DeFi 101
“DeFi” stands for Decentralized Finance. It can be thought of as an ecosystem of applications and protocols that provide similar services to traditional financial institutions (ie, lending, borrowing, and accruing interests from saving, amongst others). However, there is one key difference – DeFi aims to do this in a decentralized manner with no middle man.
That means no banks taking a cut of your potential returns or providing you with negative interest rates. That also means no central point of failure where the entire system could collapse, or be subjected to a set of rules decided and implemented by a small group with concentrated power.
At the time of writing (The Total Value Locked in Defi stands at 14.24B USD.)