Learning Crypto Team
Written by the Learning Crypto team, who have been publishing crypto education through four market cycles since 2016. Guides attributed to the team are collaborative pieces reviewed by the founders.
Disclaimer: this guide is educational and is not financial, investment or trading advice. Crypto carries real risk, including total loss. Do your own research and speak to a qualified professional before investing. Full disclaimer.
DeFiDeFi
DeFi
DeFi
What Is DeFi? A Complete Guide to Decentralised Finance
DeFi is financial services run by smart contracts on a public blockchain instead of by a company. You keep custody of your assets and need no approval to use it, which also means no deposit insurance, no reversals and no support desk. The most common way users lose money is approving a malicious contract.
Toby CunninghamDeFiDeFiTradFi vs DeFi and The Birth of 'Invisible' Finance
TradFi and DeFi do the same jobs, holding, moving and lending money, but TradFi runs on permission and trust in institutions while DeFi runs on open code and self-custody. The five real differences are access, custody, yield, regulation and speed. The test that matters: if you hold the keys you are in DeFi; if an exchange or bank holds them you are in TradFi.
14 min read/Heidi ChakosDeFiDeFiWhat is Liquid Staking? Your Guide to Flexible Crypto Rewards
Liquid staking lets you stake crypto for network rewards while receiving a tradeable liquid staking token (LST), such as Lido's stETH or Rocket Pool's rETH, that represents your position. You can trade, lend, or post the LST as collateral while the stake keeps earning, with no 32 ETH minimum. The trade-offs: smart contract risk, LSTs trading below peg under stress, slashing, and concentration in Lido.
Heidi ChakosStablecoinsStablecoinsWhat Is a Stablecoin? How They Work and the Risks
A stablecoin is a crypto token designed to hold a steady value, almost always one dollar. It stays stable because reserves back it or collateral is locked in a contract, not because of anything inherent to the token. Holding one means holding a claim on an issuer, with no deposit insurance and, for most retail holders, no direct redemption.
Toby CunninghamStablecoinsStablecoinsStablecoin Depegs: Why Pegs Break and What to Do
A stablecoin holds its peg through redemption plus arbitrage, so a depeg means that loop is blocked or doubted. Liquidity depegs usually recover within hours, collateral depegs depend on whether the assets are reachable, and design failures like Terra in 2022 rarely recover at all.
Toby CunninghamNow go and use it.
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