What is 'Centralized vs Decentralized' Consensus?

Approach: Compare authority-based agreement with peer-to-peer agreement.

Centralized consensus relies on a single leader or a fixed set of nodes (e.g., Raft, Paxos). Decentralized consensus (e.g., Proof of Work) allows any node to participate without a central authority.

Follow-up: Which is generally faster?

Key concepts: paxos, raft, blockchain, authority.