Decentralized Finance

So far, you’ve learned how peer-to-peer payment works on both the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks. In this chapter, we will introduce you to Decentralized Finance (DeFi).

DeFi is an umbrella of new digital financial systems and services powered by blockchain technology and built on top of a decentralized network. We will start by covering the concepts of DeFi and how it is different from Traditional Finance (TradiFi) or Fintech, another area of digital innovation in financial services and payments before the rise of DeFi. We will introduce Ethereum token standards and stablecoins to help you understand the DeFi primitives and basic constructs. Following that, for the remainder of this chapter, we will discuss various DeFi protocols, including products and services in decentralized lending and borrowing, decentralized exchange, derivative, and insurance. We will dive deep into how the leading protocols, such as Aave, Uniswap, dYdX, and Nexus Mutual, work...