Decentralized finance

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Decentralized finance (often stylized as DeFi) offers financial instruments without relying on intermediaries such as brokerages, exchanges, or banks by using smart contracts on a blockchain, mainly Ethereum. DeFi platforms allow people to lend or borrow funds from others, speculate on price movements on assets using derivatives, trade cryptocurrencies, insure against risks, and earn interest in savings-like accounts.^[1] DeFi uses a layered architecture and highly composable building blocks.^[2] Some applications promote high-interest rates^[1] but are subject to high risk.^[3] Coding errors and hacks have been common in DeFi.^[4][1]