Aave
AAVEDeFi lending protocol with token-weighted governance. Labs controls code and frontend. Guardian multisig can pause protocol.
Last updated: Dec 27, 2025
0.4 × Chain + 0.4 × Control + 0.2 × Fairness
Chain Score
Technical and economic decentralization of the chain
Control Score
Power and control structures around the protocol
Fairness Score
Launch, distribution, and governance fairness
Chain Score
Technical/economic decentralization
Nakamoto Coefficient
Number of independent entities that would need to collude to compromise the system. Higher is better.
Validator/Miner Concentration
Share of top 5 validators/miners in stake/hashrate. Lower concentration is better.
Client Diversity
Number of independent full-node implementations with relevant market share. More diversity is better.
Node Geography & Hosting
Geographic distribution of nodes and cloud hosting concentration. Lower cloud % is better.
Control Score
Power and control structures
Corporate/Foundation Capture
Is there a dominant company/foundation controlling roadmap, marketing, and hiring? Can the project survive without them?
Repo/Protocol Ownership
Distribution of merge rights in core repositories (clients, specs). More distributed is better.
Brand & Frontend Control
Who owns brand, domains, main frontends, official wallets/apps? Decentralized ownership is better.
Treasury & Upgrade Keys
Composition of treasury/upgrade multisigs and admin keys. More independent signers is better.
Admin Halt Capability
Can a single entity or small group unilaterally halt, freeze, or censor the chain? This is a critical centralization risk.
Protocol Immutability
Has the protocol made fundamental rule changes (consensus mechanism, monetary policy, contentious forks)? Immutable rules are a core property of decentralization.
Fairness Score
Launch and distribution fairness
Launch Fairness / Premine
Team/VC/Foundation premine and launch model (fair launch vs. sale/IDO). Less premine is better.
Token Distribution & Governance Power
Share of insiders (team/VC/exchanges) in supply and governance votes. Less insider control is better.
Sources
- https://cointelegraph.com/news/aave-founder-stani-kulechov-10m-aave-purchase-governance-vote
- https://www.ainvest.com/news/aave-governance-crisis-ticking-time-bomb-token-2512/
- https://cryptoslate.com/aave-prices-are-crashing-as-insiders-warn-a-hostile-holiday-vote-could-destroy-the-protocols-dominance/
- https://coinlaw.io/aave-statistics/
- https://defillama.com/protocol/aave