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slide 2 · fundamentals
Decentralization
1 server
many nodes
Kill in a central server vs a peer network and see who survives.
- 1Knock out the central server
- 2Knock out nodes in the peer network
- 3Compare who is still online
live · 0 players in this room
send coins to another player
10.0000 BTC10.0000 ETH
recipient
waiting for another player to join this room… open this page in a second tab or share the link with the class.
fee 0.0005 · total 0.5005 BTC
live transfers in this room
room ledger · tap a row to replay its steps
- no transfers yet — be the first to pay a classmate.
Service status
online
Nodes holding data
12 / 12
Ledger availability
100%
Peer network — click nodes to kill them
Kill as many as you like. As long as one honest node holds the ledger, the data survives — and while more than half are honest, the network still agrees on history.
Decentralization buys censorship resistance and fault tolerance, and pays for it in redundancy: every stores and re-verifies the same data. That is the trade the rest of these simulations keep circling back to — a centralized database is faster and cheaper, right up until you have to trust whoever owns it.