DeFi Apps & Distributed Finance
Next Level Opportunities With Opes
The pledge of the cryptocurrency community — the very technology framework at its core — is to make money and payments universally available to anybody from Cleveland to Addis Ababa. How cool is that?
It Gets Better
But it gets better — Decentralized Finance (“DeFi”) takes that promise a quantum leap forward. Imagine a totally global, totally open option to every financial service you use today within smart phone reach of anyone with an internet connection:
- savings
- loans
- trading
- insurance
- venture capital funds
Truly — access at a level of lowest common denominator and at its core are smart contract blockchains like Ethereum.
What’s a “Smart Contract?”
“Smart contracts” are decentralized computer programs working on the blockchain that can execute instantly — when specific conditions are met. Smart contracts make it possible for developers and dreamers alike to construct sophisticated financial functionality. They have moved past the borderless, bank-less movement cryptocurrency. We call these programs decentralized apps (“dapps” for short).
These programs are what we now call decentralized apps, or dapps.
You can think about a dapp as an app that is built on decentralized technology, rather than being developed and controlled by a single, centralized entity or company. (Get used to this word, dapp, you’ll be seeing it a lot from here on out.).
This is straight out Blade Runner (but less dreary), right? Not at all.
Automated loans that negotiated directly between two complete strangers in different parts of the world — with not single a bank in the middle — its happening on some dapps live — as you read this. A lot is happening.
There are DeFi dapps that
- enable the production of stablecoins (cryptocurrency with its worth is pegged to the US dollar),
- lend out money and earn interest on your crypto,
- get a loan,
- exchange one asset for another,
- go long or short properties, and
- execute automated, advanced investment techniques.
“Its All High Finance — Where is Wall Street?”
If that’s what comes to mind — you wouldn’t be the first. To determine what sets DeFi apps apart (and makes them different) from their “mirror selves” on Wall Street or Main Street — one must dig into how the operations are run and decisions are made.
DeFi apps are not handled by a firm, corporation, organization — they don’t even rely on employees! The rules — for dapps, are written in code (a.k.a or “smart contracts”). Once the smart contract is deployed to the blockchain by its developers, DeFi dapps run themselves with little to no human intervention — there is the need for developers to manage upgrades or bug-fixes.
So Who’s Checking All of This — How Am I Exposed?
Code on the blockchain is transparent — anybody can and is able to to audit it. This is aspect of the blockchain smart contract creates trust with users, due to the fact that anybody has the chance to peruse the agreement’s performance or ferret out program bugs. All the deal activity is also public for anyone to view. Privacy is not compromised — transactions in the DeFi world are anonymous as a rule — they are not tied to a real-life identity.
Worldwide & Ready from Day One
Dapps are developed to be worldwide from the first day — Whether you remain in Texas or Tanzania, you have access to the very same DeFi services and networks. Naturally, regional regulations might use but, technically speaking, the majority of DeFi apps are offered to anybody with a web connection.
Who Decides Who Can Develop dapps?
Dapps are “ permissionless” to develop, involvement is “permissionless” — anybody can develop DeFi apps, and anyone can use them. Unlike finance today, there are no gatekeepers or accounts with forms in triplicate. Users connect directly with the smart contracts from their digital wallets.
No Brand Lock-In Yet
If users don’t like something about a particular Dapp — access it through someone else’s UI or build your own version. Think of smart contracts as if they were a wide-open public API with which anyone can use to develop a Dapp.
More than just API connectivity — DeFi apps can be made from a integration or “confederation” of separate Defi application elements — like Tinker-Toys or Lincoln Logs. As an example — stablecoins, decentralized exchanges, and prediction markets can be combined to form completely new financial instruments!
To The Moon, DeFi!
DeFi is now one of the fastest growing sectors in crypto. Industry observers measure traction with a special brand-new metric — “ETH locked in DeFi”. At the time of writing, users have actually transferred over $600 million worth of crypto into these smart contracts.
One need only look at rocket-like growth of YIFI to see the potential of what’s coming around the corner
What IS Coming Around the Corner?
We’ve been talking with several people in the space and throughout the DeFi ecosystem the move towards decentralized governance and decision-making has only accelerated. We’re talking about methods to permit stakeholders to vote on choices via blockchain-based Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs).
As we looked closer we saw that this movement is not about the “next smart thing.” While its well within their wheel-house to be clever for the sake of being so; this group of people — who count pivotal projects for Google, Facebook, Snap, Fortnite, and Second Life amongst their accomplishments — developed a movement because their nonprofits stalled due to centralized financial frameworks.
How does one get all the money designated for a village in a foreign land without 70% of it being fleeced before it can be converted to cash to purchase supplies? How efficient can NGOs be wen international, national, regional and local decision-makers must be aligned before any “good” can be done?
What if someone in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe in need of $100 dollars to purchase supplies for their enterprise only had to flip open their smart phone make a request and wait a few seconds for a smart-contract driven vote to authorize the movement of funds?
What if a single mom in Lugoff, South Carolina wanted to make a few bucks on some of her Ethereum? All she would need to do is to wrap it in a new coin, stake it to a stablecoin and she’d begin yielding (earning) based upon the use a DeFi solution would have for the funds she made available?
Think of the potential here. Banks — currently treading water in a 0% interest rate monetary policy environment could grow. Venture capital can be taken out of the hands of the few and be intelligently allocated to more deserving entrepreneurs.
This team of engineers, financiers and DeFi app builders are crafting creating a new sort of financial future with their counterparts in DeFi across the globe.
They made this clear in our conversation. They DON’T want your investment — they don’t need it. They do want to make sure that people are ready for it and that’s why they (sort of) leaked it to me. They want to make sure that people are aware so that they can participate in the launch.
If your’e reading this before September 10, 2020, you need to go to our Facebook Group and sign up for our Messenger Bot. We will be sending the announcement out via messenger and email and that’s the only way to be in the loop.
here’s the link. https://www.facebook.com/groups/defiethereumcrypto
I normally don’t write about this stuff but it’s got me thinking about this in an entirely different fashion and that — a new way of thinking — is pretty refreshing and welcome these days.
Stay safe!
