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

4.8
stars
883 ratings
•
193 reviews

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

TN

Apr 12, 2022

Great introduction into DeFi, the professor walks us through key definitions, a bit of history, potential applications and common misunderstandings about this space. Good launching pad to dive deeper

VF

Jan 5, 2022

Everybody who wants to quickly get around all these new and exciting decentrilized technologies is advised to take the series of courses. Info provided is deep enough, easy to grasp, and concise.

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126 - 150 of 203 Reviews for Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Infrastructure

By Tunde Z

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Dec 12, 2021

T​he delivery was an absolute top notch.

By Langu

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Nov 24, 2021

A lot of practical, useful knowledge! :)

By Peter

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Feb 10, 2022

Well presented, well explained course.

By Heather H

•

Oct 16, 2021

Well presented, clear and informative.

By annesophie

•

Apr 8, 2022

thanks prof Harvey for this course !!

By Adeniyi O

•

Jun 15, 2022

​i really learnt a lot in the course

By Dmitry V

•

Jan 2, 2022

Outstanding course and easy to learn

By Bakul B

•

Nov 14, 2021

great depth in course 1, impressive

By Sandeep S

•

Mar 18, 2022

i​nsightful and easy to undersrand

By Chandrashekhar S

•

Jan 27, 2022

Great Introductory course for deFi

By A K

•

Jan 18, 2022

Gives an excellent review of DeFi

By Jason C

•

Apr 26, 2022

very clear and comfortably paced

By Chenyang Z

•

Mar 19, 2022

very convincing and enlightening

By sujit c

•

Dec 22, 2021

Understandable Course material

By Jad B

•

Dec 29, 2021

Simply excellent. Thank you.

By Prasannakarthik S

•

Jan 6, 2022

A good foundation for DeFi.

By Ryan D

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Dec 31, 2021

Excellent overview of DeFi!

By Felipe C

•

Mar 20, 2022

B​est course of DeFi ever.

By Nicolas L F

•

May 13, 2022

A very complete course !

By JASON S

•

Dec 21, 2021

succinct and informative

By Indupur R

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May 17, 2022

Absolutely fantastic !!

By Andres S

•

Apr 6, 2022

E​ste profe es un crack

By Dr S K

•

Oct 5, 2021

Very Informative Course

By Kashan t

•

Mar 30, 2022

it is excellent course

By Jonathan T

•

Jun 16, 2022

Clear. Easy. Valid.

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