Accelerating The Adoption Of DeFi

What is DeFi?

Decentralized finance (DeFi) is a new paradigm that is emerging within the financial services space. Driven by distributed ledger technology and open source software, and encouraged by better-aligned incentive and governance structures, this new system allows users access to open and permissionless financial services while also granting individuals complete control over their wealth and personal data. DeFi is completely transparent, with no counter-party risk as all agreements are arbitrated by smart contracts which always execute as planned. Additionally, under a DeFi construct, software largely ‘eats the world’ of centralized finance, fostering high levels of efficiency and dramatically lowering friction and cost.

While there are clear advantages to DeFi, it is still a very early movement largely driven by early adopters of blockchain and cryptocurrency. The question is how best to catalyze adoption and foster widespread use of DeFi. Looking at Mozilla Firefox c. 2006 and Uber c. 2008, provides an interesting comparison on different strategies for taking new and disruptive ideas, and bringing them mainstream.

A quick history of DeFi

While it is difficult to pinpoint the precise inception of DeFi, the movement as it is known today was created by the publication of Satoshi Nakamoto’s 9-page white…