Homework task: Briefly explain each of the following DeFi Dapps:

• Maker
• Compound
• Synthetix
• bZx
• Uniswap

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DeFi Apps 101

_{Source: Shutterstock}

First, What is DeFi?

The cryptocurrency term "DeFi" is a term coined short for decentralized finance, it is a collective term covering a variety of applications and websites that are built on top of cryptocurrencies or on a blockchain with the goal of changing financial intermediaries.

Most DeFi applications are built on top of the Ethereum(ETH) blockchain but currently, a lot of companies and cryptocurrencies are following suit. Apps have different uses, mainly DeFi apps are of the following nature:

• DExs or Decentralized Exchanges
• Stablecoins
• Lending Platforms
• "Wrapped" bitcoins or WBTC
• Prediction Markets

Steemit Crypto Academy

For the past 3 weeks, @steemtiblog and their assigned crypto professors have been assigning tasks for Steemians to make articles of. Overall, it's very enriching and an exciting opportunity as well. Today's Steemit Crypto Academy post is for the Week 4 task for crypto professor @yohan2on.

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Some DeFi Apps to Know

As mentioned above, there are different varieties of DeFi applications and we will be discussing soms of them here in this blog post. Let's start:

_{Source: Maker DAO}

Maker

Their website desribes this as "The world’s first unbiased currency". This certain DeFi application is offering their native cryptocurrency called Dai. Dai is a stablecoin.

In addition to that, Maker, is also a lending DeFi product. Anyone in the cryptospace can usethe DeFi Maker to open a 'Vault', lock in a crypto collateral such as in ETH or in BAT, and then they can generate Dai as debt against that collateral.

Maker allows users to borrow a loan from them in exchange for a collateral. Usually, the value of the collateral is always higher than the value of the loan. They made this to ensure that in case the borrower cannot pay the loan, the collateral itself may be used to cover up the lender’s loss. For Maker, users can borrow up to 66% of value in DAI on the collateral that they have locked-up.

_{Source: Oasis}

The most popular way to use MakerDAO is Maker’s Oasis Portal. You can open and manage Vaults there, review your history, deposit DAI, and updated get stats on the whole system.

_{Source: Compound}

Compound

Using Compound DeFi is very easy, they have a native interfacce at: https://app.compound.finance/. You just have to connect a wallet to it, enable assets to start supplying or borrowing them. You can check your balance and interest rates there as well.

There are other community-built interfaces where you can access Compound's features too, like InstaDapp and Zerion.

Almost the same as Maker Dao, Compound is a money market protocol controlled by algorithms and is built on Ethereum. It lets users earn interest or borrow assets against the collateral they put in. Anyone is able to supply their assets in the liquidity pools and begin earning compounding interest. The supply and demand will affect the rates as they get adjusted.

_{Source: Compound}

Recently, Compound has transitioned to community governance. COMP token-holders and their delegates can debate, propose, and vote on all changes to Compound. Much like how Steemit witnesses can make changes to the Steemit platform and blockchain.

_{Source: Synthetix}

Synthetix

Synthetix wants to bring trading of stocks, currencies, commodities, and other assets over to the decentralized world. Make them permissionless, and available for 24/7 access.

The DeFi Synthetix allows its users to be able to bet on cryptocurrency assets, stocks, world currencies, precious metals like gold, and other financial assets in the form of ERC20 tokens. The assets are called "Synths" which are essentially copying the prices of the real-world assets and brings it over to the ETH blockchain. Turning that certain Synth into an ERC20 token.

However, Synthetic doesn't entitle you to holding the actual asset (and thus, no dividends, or voting rights). The mimicking process simply allow users to bet on the price of that certain real-world commodity.

_{Source: Synthetix}

Synthetix is basically a crypto-blooded Margin Trading platform where you can bet short or long on actual commodities while getting earnings back by staking your native SNX tokens.Currently, over 85% of the total SNX supply is currently locked up in the protocol.

_{Source: bZx}

bZx

BZX is a decentralized finance protocol. It allows building of application that can empower lenders, borrowesm and traders with currently the most flexibility decentralized finance can offer on the Ethereum blockchain.

_{Source: bZx}

Two of the most notable applications or products built on top of the bZx DeFi protocol are Fulcrum and Torque.

Essentially, bZx makes margin trading on the cryptocurrency sphere possible using DeFi. It uses a token sytem managed by smart contracts making the whole process automated seamlessly. The three main tokens in the bZx system are iTokens, pTokens, and BZRX tokens.

Fulcrum allows you to do margin trades or lend crypto assets using the bZx smart contracts. For lending you receive iTokens and for margin trading you get pTokens instead. There are no fees and no registration necessary when using Fulcrum, you simply connect MetaMask or other Ethereum wallets to connect to the dapp and you can start using it

_{Source: bZx}

Torque, on the other hand, allows users to borrow money for whatever they like. Torque is offering borrowers a fixed interest rate so that their loans are much more predictable versus other popular DeFi lending protocols which makes use of variable or changing interest rates.

_{Source: MasterTheCrypto}

UniSwap

Uniswap is a fully decentralized exchange that uses the Ethereum blockchain. It uses an trading model called an automated liquidity protocol, which is relatively new. It's also open-source.

It's a fast growing decentralized finance protocol:

_{Source: UniSwap}

UniSwap currently runs on two smart contracts:

• Exchange contract
• Factory contract

_{Source: UniSwap}

Both of these contracts are automated programs that have been design to perform certain specific functionalities when they met certain conditions. The factory smart contract is then used to add new tokens onto the platform while the exchange smart contract is the facilitator of all token swaps or trades. ERC20 tokens are interchangeable on the newly updated platform Uniswap v.2.

Thanks a lot for reading!

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_{Images with no source were made by me. Thanks @yohan2on, @steemitblog, @steemcurator01, @steemcurator02.}