28 ms·

Is DeFi an actual thing, or just a term for cryptocurrencies in general?

• warkdarrior 6y ago
  DeFi is basically financial applications built on top of cryptocurrencies. Sometimes these financial applications (like exchanges, money markets, loan offerings, etc.) are decentralized.
  • StavrosK 6y ago
    Hmm, only sometimes? Doesn't the name imply otherwise?
    • jamesonhodge 6y ago
      There are varying levels of decentralization an application can take on, e.g. the back end (often Ethereum for financial applications), the front end (hosting on a peer-to-peer database like IPFS or Sia), and governance (by a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) or some voting mechanism). Many DApps are founded with certain parts being decentralized and other parts centralized, and transition to a more/fully decentralized model.
      • StavrosK 6y ago
        I see, thanks, that's helpful.
• heynk 6y ago
  https://defipulse.com/ https://defipulse.com/ is a good dashboard that highlights the amount of money "locked" (i.e. as collateral) in various DeFi protocols. It currently indicates $8 billion USD worth of locked funds. In reality, the number is lower, because folks use "yield farming". You can put some collateral in one protocol, use that to mint some funds, and then collateralize that in another protocol. And rinse and repeat. There was a Twitter post[0] recently where someone analyzed this, and they found that the "true" TLV was more like ~3.5 billion out of $6.7b. The space is growing quite quickly. A month ago, the TLV was 50% of what is was right now. [0]- https://twitter.com/damirbandalo/status/1295089928901140481 https://twitter.com/damirbandalo/status/1295089928901140481
  • StavrosK 6y ago
    Hmm, okay, but what is it?
    • michaelsbradley 6y ago
      Decent overview: https://www.coindesk.com/defi-yield-farming-comp-token-explained https://www.coindesk.com/defi-yield-farming-comp-token-expla...
      • StavrosK 6y ago
        Thanks!