If Yes, is it right to bring in venture capital into a decentralized crypto project? Wouldn't this make the name 'decentralized' of a project invalid?
Most of the time they use "decentralized" to refer to the non-custodial part of the project. For example, a "decentralized" exchange that does not hold any funds but just facilitates transfer between two wallets directly, launching a pool where users can deposit their tokens to gain interest that does not need a UI to manage it, etc. So, don't be misled by the term. Many projects use the same thing to refer to different things. Heck, I think I made a post just last week about this. I found one project who uses "decentralized" to describe their server locations, while their products are mostly centralized (need to deposit to their wallet, need to KYC, etc).I don't know how VC or private entities make deals with start-ups, but as far as I know, most of these deals are only about getting tokens very early in a large amount so they can dump on retail investors later down the line. At the very least, they don't openly admit that their decision-making in key areas such as token unlock, exchange listing, change in protocol, etc need permission from their early investors. That being said, you should assume the worst-case scenario and stay away from projects like that for the long term.
