Название: Decentralized Finance: From Core Concepts to DeFi Protocols for Financial Transactions
Автор: Thomas K. Birrer, Dennis Amstutz, Patrick Wenger
Издательство: Springer
Год: 2023
Страниц: 198
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf (true), epub
Размер: 57.4 MB

This book addresses the main concepts of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and the well-known economic problem of inflation within traditional financial systems (TradFi). The authors discuss how both systems are connected and describe how they influence each other. Furthermore, new technological developments in the finance sector are considered and explained. The book provides not only a theoretical background to understand how money has evolved over time but also many practical cases and advise to navigate the digital money era. While digitalization and innovation are evolving rapidly, this book aims to be time-independent in its content and in its focus on concepts. The book appeals not only to an academic audience but also to professionals working in the field.

In response to several bank bailouts throughout the world at the taxpayer’s expense, Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin in 2008 as the first decentralized, global cryptocurrency with a limited supply of 21 million coins. Reinforcing the need for sound, trust-less money in the economy and resembling a digital version of gold, the emergence of Bitcoin has brought widespread attention not only to cryptocurrencies but also to the underlying technology: the blockchain, a distributed ledger that records and secures transactions in a peer-to-peer network without the need of a trusted, centralized party. A further milestone in the widespread application of blockchain technology was the introduction of Ethereum by Buterin in 2013.

This novel functioning financial system offers the unique opportunity to maintain and increase wealth, by providing a return to sound digital money without the adverse externalities of today’s financial system of central and commercial banks. The active reader may ask, if a DeFi user should no longer trust commercial banks, politicians, and central bankers, who is to be trusted but themselves? While humans are inherently flawed—nobody is perfect—and prone to irrational and inconsistent behavior, lines of code execute exactly as programmed. These hardcoded rules provide DeFi users with the ability to execute powerful but predictable financial functions. Ultimately, they provide trust via rational mathematics and proven laws of economics, while the unpredictable influence of the “human factor” is minimized.

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