Decentralized finance—better known as “DeFi”—refers to the shift from traditional, centralized financial systems to peer-to-peer finance enabled by decentralized technologies built on the Ethereum blockchain. From lending and borrowing platforms to stablecoins and tokenized BTC, the DeFi ecosystem has launched an expansive network of integrated protocols and financial instruments.
Now with over $13 billion worth of value locked in Ethereum smart contracts, decentralized finance has emerged as the most active sector in the blockchain space, with a wide range of use cases for individuals, developers, and institutions.
Whereas our traditional financial system runs on centralized infrastructure that is managed by central authorities, institutions, and intermediaries, decentralized finance is powered by code that is running on the decentralized infrastructure of the Ethereum blockchain. By deploying immutable smart contracts on Ethereum, DeFi developers can launch financial protocols and platforms that run exactly as programmed and that are available to anyone with an Internet connection.
The breakthrough of DeFi is that crypto assets can now be put to use in ways not possible with fiat or “real world” assets. Decentralized exchanges, synthetic assets, and flash loans are completely novel applications that can only exist on blockchains.
This paradigm shift in financial infrastructure presents a number of advantages with regard to risk, trust, and opportunity.
From DAOs to synthetic assets, decentralized finance protocols have unlocked a world of new economic activity and opportunity for users across the globe. The comprehensive list of use cases below is proof that DeFi is much more than an emerging ecosystem of projects.
It’s a wholesale and integrated effort to build a parallel financial system on Ethereum that rivals centralized services because it is profoundly more accessible, resilient, transparent, and interoperable.
NOTE: Defi is a decentralized finance protocol that is built on top of Ethereum. While it may be built on the Ethereum network, it is not Ethereum itself. Defi protocols are highly complex and risky, and should only be used with sufficient research and caution. Investing in Defi carries high risk, as they may be subject to fluctuations in the value of their underlying assets and the risk of loss of principal.
Asset management:
With DeFi protocols, you are the custodian of your own crypto funds. Crypto wallets like MetaMask, Gnosis Safe, Argent, Authereum, Portis, Torus, Rainbow Wallet, etc.
make it easy for users to securely interact with decentralized applications to do everything from buying crypto to earning interest on your digital assets. In the DeFi space, you own your data: MetaMask alone has over 1 million active monthly users who control their own seed phrase, private keys, passwords, and accounts.
Compliance and KYT: In traditional finance, compliance around anti-money laundering (AML) and countering-the-financing-of-terrorism (CFT) relies on know-your-customer (KYC) guidelines. In the DeFi space KYC is often turned on its head with know-your-transaction (KYT) mechanisms that assess risk in real time based on behavior rather than identity.
These mechanisms help assess risk in DeFi protocols in order to protect against fraud and financial crimes.
DAOs: A DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization that cooperates according to transparent rules encoded on the Ethereum blockchain, eliminating the need for a centralized, administrative entity. Several popular protocols in the DeFi space are organized as DAOs, including MakerDAO, Compound Finance, dYdX Margin Trading Protocols , Set Protocol , Nexus Mutual , Aragon , Melonport AG , Dharma Protocol , Gnosis , Colony , FOAM Cartography , Gitcoin Grants , SourceCred , Giveth , MetaCartel Ventures , and MolochDAO .
These are just a few examples for why Defi is such an important part for ethereum
In short: Defi is crucial for ethereum because it allows for many different things such as DAOs,.Without Defi ethereum would not be nearly as successful.
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Decentralized finance—often called “DeFi”—refers to the shift from traditional, centralized financial systems to peer-to-peer finance enabled by decentralized technologies built on the Ethereum blockchain. From lending and borrowing platforms to stablecoins and tokenized BTC, the DeFi ecosystem has launched an expansive network of integrated protocols and financial instruments. Now with over $13 billion worth of value locked in Ethereum smart contracts, decentralized finance has emerged as the most active sector in the blockchain space, with a wide range of use cases for individuals, developers, and institutions. .
Decentralized finance—often called “DeFi”—refers to the shift from traditional, centralized financial systems to peer-to-peer finance enabled by decentralized technologies built on the Ethereum blockchain. From lending and borrowing platforms to stablecoins and tokenized BTC, the DeFi ecosystem has launched an expansive network of integrated protocols and financial instruments. Now with over $13 billion worth of value locked in Ethereum smart contracts, decentralized finance has emerged as the most active sector in the blockchain space, with a wide range of use cases for individuals, developers, and institutions. .
Ethereum is the most popular blockchain platform for decentralized applications (dapps) and smart contracts. While it is often associated with Bitcoin, Ethereum is much more than a digital currency. It is a decentralized platform that runs on blockchain technology, allowing developers to create dapps and smart contracts that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of fraud or third party interference.
Decentralized finance, or “DeFi,” is a hot topic in the cryptocurrency space. Ethereum is the most popular blockchain for DeFi applications, with over $13 billion worth of value locked in Ethereum-based DeFi protocols. But what exactly is DeFi?
Decentralized finance, or “DeFi,” is a catch-all term for the various financial protocols and platforms built on Ethereum. These protocols and platforms provide a wide variety of financial services, ranging from lending and borrowing platforms to stablecoins and tokenized BTC. While DeFi protocols and platforms have been growing in popularity in recent months, there are still a number of challenges that need to be addressed before they can be widely adopted.
Decentralized finance, or “DeFi,” is a hot topic in the crypto world these days. From yield-bearing protocols to flash loans and everything in between, this relatively new sector of the industry has taken the crypto community by storm. But with all the excitement around DeFi, one question still remains: is all of it built on Ethereum?
An ICO, or initial coin offering, is a new way of funding start-UPS and other companies that is growing in popularity. In an ICO, a company creates a new digital currency and offers it for sale to the public, in exchange for other currencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum. The new currency is similar to a share in the company, and can be traded on exchanges or used to purchase goods and services from the company.
Decentralized finance—often called “DeFi”—refers to the shift from traditional, centralized financial systems to peer-to-peer finance enabled by decentralized technologies built on the Ethereum blockchain. From lending and borrowing platforms to stablecoins and tokenized BTC, the DeFi ecosystem has launched an expansive network of integrated protocols that are changing the way we interact with financial services. By deploying immutable smart contracts on Ethereum, DeFi developers can launch financial protocols and platforms that run exactly as programmed and that are available to anyone with an Internet connection.
Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of fraud or third party interference. These apps run on a custom built blockchain, an enormously powerful shared global infrastructure that can move value around and represent the ownership of property. This enables developers to create markets, store registries of debts or promises, move funds in accordance with instructions given long in the past (like a will or a futures contract) and many other things that have not been invented yet, all without a middleman or counterparty risk.
