DeFi Products - Crypto Academy / S4W8- Homework Post for @reminiscence01

Hello fellow steemians, it's a wonderful week and a great pleasure to attend this week's lecture of the beginner's course. All thanks goes to the Almighty Allah and also a big thanks goes to Professor @reminiscence01 who took his time and make sure to digest this lecture to our understanding. This lecture was really helpful as I learned a lot from it.

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Below is my homework submission post.

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1.a). In your own words, explain DeFi products and how it is shaping the present-day finance.

The word DeFi is an acronym for Decentralized Finance, and with decentralized finance, their main goal and target is for users to handle their own assets without the need to involve third parties in their investment or trade.

Decentralized Finance has given users around the world the financial freedom and independence to manage their assets and funds unlike the centralized system which involves third parties in their operations. This centralized system has a central server and a board who are responsible for making decisions concerning the system and they also take charge in controlling the assets users hold in their systems. Because of this feature of the decentralized finance, it has become well known to most crypto traders around the world and this traders has begun using this system to manage their assets.

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Since we now have a fair understanding of what DeFi is, I would like to explain what DeFi products are for your understanding.

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When we talk about DeFi products, they are just like the applications we have on our mobile phones and personal computers, and this products allows users to have an absolute and complete control over their assets or funds. This products gives users the opportunity to handle their funds in their own way without the interference of a third party, not only that, it also allows users to determine the amount of money they want to invest and where they want to invest their money in. This products also gives users the opportunity to choose the type of assets or cryptocurrency that they want to invest their money in. With the availability of DeFi products, there is no need for users to go back to the traditional banking system where we invest our money in to the banks controlled by the central government.

DeFi products also allows users to register on their platform for free without any charge or fee unlike centralized system which requires a whole lot of documents and fees to be able to register on them. The DeFi products platform is very safe and secure to stored your assets in, you can also transfer assets from this platform to another with relatively small fee. Assets in DeFi products are safe and cannot be loss or hacked because they are created and established on a blockchain which is immutable.

Transaction performed on the DeFi platforms are very transparent to every user and this helps to build trust between the platform and it's users. As I already made mentioned, DeFi products allows users to manage their assets in their own way without no one questioning them. There is no third party involvement in the management of one's assets as well as performing transactions.

DeFi products is really shaping our present-day finance because we can see that a lot of countries have started creating digital currencies for their native currency. They are widely adopting cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology which speaks volume about the impact of this products on our financial lives. I am in Africa and I can see that most African countries are now considering creating digital currencies for their countries.

In Ghana, the central bank which is the Bank of Ghana make known their intention of launching a digital currency for the Ghanaian Cedi. Not only that, My neighbor country that is Nigeria just launched their digital currency that was some few days ago. This is a real proof of how Decentralized Finance is shaping our present-day finance in this world. Also, the growth of the cryptocurrency market as well as it's fast and wide adoption by the world is also proofing how this DeFi products is shaping our finances now.

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1.b). Explain the benefits of DeFi products to crypto users.

There are a lot of benefits crypto users enjoy from using DeFi products and I would be elaborating below some of the benefits crypto users enjoy from these products.

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• Immutability: Immutability simple has to do with the ability not to change or alter records that are stored or kept on a system. And blockchain technology is one of the best project which is immutable. Data and information stored on the blockchain cannot be changed by anyone. The same way the blockchain system can not be hacked. Since DeFi products are established on the blockchain, they cannot be hacked or information stored and kept on them cannot be altered or change by anyone. Because of this, security is assured and the integrity of DeFi network is protected.

• Transparency: One of the benefits crypto users enjoy from decentralization is that the system is very transparent. It's transparent in the sense that all transactions performed on the application is accessible to anyone who is on the system. This kind of transparency makes users to have absolute trust and believe in the DeFi products.

One of the core principles of blockchain is that they want to build trust between the system and users and because of that, all applications build on it including DeFi products are all transparent when transactions are carried on them. Before this transactions can be made transparent, they must be verified to make sure it is valid.

• Full control over funds or assets: With DeFi products users have full and complete control over their assets stored in their wallet. Third party involvement in transactions and funds protection is eliminated completely in decentralized finance. Users can decide to do whatever they want to do with their assets without nobody questioning or interrogating them.

This simply means that, full power and control is given to users in decentralized finance or system. As I already made mentioned, users decides where they want to invest their money as well as the asset they want to invest their money in in decentralized finance.

• Funds are highly secured: Funds or assets stored in DeFi products are highly secured and protected and cannot be assessed by a third party. Each user is provided with a private key and this private key cannot be guessed by anyone because of how they are created. The private key is the key to our wallet at the same time to our funds, but this keys cannot be hacked because of the cryptographic code they are secured with. Users on the other hand should never try to disclose their private key to anyone because, your assets can be transferred or stolen if someone has access to your private key.

• Fast transactions: Transactions performed on DeFi platforms are very fast and quick but depends on how strong one's network is at the time they are performing the transactions. Because transactions on this platform is peer-2-peer, transactions are usually done within the shortest time. There is nothing like going through several processes before making a transaction, you just need to provide some vital information and you are good to go.

• Registration and accessibility is free: Registration on DeFi products is absolutely free with no fee attached. Users can download DeFi products and register on them at any given time without stress. Accessing this platform is also free with no charge or fee. All you need to have is your machine, either a mobile phone or a computer and your source of network (Internet connection) and you are good to register.

• Fee charge is low: Fee charged during transactions on DeFi products are very low and insignificant as compared to centralized system. It doesn't matter whether your transaction is huge or small, the fee charge is always low.

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2). Discuss any DEX project built on the following network.

• Binance Smart Chain
• Tron Blockchain
  

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Binance Smart Chain

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On the Binance Smart Chain network, I will be discussing on the Pancakeswap project.

Pancakeswap is a Decentralized Finance Exchange network that is established or created on the Binance Smart Chain, and this project gives their users the opportunity to swap their coins with other currencies. In the Pancakeswap project, fees charged during token swapping is very low and users do not need to involve third parties in the swapping process.

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Pancakeswap

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Pancakeswap is an Automated Market Maker (AMM) decentralized exchange build and established on the Binance Smart Chain network, and this project makes swapping of BEP-20 currencies and tokens secured and easy. This project trading volume had surpassed the trading volume of the Uniswap project. Pancakeswap is indeed very fast in token swapping and it is also cheaper than Uniswap.

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I will now be exploring the Pancakeswap platform to discuss some important features we can find in it. Below are some the features we will find after opening the Pancakeswap platform.

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Trade feature

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The trade feature on the pancakeswap platform allows users to swap tokens or coins on the platform. As already discussed, DeFi elimates third parties completely in it's operation so in this swapping of tokens, there is no involvement of third parties.

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Earn feature

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Users who hold tokens on the pancakeswap platform can increased their earnings by locking up their tokens through freezing. It is usually from the liquid pools and farming that they freeze this tokens for their increased earnings. There are no third parties in this freezing process.

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Win feature

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This feature provide users who hold tokens on this platform to play games and win lotteries. Users used their tokens to stake and win based on the amount of token you used to stake.

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NFT feature

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There are a collections of items listed in this feature and we can view the trading volumes of all this items in the collection.
I would like to do a fundamental analysis on the Pancakeswap token on the coinmarketcap.

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Fundamental Analysis of the Pancakeswap token on the coinmarketcap.

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• The price of the Pancakeswap token at the time I was carrying out this analysis was $17.85 with a price high and low of $18.53 and $17.57 respectively in the last 24hrs.

• The Pancakeswap token is currently ranked on #44 and it on 388,769 watchlist.

• The Pancakeswap token has a marketcap of $4,220,021,212 , a trading volume of $338,776,252 within the last 24hrs and a total circulating supply of 236,696,313.30 CAKE.

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Tron Blockchain

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The Tron blockchain is a decentralized platform which was created and established in the year 2017 by a man called Justin Sun. The organization that founded the Tron Blockchain in 2017 was called the Tron Foundation and this platform had its native cryptocurrency popularly known as TRX.

Since the Tron blockchain is decentralized, third parties are eliminated fully in carrying out transactions. This gives users the opportunity to transact directly with other users without the interference of anyone. Because of that, transaction on this platform is very fast and reliable. Tokens stored on this platform is also secured because of it's high security, so it's always advisable not to share your mnemonic key or password with any third party.

Whenever users are carrying out transactions on the Tron blockchain, energy is always consumed but if there is no energy, part of the TRX is burned to replace the energy lost. There is also a feature on the blockchain known as Bandwidth and this bandwidth is solely responsible for maintaining the system and also makes the system to run and function smoothly.

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There are a lot of projects that can be found on the Tron blockchain but I would be discussing on the Justswap project on the Tron blockchain.

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Justswap project

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Justswap is a decentralized exchange that was created and established on the Tron blockchain, and it is used to swap or exchange the TRC-20 tokens on the Tron blockchain. There are several benefits associated with transacting on the Justswap platform. Some of the advantages on transacting on this platform is; transactions on it are very fast and quick, liquidity on the Justswap platform is unlimited and also, it allows users to swap TRC-20 tokens among themselves.

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I will now be exploring the Justswap platform to discuss some important features we can find in it. Below are some the features we will find after opening the Justswap platform.

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• We can explore the official platform of the Justswap by clicking on Justswap.

• We then click on the three horizontal lines at the top right of the page to access the features on the platform.

• The first feature is the Swap feature, so to explore it you click on Swap as shown below.

• In this swap feature, we can swap one TRC-20 token to another TRC-20 token.

• The next feature is the LP Pools feature and we need to click on pool to explore it as shown below.

• Users can stake their tokens in this feature, not only that, liquidity mining takes place in this feature.

• Scan is the next feature and we can explore it by clicking on it as shown below.

• In the scan feature, we can make searches by typing in a name or pasting an address in the search box shown below. We can also see the current price of TRX, the number of pairs on the Justswap platform, the number of transactions within the last 24hrs and the new pairs formed within the last 24hrs.

• Sunswap is the next feature and we can explore it by clicking on it as shown below.

• The Sunswap feature is used to swap SUNOLD tokens into the new or redenominated SUN token.

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3). In the DEX projects mentioned in question 2, give a detailed illustration of how to swap cryptocurrencies by swapping any crypto asset of your choice. Show proof of transaction from block explorer. (Screenshots needed)

• I have decided to carryout my transaction on my Tronlink account.

• The screenshot below is my Tronlink wallet with the amount I have in it.

• To carryout my swap transaction, I need to click on Swap icon as shown below.

• The next thing is input the amount of TRX you want to swap. In my case, I want to swap TRX to USDT. I am going to swap 2TRX tokens to USDT.

• The next step is to click on Instant Swap as indicated or shown in the screenshot below.

• The next step is to confirm my swapping and I do so by using my password.

• You then click on Done to submit your transaction for processing.

• The next thing is to check the amount of TRX in your account to see if there is a reduction, and you can also check to see if there is the amount of USDT you swapped for in your account.

• I can also check the success of my transaction by clicking on the icon in the screenshot I put below.

• As you can all see, my transaction was successful as shown in the screenshot below.

• We can also check the confirmation of our transaction by clicking on Tronscan. I then copy my wallet and search it in the search box to see all the transactions I have carried out in my account.

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Conclusion

The creation and establishment of DeFi products has bring a lot of positive impacts into our financial lives. The main aim and goal of DeFi products is to eliminate third parties or intermediaries in the management of users assets. And it had achieved that aim although there are still a lot of people who are still transacting with the centralized banking system.

There are a lot of advantages and benefits associated with the creation of this products and some of them are; the system is immutable, low fee charged during transactions, transparency, funds are highly secured, users have full control over their assets and many more. All this advantages shows that DeFi products are one of the applications that we can put out trust in when it comes to managing and storing of our assets.

Thank you.

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Cc: @reminiscence01