Last Updated on 3. May 2023 by Martin Schuster

In DPoS, decentralization is traded for scalability (in terms of transaction throughput). The DPoS blockchains accept a higher degree of centralization than PoW or PoS blockchains to achieve faster transaction processing and finality.

The higher centralization is due to the lower number of witnesses and the bigger obstacles of becoming an active witness than PoW or PoS. n PoW or PoS, everybody can become a block producer without other users’ permission and independently of the number of already existing block producers. In DPoS, however, a limited number of witnesses is elected from a candidate list. This means, only a fraction of those nodes that want to become a witness become part of the block producing and validation process.