Okay point taken regarding your position on DeFi. >>So what is the point of loaning money then if you have the money already, which "fully collaterized" implie

Okay point taken regarding your position on DeFi. >>So what is the point of loaning money then if you have the money already, which "fully collaterized" implies? It allows you to access a more liquid asset, like DAI, without selling the less liquid asset being used as collateral, like a CryptoPunk NFT. It's the same reason someone would get a line of credit on their house. >>I don't understand why a token is needed though, it's impossible to enforce its physical correlation to the asset anyway, The redeemability can be legally enforceable by the company making a contractual promise to redeem said token for the underlying asset. >> use a regular decentralized forum system for setting up trades. I.e. if someone says on a forum "You send me N ETH and you get a car" Forums are not decentralized. A DEX is fully decentralized, and sellers can play an automated role in DEXes by participating as liquidity providers to Automated Market Makers (AMMs) like Uniswap. The liquidity provider in this case need not do anything, except provide the assets to the trading pool, to participate. For the buyer, the purchase is seamless, as they are guaranteed to receive the asset once they click 'buy' and authorize the payment. This is a far more efficient means of trading than people could find on forums with manual asset purchase fulfillment.