A powerful vision of the future democratization of finance. Details of the winners and the losers. “DeFi, like the internet, will likely make financial services cheaper, faster, secure,personalized, and more. The future has yet to be written. This book provides a peek into it, and you, the reader, hold the power to create it.” ?FRED EHRSAM, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Paradigm; Co-founder, Coinbase “For newcomers, DeFi is often difficult to approach and understand. The lack of general resources adds additional hurdles for beginners looking to dip their toes into the space. This book gives the reader clear, concise descriptions of some of the most popular DeFi protocols today including lending, Automated Market Makers, and more.Highly recommended.” ?STANI KULECHOV, Founder and CEO, Aave “Arguably the single best survey of decentralized finance circa mid-2021. Recommended.” ?balaji s. srinivasan, Angel Investor and Entrepreneur; former General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz “This book provides both a principled explanation of key DeFi primitives, as well as a deep-dive into the most popular DeFi projects. It’s a key resource that will get you up to speed on DeFi in no time!” ?IVAN BOGATYY, Ethereum researcher and angel investor; former General Partner, Metastable Capital While cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are frequently featured in the media, there is an underground movement that has a bull’s eye on the current financial infrastructure. This financial system, including commercial banks, stock exchanges, and insurance companies,is not substantially different today than it was one hundred years ago. It is ripe for change. DeFi and the Future of Finance presents a roadmap to a new future. It is a future of financial inclusion and financial democracy. It is a future that excises the countless middle people that profit at the cost of consumers, investors and entrepreneurs and stifle economic growth. The book reimagines all basic financial functions from savings and lending to exchange. In the future, almost everything from physical assets to virtual assets will be tokenized. Ideal for those that work in the finance industry or anyone that deals with the financial infrastructure, DeFi and the Future of Finance is a powerful introduction to an exciting and constantly evolving space.

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