How to DeFi the right way

Explore what decentralized finance is: a digital, permissionless, peer-to-peer system powered by smart contracts where funds are kept in self-custody wallets, enabling censorship-resistant financial services with 15 billion dollars locked.

Discover five core benefits of DeFi—immutability, programmability, transparency, interoperability, and self custody—and see how they enable tamper-proof, auditable, and open financial tools beyond traditional finance.

Discover DeFi alternatives to Ethereum through the privacy-first secret network. Learn how secret contracts enable programmable privacy, asset wrapping into secret tokens, and Dow governance while addressing frontrunning.

Learn how Maker enables borrowing against crypto collateral by locking ether or other erc-20 tokens to mint DIW, a stablecoin, via an over-collateralized debt position.

Explore how compound enables lending and borrowing with collateral, earning interest on deposits, and managing liquidation risk through safe borrowing limits.

Explore how dexes like Uniswap enable token swaps, listing ERC-20 tokens via liquidity pools, and earning liquidity provider fees, while highlighting impermanent loss risks.

Explore how reserve and carbon stablecoins use pegged and algorithmic designs, self-referential collateral, collateral tokens, and carbon credits to maintain a stable one dollar value.

Explore synthetic assets on synthetics and how mirrored markets peg prices to gold, stocks, and crypto, without direct physical exposure. Discover hedging with Henjak cryptocurrency options to mitigate short-term risk.

Discover blockchain-based payment rails with Flexa and the Lightning Network, enabling QR code payments, crypto and US dollar stable coins, no fraud or chargebacks, lower merchant fees, and near-instant settlements.

Explore honorable mentions in defi, including Nexus Mutual decentralized insurance, prediction markets, staking opportunities, and identity projects that shape governance and trust.

Discover the systemic risks in DeFi, including smart contract and governance risk. Evaluate exposure to centralized teams and unknown developers, and invest cautiously.

Install MetaMask as a browser extension in a chromium-based browser, verify the source to avoid scams, create a wallet with a password, and securely back up the 12-word seed phrase.

Set up MetaMask, verify the version, copy the address, and fund with a small amount of ETH to explore protocols and make DeFi work.

Learn to trade and provide liquidity on Uniswap by connecting a wallet, swapping ETH for a token, and adding liquidity to a pool while monitoring fees and impermanent loss.

Connect your wallet, deposit assets into Compound's supply markets to earn interest, and use collateral to borrow from borrow markets, all while watching interest rates and transaction fees on Ethereum.

Trade synthetic assets on the synthetics exchange, including silver and gold, forex, and crypto synths, using a Chainlink oracle and collateralized loans to access assets outside the crypto world.

Stake SNX to mint synthetic sUSD or sETH, connect your wallet, and use burn, mint, and reward-claim actions to trade on the synthetics ecosystem.

Explore on-chain options trading with hedging, learning how to buy call and put contracts for Bitcoin and Ethereum to hedge price moves, review the PECC Shield audit, and liquidity options.

Demonstrate using Furucombo to execute a flash loan without coding, borrowing funds within a single transaction to arbitrage across exchanges, and explain the payback and fees involved.

Review the foundational ideas of DeFi, explore the five main use cases, and learn how to profit within them, with approachable instructors ready to help.