- DeFi (or “decentralized finance”) is a term used to refer to financial services transacted on public blockchains.
- DeFi is permissionless and open to all. Transactions are routed through a decentralized network or blockchain.
- DeFi applications provide many of the same services provided by traditional banks such as lending, borrowing, trading, to mention just a few.
To learn more about decentralized finance, check out these hand-picked articles.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) (Ethereum.org)
This article provides a comprehensive look at decentralized finance on Ethereum.org (the official Ethereum website).
🌍 Link: https://ethereum.org/en/defi/
Ultimate DeFi Glossary (Ledger)
This is a list of decentralized finance terms to familiarize anyone with an interest in DeFi.
🌍 Link: https://www.ledger.com/academy/ultimate-defi-glossary
Why DeFi is the Future of Finance (ConsenSys)
Find out why DeFi has the potential to usurp traditional finance (TradeFi).
This article explains how DeFi enables cheaper transactions and cheaper financing. Decentralized technology provides an opportunity to create innovative financial products without being hindered by legacy infrastructure.
🌍 Link: https://consensys.net/blog/metamask/metamask-institutional/why-defi-is-the-future-of-finance/
Most Popular DeFi Protocols
There are many DeFi protocols consisting of decentralized exchanges (DEXs), liquidity aggregators, margin trading platforms, asset management platforms, and lending platforms.
This article lists the most notable DeFi protocols such as Aave, yEarn, Compound, Uniswap, Maker DAO, etc.
🌍 Link: https://101blockchains.com/top-defi-protocols/
What is TVL and Why Does it Matter? (CoinTelegraph)
Total Value Locked up (TVL) is an indicator used by DeFi investors to assess the value of assets deposited within DeFi protocols.
Higher TVL indicates increased liquidity of a protocol, meaning the project is succeeding and attracting more participants.
🌍 Link: https://cointelegraph.com/explained/what-is-total-value-locked-tvl-in-crypto-and-why-does-it-matter
Exciting DeFi Projects Worth Watching In 2022 (Bitcoinist)
This article introduces promising DeFi projects that do not live on Ethereum.
- Take for example Parallel Finance, a money market protocol for Polkadot and Kusama chains.
- Ardana, a Decentralized Exchange (DEX) for the Cardano blockchain.
- Or Centrifuge, a DeFi project aiming to enable tokenization of real-world assets.
🌍 Link: https://bitcoinist.com/4-exciting-defi-projects-worth-watching-in-2022/
Oracles in DeFi 101: A Deep Dive (Coin Market Cap)
Oracles provide real-world off-chain data to smart contracts. They are crucial to decentralized finance.
This article explains the value that Oracles provide, listing the major oracles used on the Ethereum blockchain.
🌍 Link: https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/oracles-in-defi-101-a-deep-dive-by-tellor
What is Yield Farming in Decentralized Finance (DeFi)? (Binance)
Read this article about yield farming to learn how to make more crypto with your crypto.
Yield farming involves lending out your cryptocurrency using smart contracts. Investors lock up cryptocurrency to get rewards. They use different strategies to maximize yield/ROI.
🌍 Link: https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/what-is-yield-farming-in-decentralized-finance-defi
The 5 Big Risk Vectors of DeFi (CoinDesk)
Being new technologies, DeFi protocols present risks. Five types of risks are highlighted:
1. Intrinsic Protocol Risk, 2. Exogenous Risk, 3. Governance Risks, 4. Underlying Blockchain Risk, 5. Market Risk.
🌍 Link: https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2022/02/03/the-five-big-risk-vectors-of-defi/
DeFi App Development Guide
Learn how to build a DeFi app. Read about development considerations such as level of decentralization, blockchain choice, crypto wallet integration, etc.
🌍 Link: https://topflightapps.com/ideas/how-to-build-a-defi-app/
Bonus: Build a DeFi Yield Farming dApp with Chainlink Price Feeds
🌍 Link: https://blog.chain.link/build-defi-yield-farming-application-with-chainlink/
Learn Solidity Course
Solidity is the programming language of the future.
It gives you the rare and sought-after superpower to program against the “Internet Computer”, i.e., against decentralized Blockchains such as Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum Classic, Tron, and Avalanche – to mention just a few Blockchain infrastructures that support Solidity.
In particular, Solidity allows you to create smart contracts, i.e., pieces of code that automatically execute on specific conditions in a completely decentralized environment. For example, smart contracts empower you to create your own decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) that run on Blockchains without being subject to centralized control.
NFTs, DeFi, DAOs, and Blockchain-based games are all based on smart contracts.
This course is a simple, low-friction introduction to creating your first smart contract using the Remix IDE on the Ethereum testnet – without fluff, significant upfront costs to purchase ETH, or unnecessary complexity.
