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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Infrastructure by Duke University

4.8
stars
1,554 ratings

About the Course

Decentralized Finance: The Future of Finance is a set of four courses taught by Campbell R. Harvey (Professor of Finance at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research) that focus on decentralized finance (DeFi). In this first course, we begin by exploring the origins of DeFi and take a broad historical view from the earliest barter economies, such as the first peer-to-peer exchanges of bartering, to present day. The course also looks at historical examples of money having value even though it is not officially backed. We then focus on the key infrastructure components: blockchain, cryptocurrency, smart contracts, oracles, stablecoins and decentralized applications (or dApps). This includes discussion of the mechanics of the Ethereum and Bitcoin blockchains including cryptographic hashing. Next, we focus on the specific problems that DeFi is designed to solve: inefficiency (costly, slow, and insecure today), limited access (1.7 billion are unbanked), opacity (we need to trust regulators to monitor banks and the regulators have mixed records), centralized control (financial system is oligopolistic imposing higher fees than we would have in a competitive market) and lack of interoperability (it is difficult to move funds from one financial institution to another today). The course closes by exploring many of the myths about the crypto space....

Top reviews

FS

Jul 14, 2022

An excellent and much recommended course for beginners! Helped me understand the basics of blockchain technology and its operations. Definely enrolling for more courses from Mr. Campbell.

BG

Jan 26, 2022

Loved the way Professor Harvey explains the newly minted ideas in DeFi space. Excellent course.Indeed, the future is DeFi. Let the wealth (?) spread across the globe, evenly!

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226 - 250 of 354 Reviews for Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Infrastructure

By sujit c

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Dec 22, 2021

Understandable Course material

By Victor H O S

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Sep 11, 2024

Excelent teacher. Thank you!

By Jad B

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Dec 29, 2021

Simply excellent. Thank you.

By Ahmed M

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Nov 30, 2025

Great introductory course!!

By Raul A F

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Jul 18, 2023

Interesting and easy going!

By Yelena L

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Feb 1, 2023

Great course and instructor

By Serkan K

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Aug 26, 2022

Great introduction to DeFi.

By Byron B

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Aug 22, 2022

Excellent a great teacher..

By Prasannakarthik S

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Jan 6, 2022

A good foundation for DeFi.

By Ryan D

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Dec 31, 2021

Excellent overview of DeFi!

By Ray H A L

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Jul 4, 2023

Interesting learning time.

By Felipe C

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Mar 20, 2022

Best course of DeFi ever.

By Nicolas L F

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May 13, 2022

A very complete course !

By JASON S

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Dec 21, 2021

succinct and informative

By Indupur R

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May 17, 2022

Absolutely fantastic !!

By Andres S

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Apr 6, 2022

Este profe es un crack

By Dr S K

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Oct 5, 2021

Very Informative Course

By Shahid t

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Mar 30, 2022

it is excellent course

By Alexey K

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Nov 2, 2022

Teacher is very nice

By Chetan K

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Dec 28, 2023

Superb starter pack

By Jonathan T

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Jun 16, 2022

Clear. Easy. Valid.

By Natalie F

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Jul 1, 2022

Great fundamentals

By SOFIA G D L P

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Apr 2, 2022

Excellent content

By Robert L

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Dec 28, 2021

excellent course

By Alex l

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Dec 2, 2024

excellence prof.