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Does anyone have a good suggestion how to get up to speed on the DeFi space starting with understanding how cryptocurrency works?

w4llstr33t 5y ago
I think it would be worth understanding how Bitcoin works first. It's designed to be more robust. It doesn't change as often (some criticize it due to that), however, it could also be seen as a strength. You could read the Bitcoin white paper [1]. If you wanted to learn more about programming Bitcoin, you could also check out Mastering Bitcoin 2nd Edition - Programming the Open Blockchain by Andreas M. Antonopoulos [2]. Ethereum was created after Bitcoin. It was designed to be more of an open programming platform. It was designed to be Turing Complete and enabled the use of "smart contracts". The DeFi space runs on smart contracts and Ethereum kicked off DeFi. This is the Ethereum white paper [3]. Mastering Ethereum by Andreas M. Antonopoulos & Gavin Wood is another book you could check out [4]. Here are a couple of introductions to DeFi, as well [5][6]. The hack that everyone is discussing here was on Poly Network, which a layer 2 solution for Ethereum [7]. Layer 2 solutions were created due to lower the high gas fees on Ethereum, as well as increase transaction throughput. Ethereum itself is also working on moving to Ethereum 2.0 which would help address the issues that layer 2 solutions are trying to solve [7]. Edit: Poly Network actually appears to be more of a bridge between different networks (Ethereum, Polygon and Binance Smart Chain) [9], so it's worth noting that this wasn't a direct hack on Polygon, which is a layer 2 solution for Ethereum. [1] https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf [2] https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook [3] https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/ https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/ [4] https://github.com/ethereumbook/ethereumbook https://github.com/ethereumbook/ethereumbook [5] https://ethereum.org/en/defi/ https://ethereum.org/en/defi/ [6] https://blog.coinbase.com/a-beginners-guide-to-decentralized-finance-defi-574c68ff43c4 https://blog.coinbase.com/a-beginners-guide-to-decentralized... [7] https://www.gemini.com/cryptopedia/polygon-crypto-matic-network-dapps-erc20-token#section-polygon-crypto-network-basics https://www.gemini.com/cryptopedia/polygon-crypto-matic-netw... [8] https://ethereum.org/en/eth2/ https://ethereum.org/en/eth2/ [9] https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/p1qfdo/psa_poly_network_is_not_the_same_thing_as_polygon/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/p1qfdo/psa_...
- kartikarti 5y ago
  > The hack that everyone is discussing here was on Poly Network, which a layer 2 solution for Ethereum [7] It's not. Polygon != Poly Network. See this comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28132755 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28132755
  - w4llstr33t 5y ago
    Yes, agreed, I had made an edit about this.
colinmhayes 5y ago
Read the bitcoin white paper to understand how crypto works. Then read about ethereum and smart contracts. DeFi is just a reimplementation of financial services with smart contracts.
lottin 5y ago
I can recommend "Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum & Smart Contracts" by David Gerard. Excellent stuff.
twox2 5y ago
IMO understanding how cryptocurrency works is a prerequisite, because a lot of the stuff being built in defi are fairly new financial instruments.
xur17 5y ago
Honestly the best way is to just start interacting with different projects, transferring money around, looking at transactions in etherscan, etc. Most of my understanding comes from writing trading bots for cryptokitties, so playing around with web3 to read data from different contracts, etc is very helpful.
MitPitt 5y ago
This repo has a lot of cool material, I like the "How to Defi" book most https://github.com/baraldor/defi https://github.com/baraldor/defi

w4llstr33t 5y ago

I think it would be worth understanding how Bitcoin works first. It's designed to be more robust. It doesn't change as often (some criticize it due to that), however, it could also be seen as a strength. You could read the Bitcoin white paper [1]. If you wanted to learn more about programming Bitcoin, you could also check out Mastering Bitcoin 2nd Edition - Programming the Open Blockchain by Andreas M. Antonopoulos [2]. Ethereum was created after Bitcoin. It was designed to be more of an open programming platform. It was designed to be Turing Complete and enabled the use of "smart contracts". The DeFi space runs on smart contracts and Ethereum kicked off DeFi. This is the Ethereum white paper [3]. Mastering Ethereum by Andreas M. Antonopoulos & Gavin Wood is another book you could check out [4]. Here are a couple of introductions to DeFi, as well [5][6]. The hack that everyone is discussing here was on Poly Network, which a layer 2 solution for Ethereum [7]. Layer 2 solutions were created due to lower the high gas fees on Ethereum, as well as increase transaction throughput. Ethereum itself is also working on moving to Ethereum 2.0 which would help address the issues that layer 2 solutions are trying to solve [7]. Edit: Poly Network actually appears to be more of a bridge between different networks (Ethereum, Polygon and Binance Smart Chain) [9], so it's worth noting that this wasn't a direct hack on Polygon, which is a layer 2 solution for Ethereum. [1] https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf [2] https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook [3] https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/ https://ethereum.org/en/whitepaper/ [4] https://github.com/ethereumbook/ethereumbook https://github.com/ethereumbook/ethereumbook [5] https://ethereum.org/en/defi/ https://ethereum.org/en/defi/ [6] https://blog.coinbase.com/a-beginners-guide-to-decentralized-finance-defi-574c68ff43c4 https://blog.coinbase.com/a-beginners-guide-to-decentralized... [7] https://www.gemini.com/cryptopedia/polygon-crypto-matic-network-dapps-erc20-token#section-polygon-crypto-network-basics https://www.gemini.com/cryptopedia/polygon-crypto-matic-netw... [8] https://ethereum.org/en/eth2/ https://ethereum.org/en/eth2/ [9] https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/p1qfdo/psa_poly_network_is_not_the_same_thing_as_polygon/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/p1qfdo/psa_...

kartikarti 5y ago
> The hack that everyone is discussing here was on Poly Network, which a layer 2 solution for Ethereum [7] It's not. Polygon != Poly Network. See this comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28132755 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28132755
- w4llstr33t 5y ago
  Yes, agreed, I had made an edit about this.

colinmhayes 5y ago

Read the bitcoin white paper to understand how crypto works. Then read about ethereum and smart contracts. DeFi is just a reimplementation of financial services with smart contracts.

lottin 5y ago

I can recommend "Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum & Smart Contracts" by David Gerard. Excellent stuff.

twox2 5y ago

IMO understanding how cryptocurrency works is a prerequisite, because a lot of the stuff being built in defi are fairly new financial instruments.

xur17 5y ago

Honestly the best way is to just start interacting with different projects, transferring money around, looking at transactions in etherscan, etc. Most of my understanding comes from writing trading bots for cryptokitties, so playing around with web3 to read data from different contracts, etc is very helpful.

MitPitt 5y ago

This repo has a lot of cool material, I like the "How to Defi" book most https://github.com/baraldor/defi https://github.com/baraldor/defi