Table of Contents
1 Introduction 4 Five Key Problems of Centralized Financial Systems
Implications
2 The Origins of Modern Decentralized Finance 6
A Brief History of Finance 6
Fintech 6
Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency 7
Ethereum and DeFi 9
3 DeFi Infrastructure 9
Blockchain 10
Cryptocurrency 10
The Smart Contract Platform 11
Oracles 12
Stablecoins 13
Decentralized Applications 14
4 DeFi Primitives 14
Transactions 15
Fungible Tokens 16
Nonfungible Tokens 19
Custody 20
Supply Adjustment 20
Incentives 22
Swap 25
Collateralized Loans 27
Flash (Uncollateralized) Loans) 28
5 Problems DeFi Solves 28
Inefficiency 29
Limited Access 30
Opacity 31
Centralized Control 32
Lack of Inoperability
6 DeFi Deep Dive 34
Credit/Lending 34
Decentralized Exchange 49
Derivatives 55
Tokenization 65
7 Risks 68
Smart Contract Risk 68
Governance Risk 70
Oracle Risk 71
Scaling Risk 72
DEX Risk 73
Custodial Risk 74
Regulatory Risk 75
8 Conclusions: Losers and Winners 76