Maker is a decentralized lending platform based on Ethereum Blockchain.MakerDAO was formed in 2014 by Rune Christenson but its smart contracts and main stablecoin DAI were brought on to Ethereum blockchain in 2017. Maker allows people to burrow funds by collateralization of Ether. For the sake of providing financial stability, keeping the price volatility of cryptocurrency in view, MakerDAO tries to maintain price of DAI ( Stable coin) , near 1US$.

MakerDAO facilitates creation of DAI by overcollateralization of Ether. As of now, the collateralization ratio for Ether is 150%, it means that , if you deposit Ether worth $150 you will get DAI worth $100. Overcollateralization is in place to avoid loss due to price fluctuation. If price of collateral drops, loan is automatically liquidated to avoid further loss and if price increases additional DAI can be borrowed. Once you repay the loan and DAI , your collaterals are set free to be withdrawan. The returned DAI is destroyed to control amount and circulation of DAI.

The governance token of maker is MKR. it is so called because the owners of MKR token are given voting rights. They can vote for change in Maker proposals.

Compound is an Etherium blockchain based algorithmic money market protocol that was founded in 2018. Here you can contribute to the liquidity pool of compound by depositing your funds and earning interest on it. The interest is determined by the supply and demand of the market. Compound only takes 10% of the interest, 90% of the interest earned is given to contributors of the liquidity pool .

You can also burrow funds by mortgauging collaterals. Native token here is represented by ctoken and balances are viewed as ctokens. About two third the value of collateral can be burrowed. Rest one third is used as security to compensate for fluctuation of asset price.

The governance token of compound is known as COMP. It gives the holders / owners of the COMP token voting right . They can vote on any change proposed in compound protocol.

Synthetix is an Etherium blockchain besed synthetic asset ( Cryptocurrency, flat currency and commodities) issuance protocol. The greatest advantage of Synthetix is that, it solves the issue of liquidity and slippage experienced by most of the decentralized exchange by issuance of synthetic assets (Synths) in exchange for locked Synthetix Network Token (SNX). Ether can also be used as a collateral. The collateralization ratio for Synths is 750% and for Ether is 150%.This over collateralization is done to absorb price volatility.

The SNX stakers/minters are Incentivized and those incentives come from exchange fee and protocol’s inflationary monetary policy. The stackers deserve rewards because they take risk of overall debt of system. If the debt of system increases, the debt of stakers also increase and if the debt of system decreases, the debt of stakers also decrease.

The prerequisite for claming rewards is that, the c-ratio (collateralization ratio) must remain equal to 750% . if the ratio drops, stackers cannot claim reward until and unless c-ratio returns back to set value. it can be achieved by burning synths. If c-ratio is above 750% , stakers will have to mint synths to adjust ratio.

bZx is a protocol for borrowing, lending and margin trading. The governance token of bZx is BZRx. It gives holders the right to claim protocol fee, insurance fee, and right to vote for representatives of bZxDAO.

Fulcrum and Torque have been build on bZx protocol to facilitate lending, margin trading and borrowing respectively. Fulcrum makes use of tokenised loans called iTokens and Tokenised position called pToken. ITokens are given to lenders and PToken to traders. Torque loans are given on iTokens for indefinite term on interest rates determined algorithimically.

UNISWAP founded by Hayden Adams is a decentralised cryptocurrency exchange based on Ethereum blockchain . UNiswap facilitates automated transaction via smart contracts. Uniswap uses no intermediary and no order book . It is GPL Licenceced open source software.

Being decentralized, it is not under control of some central authority. What we usually do on centralised exchanges , we plcae an order and that order gets listed on the platform and we have to wait for buyer/seller on the other side to match our requirements and than order gets executed. Suppose we want to sell 1 ETH for 1500 US$, we will have to place order and it will get listed on order book. When a buyer on other side is willing to pay to the same price order will be executed.

Being open source protocol, it means that anyone can copy its code to create DEX and one more good thing is that you can list token here without any charge unlike most of the centralised exchanges where significant amount of fee is charged for the same.To execute trade, a user must deposit a pair of tokens. One of the two token has to be ERC -20 because it is this token that is utilized for paying trading fee. The trading fee on uniswap is known as GAS.

UNISWAP like most of other trading platforms has its native token by thre name of UNI. It is known as governance token as it gives token holdere right to vote on new developments and changes to the platform like fee structure and token distribution.