Chevron Left
Back to Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Opportunities and Risks

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Opportunities and Risks by Duke University

4.9
stars
288 ratings

About the Course

DeFi and the Future of Finance is a set of four courses that focus on decentralized finance. The final course is called DeFi Opportunities and Risks. It is essential that you complete the first three courses: I. DeFi Infrastructure; II. DeFi Primitives; and III. DeFi Deep Dive before beginning the fourth course. The course starts with the premise that an analysis of any new technology must clearly gauge the risks and challenges. Given that DeFi is only a few years old there are plenty of risks. The course begins with the most obvious risk: smart contract risk. Smart contracts are foundational for DeFi. The code of these contracts is public - opening a clear attack vector for hackers. That is, in traditional finance, hackers need to break into a system to get access to the code and data. In DeFi, everything is open source.There are many other risks studied including: Governance risk; Oracle risk; Scaling risk; Decentralized Exchange or DEX risk; Custodial risk; Environmental risk; and Regulatory risk....

Top reviews

TW

Dec 29, 2021

Excellent overview of the opportunities and risks of DeFi as of the end of 2021. Look forward to helping define the future of DeFi based on the understanding gained from these courses.

MZ

Sep 23, 2024

Thank you Cam Harvey for filling in some gaps. Great Course! Recommend it to anyone since you are still early to the Finance revolution. As often - first comes first served.

Filter by:

51 - 62 of 62 Reviews for Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Opportunities and Risks

By Burcu Y

•

Jan 26, 2022

Excellent

By Juan A L

•

Oct 29, 2024

Awesome!

By L J

•

Jun 4, 2022

Like it

By Nirav N

•

Dec 31, 2022

Good

By NGUYEN D A

•

Dec 8, 2022

GOod

By Darren G

•

May 16, 2022

There is a lot of great information in this set of courses. It is a really good intro to DeFi. It is not, however, a terribly balanced view of DeFi vs CeFi despite the instructors attempts to do so. For example, the assurance that DeFi front-running is OK because the information is public completely misses the point. Front running is forbidden by the SEC because of the harm it does to clients, not just because it is inside information. https://www.sec.gov/rules/other/f4-433/mccann1.htm There are many examples of this throughout all 4 courses but the front-running point is made time and again. Conclusion - this is a good set of courses to learn the basics about DeFi but beware that it is a wholeheartedly pro-DeFi slant.

By Fred Y

•

Jan 22, 2024

Great course although the lectures were a little long. Also need to get into the coding skills necessary to start a career in Decentralized Financial Services. Or give us information on a Coursera course that will help us get these skills.

By Matthias S

•

Jun 30, 2022

Good finish. I would have like to have more of the "cons" during the course (e.g. the deep dive) instead of the end. Would have given a more rounded view.

By Abhinav L

•

Oct 31, 2024

High level coverage of opportunities and risks in DeFi, useful for retail investors, and also for those with more specialized knowledge of finance.

By Jeremiah O

•

Oct 25, 2022

Great content and well communicated

By Tenenbaum T

•

Mar 10, 2022

Thank you Mr.Harvey!

By Costas V

•

Apr 18, 2022

More exercises