DeFi
Decentralized Finance
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
Banking without banks. Lending, borrowing, trading, and earning interest — all through smart contracts instead of institutions. No application forms, no business hours, no 'your transaction is being reviewed.' Just code executing automatically. Also: no customer support when things go wrong.
Real Talk
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) refers to financial services built on blockchain smart contracts that operate without traditional intermediaries. It includes decentralized exchanges (Uniswap), lending protocols (Aave), stablecoins, and yield farming. It offers permissionless access but carries smart contract risk and regulatory uncertainty.
When You'll Hear This
"The DeFi protocol has $2B in TVL." / "DeFi is either the future of finance or the world's most expensive experiment."
Related Terms
Blockchain
A digital ledger that nobody owns but everyone can verify.
Smart Contract
Code that runs on a blockchain — once deployed, nobody can change it (which is either amazing or terrifying).
Web3
The idea that the next internet should be decentralized — owned by users, not big companies.