Decentralized Finance or “DeFi” is essentially conventional financial tools built on a blockchain — usually the Ethereum blockhain.
In the DeFi world, financial transactions and rules are enforced by computer code instead of a human authority or arbitrator.
The idea is to provide a new, permission-less financial ecosystem without a central authority. This allows for lending and borrowing in a decentralized manner.
Participants in the system act as their own custodian, maintaining full control of their assets while granting access to financial services.
Currently, almost all smart contracts are run on Ethereum computing platform. However, there are other smart contract ecosystems in development such as Eos.
A smart contact is an example of decentralized application (also called a dApp). One the most popular ways to run a DApp is to use MetaMask.
MetaMask is a browser plug-in that allows you to run DApps without having to run a full Ethereum node
More DEFi Resources
- Maker Dao: Offers decentralized loans, and a token that is pegged to USD
- Compound Finance: Dencentralized loans
- LoanScan: A site that tracks all the decentralize lending & borrowing offers
- TokenSets: A site where you can buy groups of crypto assets
- DeFi Prime: A catalog of DeFi resources
