The first fundamental study of DeFi: From ideas to mechanisms to the new finance

With its year-to-date growth of more than 15x in total value locked, and more than $11 billion committed to the protocols, decentralized finance (DeFi) has become a mainstay in the crypto industry, and a whole new industry in itself. Meanwhile, its shape as a concrete market has not been defined with substantial confidence.

A major shortcoming of DeFi research to date has been its focus on individual projects or simple metrics, such as financials. A systematic overview capturing the essence of the industry and professionally describing it in depth is missing. To address that, Cointelegraph Consulting and Byzantine Solutions have conducted fundamental research on decentralized finance, from the ground-up to complex effects and existential risks.

Redefine 2020: A Primer. Where Decentralization Meets Finance is a landmark study that aims to significantly raise the bar for future research on DeFi. It sets a precedent for a market-wide examination, from the core properties to complex inter-protocol effects and emergent dynamics.

The paper draws a complete map of the industry through common conceptual patterns, recurring ideas, typical problems inherent to the decentralized setting, and the approaches to address them. The high point of Redefine 2020 is the side-by-side comparison of traditional finance and its hindrances versus the natural properties that decentralized finance can leverage to build a better, more resilient system with much greater accessibility and lower friction.

Redefine 2020 is written by economists and industry professionals, it uses professional terminology and assumes the readers are familiar with the concepts of blockchains and smart contracts, as well as financial instruments and their applications.

Download the full report here, complete with charts and infographics.

Cointelegraph Consulting offers bespoke research on digital assets and distributed ledger technology. Our services range from educational seminars, in-depth written reports and consulting on enterprise blockchain implementation strategies. Byzantine Solutions is a fintech innovation lab specialized in distributed ledger technology and blockchains, decentralized finance, cryptographic applications, tokenomics research, and mechanism design. The company offers R&D services, product ideation and architecture design, technical due diligence, and tokenomics development.

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