DeFi: How Does it Compare Against Centralized Finance?

Written by alfredodecandia | Published 2020/11/15
Tech Story Tags: defi | mastering-defi | alfredo-de-candia | bank-account | ethereum | eosio | defi-top-story | hackernoon-top-story

TLDR Author of "Mastering EOS" and "DeFi" asks how convenient it is to use the system to transfer money. He asks: "Can a 10-year-old child open a bank account? If I want to open a new bank account, I can't do this?" He says. "If we want to use it, we can't use it as a way to get our money back, but it's not easy to do this. It's a way of getting your money back that way."via the TL;DR App

To answer this question we must make some considerations and compare them with the traditional system of finance, because only by analyzing those aspects will we be able to understand whether DeFi in its entirety is actually convenient.
Recall that DeFi is the acronym for decentralized finance, and it is that set of platforms and protocols that reflect in a very similar way to what we can find in the traditional world, such as standard currencies, let's think of stablecoins, or loans but even insurance and so on, since there are no limits to what DeFi can exploit.
I will analyze the whole sector by comparing some fixed points of traditional finance with that of DeFi, to demonstrate, within my limits, the actual convenience or otherwise of using a system based on blockchain rather than one on a centralized and traditional system. convenience we will call CeFi (Centralized Finance).

Convenience account

In traditional finance almost everyone interfaces with a bank account, and I believe that each of you receives compensation for your work and this is credited to your current account, well but who remembers how many private papers and documents we need to provide to open a Bank account? Many, not to mention also providing identity documents and even the electronic digital signature, essential documentation to combat illegal activities, very right for charity, but here my questions arise:

Can a 10-year-old child open a bank account? If I refuse to provide my details, can I open a bank account?

The answer to both questions is obviously NO.
But if we move to decentralized finance, anyone with a wallet, even a child, can have his or her crypto account, which is a series of numbers or an account if we are on the EOS blockchain, and also no documents, identity cards or other personal information, so in terms of account convenience it is quite clear that DeFi wins this round.

DeFi 1 – 0 CeFi

Transaction convenience

Since we have a bank account, we can move our money freely and for free, but it is not true because everyone knows that there are both fees and percentages and amounts that we can transfer, a fee that is arbitrarily decided and fixed by the bank and which can change unilaterally towards us, often upwards, a tax that is not justified in any way other than that of milking the customer.
Moving instead to the blockchain side, here we have to keep in mind the type of blockchain we use, because the rule wants that every transaction has a fee but this is justified by the network and by the work that the miner will have to do to process our transaction, if we are on the Ethereum blockchain, but that in this case we can decide how much to pay for this tax if more or less than normal, and also we have no limits on the amounts to be transferred, let's not forget that on the EOS blockchain we don't even have this cost.

DeFi 2 – 0 CeFi

Fund availability

When we have sums deposited in our bank account, as output, if we have an online account, we can see the relative numbers that inform us of how much we have on a relative account, but we can access them only from a certain platform and passing a series of checks such as fingerprints and OTS codes, but we cannot know what happened to our money, where it is or if it has been used, in fact, credit institutions such as banks have full control of our funds and moreover we, who are the legitimate owners, cannot dispose of it as we want, in the sense that if this morning I decide to go to the bank and withdraw 1 million euros from my account, the bank tells me that there is no money and that I owed it notify in advance of the withdrawal:

Do I really have to submit to the will of a third individual to use my money, which I have sweated hard?

On the other hand, decentralized finance, which is based on the blockchain, allows us to have the mathematical certainty that our funds are in a specific account / address, that they have not been used by anyone and that I can move them 24/7. 7 all year round, which is impossible on a traditional bank account and does not have an online account.

DeFi 3 – 0 CeFi

Transaction speed

Returning to the crediting of our salary, how many of you know whether or not the credit has arrived on a specific day or on the day agreed with our employer, few and this is because the waits from when the funds are moved up to ours account, it can take several days, or weeks if it involves multiple foreign countries, which is quite ridiculous since I can send a message in seconds with my phone but if I have to move money I have to wait days, and on weekends they are also closed banks, in more if I want a fast process I need to pay more.
Problem that does not even arise in DeFi since, again depending on the blockchain we use, it takes from a few seconds to a few minutes to transfer or receive a certain amount, so from a practical point of view, DeFi also wins this battle.

DeFi 4 – 0 CeFi

Conclusion

I think it is now clear to everyone that decentralized finance is convenient in almost all aspects of daily life, and the sooner we change our thinking towards central authorities and the sooner we will gain an advantage.
Obviously you are wondering that all this is beautiful and useful but that in reality this cannot be applied because it is too complicated, but this is where we find one of the most important books about decentralized finance (DeFi), which takes the name of "Mastering DeFi - A practical guide for beginners and the advanced", important because it not only explains the basics of this sector and the various steps of the various protocols, over 30, but it is also the only one that examines 3 different blockchains such as Ethereum (ETH), EOS and Tron (TRX).
book that analyzes the macro-categories of decentralized finance which are:
  • Lending and Borrowing
  • Payments
  • Decentralized Exchange
  • Asset management
  • Derivatives
All organized into 8 chapters and also divided by blockchain so as to have a complete picture of what we find on the various blockchains and also make the relative comparisons to leave maximum freedom for anyone to use the blockchain they prefer without closing the door to others.
Over 30 protocols analyzed in detail and details, with relative fundamental steps, an indication of the various costs incurred to carry out the various transactions, so as to make the reader aware before he can interact with him.
Translated into 8 different languagesItalianEnglishGermanFrenchSpanishPortugueseDutch, and Japanese, so as not to exclude anyone from this revolution that is underway and will continue in the years to come.
Don't let a traditional and antiquated world cloud your decentralized view of this incredible revolution ahead of you

Written by alfredodecandia | Author of "Mastering EOS" & "Mastering DeFi" blockchain specialist, android developer
Published by HackerNoon on 2020/11/15