What is decentralization?

It refers to the transfer of control and decision-making from a centralized entity (individual, organization) to a distributed network (a large group).

Advantages of Decentralization

Highly secure aka prevents Fraud as it is hard for one person or entity to modify records/ information.

Greater transparency and provides a trustless environment - when designed correctly there, contracts should execute autonomously and there is no need to place trust in humans.

Protection from external forces (govt) in that no third party can arbitrarily seize your assets.

Disadvantages of Decentralization

Scalability issues - Visa and Mastercard are able to handle millions of transactions a day (over 150m). Some of the popular blockchains are only able to handle thousands a day.

In trying to provide security - the transaction time is currently long

Another current issue being resolved is high transaction fee:

Inefficiencies in cost and energy consumption due to having to maintain and reward a large network of users is resulting in astronomical transaction fees.