Decentralization Maximalism

Decentralization maximalism is the position that blockchain networks and applications should eliminate every central point of control, treating decentralization as the overriding goal rather than one design trade-off among several. Its supporters argue that any company, admin key, foundation or hosted service that can censor, freeze or change a system eventually will, so they favour permissionless validation, self-custody, open-source code and governance without privileged insiders. Critics reply that full decentralization is costly and slow, as the blockchain trilemma suggests, and that some central elements, such as audited front ends or compliance checks, protect ordinary users. The term overlaps with, but is broader than, the Bitcoin maximalist view, which concerns one asset. Also see centralized vs. decentralized.