Understanding Decentralized Finance - by Rhian Lewis (Paperback)

About the Book

Understand the past, present and future of DeFi to unlock new opportunities, valuable takeaways and gain a competitive advantage in this emerging and rapidly-moving sector.

Book Synopsis

Understanding Decentralized Finance demystifies DeFi, locating the integration points between decentralised and centralized finance to help finance professionals unlock valuable opportunities.

DeFi - the next evolution of cryptocurrency - has brought a new wave of investors into the world of finance. As fintechs and financial institutions seek to integrate with DeFi, this book explores its history, its present context, and its future. It explains the world of DeFi by comparing it to the traditional finance sector, highlighting points of similarity, difference and integration.

Understanding Decentralized Finance explores the technologies underlying the DeFi market and how they differ from those of traditional financial markets. It scrutinizes the difference between centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges, how NFTs fit into DeFi and how collectibles can be financialized. Readers will also find out how collateralized loans, derivatives, margin trading and liquidity provision work in a world where there is no centralized institution to coordinate these activities - and how regulators in different jurisdictions are ensuring that financial regulations keep up with these innovations.

With examples from key actors in the field, including the movement of luxury organizations like Christie's and Sotheby's into the NFT space and the SushiSwap vampire attack, this is an essential read for anyone working in finance, fintech and technology who needs to understand the fast-moving world of DeFi.

Review Quotes

"Understanding Decentralized Finance is a comprehensive and thought-provoking look at the future of finance, including the intersection of gaming and finance. It offers insights on the challenges of creating a universal system that captures the economic activity of games. A must-read for anyone in the DeFi industry, as well as gamers and enthusiasts."-- "Julien Paredes, Head of Partnerships, Tropee"

"Understanding Decentralized Finance not only gives you a good input into the world of decentralized Finance, but also enables you to deep-dive into topics around this phenomenon."-- "Christian Steiner, Head of Regulatory, Bitpanda"

"If you think about the factors stopping DeFi to fulfil its potential, many cite regulation (or lack of regulation) and lack of understanding/knowledge of this space. As it is difficult to control the regulatory part, we can build a deep understanding of what DeFi represents, its components, and the exciting new opportunities it offers - as well as the considerable challenges that occur when the old system collides head-on with the new. I found it exciting that you can boost your knowledge by learning cool concepts such as DeFi mullet, social trading, finfluencer, crypto meme culture and more."-- "Mirela Ciobanu, Lead Editor, Banking and Fintech, The Paypers"

"Rhian Lewis presents a balanced and informative view that expertly intertwines the evolution of money and markets with these novel, and potentially game changing, set of technologies whilst unravelling and demystifying the lexicon of arcane terminology and acronyms that have followed the hype into the public psyche in recent years."-- "Paul Gordon, Founder, Coinscrum"

"The world of decentralized finance (DeFi) is one of the most exciting, fast evolving areas of money, operating at the intersection of technology and finance. Many jobs will be created and good opportunities. This book will give you a good way to imagine the future of DeFi. I highly recommend this book."-- "Tram Anh Nguyen, Co-founder, Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CFTE)"

"This book is a comprehensive guide for beginners or experienced professionals seeking to expand their knowledge and understanding of Decentralized Finance (DeFi). The author, Rhian Lewis, possesses extensive knowledge and expertise and has effectively simplified and communicated complex DeFi concepts clearly and captivatingly."-- "Enrico Mariotti, CEO, Skytale Finance"

"Weaving together concepts, definitions and real-world examples, Rhian Lewis covers the basics of decentralized finance, the realities of today, the hopes of tomorrow, and the potential blocks to the realization of truly decentralized finances. A must-read for those interested in moving from online hype posts to broader comprehension of the space."-- "Lloyd Evans, Product Manager - Ventures, 11: FS"

About the Author

Rhian Lewis is a consultant software engineer and former digital journalist at The Times who is a regular international conference speaker and panellist on all things blockchain and cryptocurrency. She launched the altcoin portfolio tracker countmycrypto.com, co-founded the London Women in Bitcoin meetup group in 2014 and has acted as an advisor and strategist on various blockchain projects for the last seven years. She blogs on cryptocurrency and is the author of The Cryptocurrency Revolution (Kogan Page). She is based near Plymouth, the UK.