Hi everyone, I attended the lecture about Decentralized Finance and learned many new things, thanks to respected Professor @yohan2on. Now I am submitting my homework for week 4.

What is DeFi?

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As cryptocurrency is growing in use, there is always a challenge to make it available to all. For that purpose, new apps and protocols are coming to be seen day by day. DeFi is an umbrella term used for Decentralized Finance. It means that finance sector is decentralized and no one is controlling this sector unlike government and banks etc. DeFi is an ecosystem built on Ethereum blockchain technology and through its use, services like deposit, loans, banking and many more would be available to all. Decentralized Finance depends on smart contracts that are responsible for the execution of the transactions through the protocol.

Maker

MakerDao Is a protocol that is decentralized in nature and it has been built on Ethereum blockchain. It depends on smart contracts which are giving codes to be carried out by protocol. Maker allows users to lend and borrow cryptocurrency without middle man involved in it.
Maker has two cryptocurrencies, DAi and MKR.
DAI is a stable coin having a stable price at 1 USD and it is used for payments, savings or collateral.
MKR price is volatile and its main purpose is to support DAI for its stability. MKR has power of vote that is used to make decisions regarding operation of system.

Compound

Compound is an equity protocol built on Ethereum blockchain. It is a part of the DeFi movement. Compound was created by Rober Leshner, who is the current CEO of Compound. Compound has been created to allow users to invest cryptocurrency assets and earn profit on it. Compound allows users to borrow and lend crypto assets. It has its native COMP token that is its governance token. Depositing crypto in Compound is just like depositing money in bank, but it is decentralized in nature and it is the key difference. The users who invest money with Compound are given interest on these deposits. A user with crypto asset in hand can also borrow from Compound and its holding of cryptocurrency is used as collateral against borrowing.

Synthetix

It is a decentralized protocol that has been built on Ethereum Blockchain. It is created with the purpose of issuing its synthetic assets which are called Synths. Synthetix is a peer to peer trading platform which allow users to trade on it. It was primarily created to trade Synths but then it is facilitating users with margin trading. So users can go long and short.
SNX (Synthetix Network Token) is the native token of this platform and it is used as collateral for issued Synths. It allows its users to hold their SNX and create new Synth tokens. So the users can get rewards in return and can watch their holdings grow.

bZx

The bZx is a decentralized protocol built on Ethereum Blockchain. It is also part of DeFi movement and it allows users to borrow, lend and margin trade. It was created by Tom Bean and Kyle Kistner. bZx uses smart contracts to automate its financial process. It uses three tokens which are, iTokens, pTokens and BZRX token. Each of these tokens have their say in operation of bZx. BZRX is the governance token of bZx and it has vote power. Holders of BZRX also earn share of protocol fees.
bZx is used through its front-end applications Fulcrum and Torque. Fulcrum is used to borrow and trade while Torque enables users to borrow.

Uniswap

Uniswap is another example of a protocol that is fully decentralized and built on Ethereum Blockchain. It is a decentralized crypto exchange. Uniswap facilitates its users to swap ERC-20 tokens. It uses Automated Market Marker (AMM) for its operation. AMM is an order book.
Uni is the governance token of Uniswap and it is used on Uniswap decentralized exchange. Uni has also voting power for making decisions regarding new projects and dropping irrelevant projects.

Thanks in anticipation.

@steemitblog

@steemcurator01

@steemcurator02

@yohan2on

Regards,

@mawattoo8