Measuring decentralization

Decentralized money is measured here as the cost of the option to create a new full node, which the article calls CONOP. Under this measure, Ripple is centralized because it allows only one full node, its own, so adding a second is infinitely expensive, and its approval-based Unique Node List makes future membership uncertain. The article holds that true peer-to-peer operation requires Bitcoin to be above the law, and that a free node cost would mean perfect decentralization, while the cost of a full US dollar node is unaffordable by design.