Decentralized finance

Financial services with no central authority

Decentralized finance provides financial instruments and services through smart contracts on a programmable, permissionless blockchain. This approach reduces the need for intermediaries such as brokerages, exchanges, or banks. DeFi platforms enable users to lend or borrow funds, speculate on asset price movements using derivatives, trade cryptocurrencies, insure against risks, and earn interest in savings-like accounts. The DeFi ecosystem is built on a layered architecture and highly composable building blocks. While some applications offer high interest rates, they carry high risks. Coding errors and hacks are a common challenge in DeFi. DeFi protocols exhibit varying degrees of decentralization, with truly decentralized protocols potentially acting as neutral infrastructure, while false decentralization leaves protocols open to manipulation and fraud or to being regulated as financial intermediaries.