Decentralized finance (DeFi) technology is a new financial technology based on distributed ledgers similar to those used in cryptocurrencies. Banks and institutions no longer control money, financial products, and financial services.
Understanding DeFi protocols requires understanding the definition of decentralized finance. Peer-to-peer financing, also known as decentralized finance, refers to the transition from conventional, centralized financial systems to peer-to-peer funding.
In addition to tokenized digital currency and stablecoins, the DeFi ecosystem has successfully created a lending and borrowing platform. Over time, the DeFi landscape has evolved into a massive network with integrated financial instruments and protocols.
Defining the DeFi Protocols
There has been a tremendous growth of the best DeFi protocols in the past two years. In 2020, DeFi’s assets reached a value of over $12 billion, making it one of the most promising years for the company. DeFi protocols are specialized autonomous programs that have been designed to address issues related to the traditional finance industry. The DeFi protocol aims to change this situation for more than half of the world’s population without access to a bank account.
The development of DeFi protocols will enable the introduction of more financial instruments. By now, many DeFi protocols have formed an integral part of a complex ecosystem with numerous notable tokens and projects. Due to the substantial rise in the value of DeFi protocols, startups in this area see opportunities.
A nascent industry with access to a huge financial market could soon be on the verge of tapping into more than 50% of the world’s population without a bank account, and venture capital firms are taking note. Various projects have accrued hundreds of millions of dollars in funding, and the industry contains over $9 billion in locked assets.
In addition to offering lending solutions, these projects create liquidity between multiple blockchains and create on-chain assets such as stocks and shares to encourage cryptocurrency adoption.
Many potential risks are associated with the space since it is still in development. This article will discuss some of the significant projects in space, their purpose, their financial backing, and their weaknesses.
DeFi Protocols And Their Importance
To reflect on a DeFi protocols list, it’s essential to have a technical understanding of the same. The protocol is defined as rules or standards that govern a specific task or activity. DeFi protocols may include rules and principles aligned with real-world institutions for industry participants.
Blockchain technology allows for increased financial security and transparency, opening up new liquidity and growth opportunities and an integrated and standardized economic system through decentralized finance.
Programmability:
Smart contracts are highly programmable and allow for the creation of new financial instruments and digital assets.
Transmutability:
The decentralized architecture provides tamper-proof data coordination, enhancing security, and audibility.
Integrated information exchange:
With Ethereum’s composable software stack, DeFi protocol and applications are constructed to be integrated and complementary. Utilizing DeFi, product teams and developers can build on top of established protocols, customize interfaces, and integrate third-party applications. These reasons account for the nickname “money Legos” given to DeFi protocols.
Managing transparency:
Every transaction on the Ethereum network is broadcast to other users and verified by them. Ethereum addresses are encrypted and pseudo-anonymous keys. In addition to providing rich data analysis, this level of transparency about transaction data also makes network activity available to anyone. Also, Ethereum and the DeFi protocols running on it have open-source code that can be viewed, audited, and developed by anyone.
Unpermitted:
By contrast with traditional finance, DeFi is defined by openness and permission-lessness, anyone with a crypto wallet and an Internet connection can access DeFi applications built using Ethereum regardless of their geography.
Self-Control:
Participants in the DeFi market always retain ownership of their assets and control their data by interacting with permissionless financial applications and protocols using Web3 wallets like MetaMask.
Description of DeFi Workability
Cryptocurrencies use blockchain technology for decentralized finance. Blockchains are distributed and secure databases. Transactions and blockchain operations are handled using decentralized applications (dApps).
Each blockchain block contains information about a transaction verified by other users. Upon agreement among these verifiers regarding a transaction, the block is closed and encrypted; a new partnership is created with information about the previous block within it.
The information in each successive block is linked together to form the blockchain, hence its name. It is impossible to change information in previous blocks without affecting the following blocks, so a blockchain cannot be altered. Together with other security protocols, this concept contributes to its substantial secure nature.
Using your decentralized finance application, a DeFi application will match you with peers that meet your loan needs (dApp). A lender’s terms would then need to be agreed upon, and the loan would be processed.
Blockchain records transactions, but you don’t receive your loan until the consensus mechanism has verified them. The lender can begin collecting payments from you at the agreed-upon intervals. Whenever you make a payment via a dApp, the payment follows the same procedure on the blockchain; the funds are ultimately transferred to the lender.