Cardano Nakamoto Coefficient Live Tracker

The Nakamoto Coefficient is the primary benchmark for measuring blockchain decentralization. It quantifies the minimum number of independent stake pool entities required to collude and gain control of over 50% of the active stake on the Cardano network.

              
              50% Consensus MAV
            
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              Entities
            
Ouroboros Praos Majority

33% Liveness Limit

-- Entities

PoS Consensus Stall Limit

Unclustered Pools

-- Pools

Single Registered Pool IDs

Gini Inequality

Stake Distribution Curve

Active Delegated Stake

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Live Minimum Attack Vector Breakdown (Top Entities)

Live On-Chain Telemetry

This live table analyzes all registered stake pools, clustering multi-pool operators (MPOs), shared reward accounts, and common owner keys into unified entities. The top 15 entities together control over 50% of the active stake.

33.3% Liveness Stall: Top 7 Entities

50.0% Majority Attack Vector (MAV): Top 15 Entities

Decentralized Tail: Remaining ~1,960 Entities

#	Entity / Operator	Active Stake	Share	Cumulative %	Consensus Status	Sample Tickers
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Understanding Cardano Decentralization

Unlike proof-of-work networks where hash power determines consensus, Cardano relies on the Ouroboros Praos Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm. Network security and block production rights are proportional to delegated active stake across thousands of registered Stake Pool Operators (SPOs).

High Nakamoto Coefficient

A higher number indicates that active stake is evenly distributed across many independent operators, making consensus attacks exponentially harder.

Pool Saturation (k-Parameter)

Cardano enforces soft saturation limits per pool ($k=500$, ~70M ADA limit) to incentivize delegates to re-delegate away from over-saturated entities towards smaller pools.

How the Nakamoto Coefficient is Calculated

The calculation follows three systematic steps:

Step 1 (Data Collection & Clustering): Measure the active delegated stake per registered pool, and aggregate pools managed by the same operator (e.g. exchanges or multi-pool groups sharing reward accounts) into single entities for the Minimum Attack Vector (MAV).
Step 2 (Descending Sort): Sort all entities/pools in descending order by active stake.
Step 3 (Threshold Accumulation): Count the top k entities or pools whose cumulative stake reaches the security threshold.

Why do different trackers show different numbers? (50% vs. 33% Threshold)

You may notice discrepancies across blockchain trackers:

Platform / Methodology	Aggregation	Threshold	Cardano Value	Meaning
Cross-Chain Trackers (33% Liveness)	Entity-Level	33.3%	~7 – 15	PoS Liveness / Censorship stall threshold
Cardano Observer MAV	Entity-Level (Clustered)	50.0%	~15 – 24	True majority collusion vector (Ouroboros consensus)
Cardano Observer (Raw)	Single Pool IDs	50.0%	~160	On-chain registered pools required for >50%

Note on Ouroboros Consensus: Unlike BFT networks (which halt when 33% of validators fail), Cardano's Ouroboros Praos uses probabilistic longest-chain consensus. Reorganizing the chain or executing a double-spend attack strictly requires > 50% of the active stake.

Learn more in our technical Cardano Metrics Glossary or read our FAQ guide.