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Yes it does sound like marketing speak, my bad. So deFi can help users and communities because decentralized financial systems, allow users to lend, borrow, an

Yes it does sound like marketing speak, my bad. So deFi can help users and communities because decentralized financial systems, allow users to lend, borrow, and trade without intermediaries, enhancing financial inclusivity and reducing costs. Web3 technologies can facilitate community-driven initiatives, e.g. regenerative finance (ReFi), which supports climate action and equitable resource allocation. Also some interesting things happening around DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) e.g. Venture DAOs supporting new business creation. In general the principles behind having reduced intermediaries, and having user control and ownership of user data, together with enlightened uses of smart contract and other Web3 technologies is empowering, especially if it's put to use to solve real world problems. I do think that it's difficult to see past the sometimes murky shenanigans and greed often on display in Web3. But I think decentralization is a paradigm shift, it's going to take some visionary entrepreneurs and technologists to continue to build out the promise but I believe that it will happen.

FabHK 2y ago
You can't do uncollateralised borrowing/lending without credit checks, that is interaction with the real world. This requires trusted centralized counterparties, identity, etc., and is not suited for permissionless blockchains. Trading equity/FX on centralized platforms is extraordinarily cheap. You don't save much, if anything, by going decentralized there (not to mention the fact that to enter the crypto system, you need to exchange fiat (hard to get crypto by mining these days), and Coinbase charges consumers 1.55% on average for that, so 3% for a round-trip back to fiat.) Having control of user data is orthogonal to the technology. It's a legal matter. We could retain ownership of a tweet with a different contract. The nature of the underlying distributed database hardly matters. The vision of crypto has failed. Instead of reducing intermediaries, it gave rise to a whole new host of intermediaries, and enormous externalities (environments, scams, hacks, crime).
- fallinditch 2y ago
  Thanks for your reply, food for thought. I take your point about uncolateralized loans, although I believe there is some interesting work going on with zero knowledge proofs that can help to assess creditworthiness without revealing sensitive information. It's an interesting time: we're seeing mainstream adoption of blockchain and crypto technologies at the same time that shitcoin madness is trending. The basic concepts behind smart contracts are sound and enable efficient transactions and alternative economic systems, this is why I believe we'll increasingly see major institutions adopting it. As far as community and user empowerment and creating alternative economic ecosystems, it will inevitably take some time to realize effective systems and usage models. I think there is huge potential, still early days. Thanks for the healthy scepticism though, I probably need more of it!

FabHK 2y ago

You can't do uncollateralised borrowing/lending without credit checks, that is interaction with the real world. This requires trusted centralized counterparties, identity, etc., and is not suited for permissionless blockchains. Trading equity/FX on centralized platforms is extraordinarily cheap. You don't save much, if anything, by going decentralized there (not to mention the fact that to enter the crypto system, you need to exchange fiat (hard to get crypto by mining these days), and Coinbase charges consumers 1.55% on average for that, so 3% for a round-trip back to fiat.) Having control of user data is orthogonal to the technology. It's a legal matter. We could retain ownership of a tweet with a different contract. The nature of the underlying distributed database hardly matters. The vision of crypto has failed. Instead of reducing intermediaries, it gave rise to a whole new host of intermediaries, and enormous externalities (environments, scams, hacks, crime).

fallinditch 2y ago
Thanks for your reply, food for thought. I take your point about uncolateralized loans, although I believe there is some interesting work going on with zero knowledge proofs that can help to assess creditworthiness without revealing sensitive information. It's an interesting time: we're seeing mainstream adoption of blockchain and crypto technologies at the same time that shitcoin madness is trending. The basic concepts behind smart contracts are sound and enable efficient transactions and alternative economic systems, this is why I believe we'll increasingly see major institutions adopting it. As far as community and user empowerment and creating alternative economic ecosystems, it will inevitably take some time to realize effective systems and usage models. I think there is huge potential, still early days. Thanks for the healthy scepticism though, I probably need more of it!