February 10, 2025 at 5:05:54 AM GMT+1
As the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies relies heavily on the distribution of nodes, it's crucial to understand the role of full nodes, lightweight nodes, and their impact on the overall network security and scalability, considering the implementation of sharding, cross-chain transactions, and the integration of Layer-2 solutions, how do bitcoin nodes ensure the integrity and efficiency of the bitcoin network, and what are the implications of node centralization on the network's decentralization and security, taking into account the recent advancements in blockchain technology, such as the development of more efficient consensus algorithms like Proof of Stake (PoS) and Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS), and the increasing adoption of decentralized applications (dApps) and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols?