Governance and Architectures of Decentralized Systems

As networked systems scale beyond the reach of centralized control, decentralized network architectures, protocols, and coordination mechanisms have become critical to sustaining performance, resilience, and trust. Decentralization has therefore emerged as a unifying paradigm in modern computing, enabling systems that distribute data, computation, decision-making, and control across multiple actors and infrastructures rather than relying on centralized authorities. It reflects not only a technological shift but also a transformation in how digital systems are designed, coordinated, governed, and sustained. Meanwhile, advances in artificial intelligence are introducing new challenges and requirements for networked systems. Autonomous and semi-autonomous AI agents increasingly interact, coordinate, negotiate, and share data across distributed environments. This shift places novel demands on network protocols, communication efficiency, edge and cloud-edge infrastructures, and decentralized trust mechanisms, while raising critical questions around identity, latency, resource allocation, and accountability across multi-agent networks.This Research Topic brings together technical innovation and system-level perspectives to develop a holistic and interdisciplinary understanding of decentralization technologies and systems. While decentralized approaches are often associated with blockchain and distributed ledgers, they also include peer-to-peer architectures, federated learning, edge and cloud-edge systems, self-sovereign identity, privacy-enhancing technologies, and decentralized cyber-physical infrastructures. We invite contributions that examine both the technological foundations and the organizational, economic, regulatory, and governance dimensions of decentralized systems. The Research Topic is open to multiple application domains, with particular interest in energy systems, financial innovation, health, digital infrastructures, and public-sector applications. The goal of this Research Topic is to advance the understanding and development of decentralization technologies and systems by fostering high-quality research contributions. It seeks to highlight interdisciplinary approaches, architectural principles, and designs, as well as real-world applications or case studies that demonstrate the potential of decentralization. Additionally, the Topic aims to critically examine the limitations and risks associated with these systems, including security vulnerabilities, governance challenges, and regulatory considerations. By bringing together diverse perspectives, it intends to shape future research directions and support the development of scalable, secure, and sustainable decentralized infrastructures, networks, and solutions. This Research Topic aims to advance research on decentralized technologies and systems by encouraging contributions that address fundamental challenges, propose novel architectures and systems, and demonstrate impactful applications. We welcome submissions covering, but not limited to, the following: - Peer-to-peer protocols, distributed coordination and consensus - Self-sovereign identity and decentralized identifiers (DIDs) - Privacy-preserving protocols for communication, analysis, and data sharing - Agentic AI and multi-agent systems in distributed environments- Decentralized, federated, and edge AI architectures- Federated learning and distributed machine learning - InterPlanetary File System, Tor, and decentralized networking protocols - Design, architecture, development, and implementation of decentralized systems - Decision rights, incentives, accountability, business models, organizational change, and ecosystems around decentralized systems Topic editors: Tom Barbereau, Sergio Potenciano Menci Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/86177/governance-and-architectures-of-decentralized-systems