Decentralization and open governance are essential selling points for most cryptocurrency projects currently in existence. After all, a decentralized platform allows the community to control the project’s direction, rather than giving control to a central authority. The reason for its appeal is because the community can decide what is best for the community, while centralized authority tends to abuse its power for personal gains.

The Internet Computer (ICP) is perhaps one of the least decentralized projects out there given that most of its code is closed-source. Also, while it will have data centers across the world to facilitate its operations, its network nervous system (NNS) acts as a central point of weakness that is operated on one subnet that is controlled by its founders at the Dfinity Foundation.

The NNS also gives the Dfinity Foundation the power to vote towards shutting down or reject apps but that’s not even the worst part. Its founder Dominic Williams revealed in 2018 that the Internet Computer protocol will conform to different laws and regulations in different countries. It completely misses the point of having a decentralized internet focused on freedom and instead seems to focus on shifting the goal post compared to the internet companies that exist today.

The above concerns are perhaps one of the reasons why the price of Internet Computer’s native token ICP has been declining fast. For example, its price peaked above $600 on its first day of trading. However, it has quickly been losing value and recently dropped to a low of $28 towards the end of June. However, another major reason for the drastic price drop is higher selling pressure from early investors who received ICP when it was worth as little as $0.03 per coin at its public seed sale in 2017.

Anyone who would have invested just $1000 in the project in 2017 would have cashed out more than $19 million assuming they sold at a price point above $600, which explains the massive selloff. However, its price recently seemed to stabilize and has even been gaining. For example, it is currently trading at $38.31 after rallying by 5.81% in the last 24 hours, making it one of the top gainers in the crypto market which has largely been bearish in the last 24 hours.

Source: Binance

ICP’s latest price action is because it is low-hanging fruit. Its price is heavily discounted considering that it only has a $5.2 billion market cap and a circulating supply of 136.8 million coins. If you are buying ICP strictly based on these factors, then it might be a good investment. However, if you decide to buy the cryptocurrency because you believe in the project, then consider the decentralization concerns before hitting the buy button.

The red flags pointed earlier might not be such a big deal if you consider that the project has solid development goals. For example, it aims to create apps that will pay for hosting through ICP and this could fuel demand for ICP, especially if it manages to attract a lot of developers. Its latest performance is a sign that it is becoming attractive at its current price level and could potentially deliver solid gains in the event of a substantial bull run.

On the other hand, if you are investing for long-term hodling,  you should be aware that it has concerns that might be off-putting to many developers. After all, developers want to launch their apps on projects that align with the people’s interests and that is why Dapps have become so popular.