What is Decentralization?

Most systems have a boss: your bank controls your money, a social network controls your posts. If that boss makes a bad decision or gets hacked, you suffer.

Bitcoin has no boss. Instead, thousands of computers (called "nodes") around the world each hold a complete copy of the blockchain. They follow the same rules, and they check each other's work.

No single government, company, or person can shut down Bitcoin, censor a transaction, or change the rules. It would require convincing the majority of the network — and that's nearly impossible.