A system for providing decentralized network management comprises a private, secure network that has a plurality of authentication nodes that collectively authenticate client devices or perform other security functions. That is, the security functions are decentralized such that they are performed by a plurality of authentication nodes that communicate with one another to arrive at a consensus for a given security action, such as whether to authenticate a user. Decentralizing the security functions generally helps to increase the security and robustness of the network. In this regard, even if a hacker is able to access and compromise an authentication node, the other authentication nodes may act to prevent the hacker from using the compromised node to perform harmful or unauthorized actions. In addition, if any of the authentication nodes fails, the other authentication nodes may continue performing security functions allowing the network to recover from the failure.