs have the potential to help internet users around the world wrest back control of their data from the corporations that presently control it.

Decentralized non-custodial crypto trading platform ShapeShift will sunset its 6+ year business of trading directly with customers and now route orders through decentralized finance (DeFi) applications to get rid of know-your-customer (KYC) requirements. These multiple decentralized exchanges (DEX) will include Uniswap, Balancer, Curve, Bancor, Kyber, 0x, mStable among about a dozen others. DEXs, which operate as trading systems on top of blockchains, such as Ethereum, have eaten into centralized exchange volumes over 2020. For example, Uniswap cites itself as the fifth-largest spot-trading crypto exchange. https://erikvoorhees.medium.com/no-more-kyc-with-shapeshift-6d95a3e63ddf

Bitcoin's decentralization can be quantified in terms of supply dispersion, hashpower distribution, and exchange consolidation, among other metrics. Key metrics like the number of active addresses and the network's hashrate continue to rise. Bitcoin's supply is becoming more evenly dispersed, and the mining and exchange markets remain competitive. However, this analysis of Bitcoin's decentralization is far from comprehensive, and various other metrics, such as node count and hardware manufacturer market share, should also be considered in assessing network's health. On the whole, however, the network's performance in these key verticals gives reason for cautious optimism.

Decentralization is a major trend that is underway in financial markets, and while it is led by specific cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, this trend is quickly moving to trading exchanges as well. That said, and fully acknowledging the issues that have been highlighted by recent Congressional hearings, there still remain multiple open items to be resolved prior to wider adoption. It will be interesting to see how this tug-of-war between centralized and decentralized exchanges evolves, and market participants will need to proactively monitor trends in both sectors.

"A CBDC 2.0 will be issued and decentrally governed either on a national or on a supranational level, across multiple jurisdictions. This implies a different set of legal, monetary, and fiscal policies, some of them automated, required to be codified and put in place across nations... Decentralized governance will result in fast and cheap cross-border transactions, pseudonymity, personal data protection, and international operability. CBDC 2.0 will be interoperable at the protocol level so that data exchange and functionality should be easily accessible and transferable... The currency should be interoperable on a supranational level, meaning that emerging economies could suffer less from purchasing power inequality."

Decentralized apps experienced a dramatic surge in activity in June 2020, led by a $500 million increase in DeFi protocol Compound's balance sheet. Curve serves as an automated money market that can only support swaps between different stablecoins and "wrapped" cryptocurrency tokens. Curve can offer more competitive slippage and lower fees for trading virtual assets. Leading non-custodial exchange Uniswap also saw increased activity because of a dramatic rise in Compound's COMP token trading volumes. Kyber Network, which connects fragmented tokenized assets by facilitating seamless transactions, and decentralized exchange protocol 0x also reported increased activity.

Trading volume on decentralized crypto exchanges (DEXs) has surged in the last year - and is up over 1500% since January 1st. The growth has been driven by a rising demand to trade ERC20 tokens, accompanying a booming decentralized finance (DeFi) sector on Ethereum (ETH). The top 3 exchanges Uniswap, Balancer and Curve accounting for over 90% of all DEX volume. Of these, Uniswap, an open-source project developed by Hayden Adams that allows users to swap in and out of ERC-20 tokens, is far and away the leader with a market share of 67%.

A consortium of leading decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols will together provide up to $100 million in educational initiatives, grants, and incentives in an effort to educate individuals globally about decentralized finance. The initiative - built on the Celo ecosystem - aims to utilize the decentralized nature of crypto and blockchain to provide finance to the world's 6 billion mobile phone users. "Celo is an open-source blockchain ecosystem consisting of individuals and organizations who work alongside each other to promote global financial inclusion. Their conscious arm, Alliance for Prosperity, includes 150 partners such as Deutsche Telekom, Coinbase and Andreessen Horowitz."

Jack Dorsey, co-founder, and CEO of both Square and Twitter, released a white paper detailing plans for Square's decentralized Bitcoin exchange tbDEX. Unlike most decentralized exchanges, or DEXs, tbDEX will not utilize a trustless model, and therefore will not feature its own governance token. Instead, it is a message protocol designed to facilitate trust relationships without relying on a federation to control access.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) published a paper on decentralized ID, that could offer a secure way of managing personal data without depending on intermediaries. While decentralized ID presents opportunities, it also poses risks and faces challenges. Without fit-for-purpose policy, regulation and technology, the potential for these systems to have a socially beneficial impact will be limited. The report provides tools, frameworks and recommendations for government officials, regulators and executives seeking to engage with decentralized ID.