Why ‘DeFi’ Utopia Would Be Finance Without Financiers: QuickTake

Banking has always meant bankers, the intermediaries who are trusted to arrange financial transactions and are responsible for their safe execution. But what if nobody were in the middle, just some computer code? That’s the goal of what’s known as decentralized finance, or DeFi, a movement that’s grown out of a decade of experimentation with cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology behind them. A DeFi world in which counterparties interact directly via so-called smart contracts would be more efficient and fair, its proponents say. Critics say that DeFi is just the latest installment of the hype, speculation and money-losing possibilities that ...