I remember the good-old days where you could stake coins like Peercoin and Blackcoin on your own node in a decentralized (trustless) manner. After ETH announced its intentions to become a PoS coin, those days are over. Most PoS coins require you to "lend" your coins to a validator or third-party for you to start earning income right away. ETH, Polkadot, Polygon, and many others now work this way. Isn't crypto's intended purpose to eliminate the middleman? By requiring trust in a PoS system, you're bringing back centralized banking to crypto. Money talks, so don't expect this to change anytime soon.

Do you think there's hope for PoS to become decentralized again? If not, why? Can we blame governments and VCs for the path PoS has taken lately? Your input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.