I dunno about that, compared to the base chain yes, but we still have 17k ln nodes, your own node can P2P connect to any other node without going thru centralized peers (acinq/WoS etc)
Even if most of the liquidity is in a handful of nodes, which exchanges use to transfer between each other, doesn't actually force regular ln nodes to use them to access the network
My two sats in the subject
I like this take. I'm still learning the technical details of how lightning works, but aesthetically it appears to be inherently centralizing, though yoh seem to be suggesting that even with loads of routes converging on the same nodes, there's still no way to influence the routing itself, and over time it should decentralize. Does that sound right?
I guess it could be considered a larger issue that custodial uses are going parabolic relative to non custodial.
There are centralizing incentives, ie you can easily access the whole network by connecting to one centralized peer instead of multiple nodes, which is also cheaper for the base chain fees.
But you and I can easily open a channel between ourselves and other nodes on the network have no impact on our ability to transact
