Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS)
A consensus variant where token holders vote for a small set of delegates to validate — fast, but more centralized.
Delegated Proof of Stake has token holders vote for a limited number of delegates (often 21–101) who take turns validating blocks on everyone’s behalf. Concentrating validation among few, elected producers enables high speed and throughput — the design behind chains like EOS and TRON.
The trade-off is explicit: DPoS sacrifices decentralization for performance. A small validator set is faster and cheaper but easier to collude or pressure, and voter apathy often leaves a handful of entities effectively in control. It sits at one end of the spectrum from Bitcoin’s Proof of Work and Ethereum’s broad Proof of Stake — a deliberate bet that most users value speed over maximal decentralization.