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

4.8
stars
1,511 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

UM

Dec 13, 2021

The course largely follows the instructor's book albeit with an easier to follow introduction. As such, this first course is an overview and it gets us ready for the information to follow.

JP

Jul 29, 2022

G​reat introduction for a novice or someone that already has crypto knowlegable. A bit intermeidate with finance concepts, I recommend having some introductory knowledge.

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126 - 150 of 338 Reviews for Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Infrastructure

By Tim M

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Jan 17, 2022

Extremely thorough and well organized series of courses. Highly recommend.

By Werner H

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Jan 27, 2025

Es una buena introducción. Es recomendable para ir entendiendo de qué va.

By Tony N

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Dec 7, 2022

This is perfect for the beginner who knows absolutely nothing about DeFi.

By Markus L

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Nov 30, 2021

Excellent professor and super exciting topic presented in a great way.

By TextGuy;

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May 6, 2022

very good summary of all the fundamental knowledge for the cryto tech.

By kwame c

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Mar 23, 2022

A very good intro inte world of DeFi, would 100% recommend this course

By Manuel E

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Jan 29, 2022

Muy bueno el curso para tener una idea de que esperar en el mundo DeFi

By Shalini V

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Jan 2, 2022

Thank you so much for making deFi so much more easier to understand.

By Tin L

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Feb 24, 2023

Great course on DeFi to get people up to speed on what is going on.

By Michelangelo c

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Jan 3, 2022

Awesome course. From the bottom up, provides excellent foundations.

By Earl J L

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Nov 17, 2021

I really learned a lot and can't wait for more information to come.

By Giselle N

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Jun 27, 2023

Excellent course on DeFi. Simple. Easy to understand. Effective.

By Joseph K

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Sep 15, 2022

fully packed . i enjoyed the content and the delivery. thank you

By Luis P S

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Jan 24, 2022

Greatly explained and for sure, a great starting with DeFi world.

By Alexander C

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Dec 26, 2021

Very insightful course with clear explanations of DeFi concepts.

By Todd L

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Aug 30, 2023

Instructor really made this course easy to grasp and understand.

By Kevin H

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Mar 2, 2022

Best intermediate guide for all knowledge on Blockchain related.

By Jean-Pierre B

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Jan 7, 2022

Extremely clear. Thanks so much! It Will help me a lot for sure

By Alejandro R

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Dec 31, 2021

Excellent content, great primer on the topic, and up to date too

By Mücahid Ş

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Feb 23, 2023

A great intro to DeFi and Blockchain with an academic language.

By Bernardo M

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Jan 15, 2022

Great course to take a initial diving into DeFi Infrastructure

By Valdas N

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Jul 24, 2022

Great course, thank you very much for excellent explanations!

By Scott P

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Jun 21, 2022

The teacher is good at explainig things clearly. Thank-you.

By José A

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Feb 12, 2022

Pretty awesome course. Very insightful and full of resources.

By greg a

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Jan 1, 2022

Relatively short and no coding, but really thought provoking.