AS
Sofar I found this course very refreshing & clear overvieuw into the Crypto & DeFi space.Seeing there is alot of misinformation out there,so this gives you a good base.

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.

AS
Sofar I found this course very refreshing & clear overvieuw into the Crypto & DeFi space.Seeing there is alot of misinformation out there,so this gives you a good base.
JP
Great introduction for a novice or someone that already has crypto knowlegable. A bit intermeidate with finance concepts, I recommend having some introductory knowledge.
GC
very high level, very short course maybe could have more support material to go deeper into some topics but i guess we will do that on part 2 , 3 and 4
NS
I personally would prefer a little bit more challenging tests and more of practical work.However, I really enjoyed the course and are planning to continue.
CK
This is a great intro class to DeFi. If you are in finanace, this is a must take class. The pofessor knows what he is talking about, the pace is perfect for me, and the content is rich.
BG
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!
UM
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.
VF
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.
TN
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
CL
Great overview without diving the technical details associated with the crypto technology. Strong focus on application and how DeFi addresses the major pain points associated with Cefi.
XS
Good for beginners to understand some basic ideas and terminologies in cryptocurrency area, but there are some computer science mistakes in the videos, though they're minor.
SR
The course covers the very basics of Blockchain tech and DeFi in an easy to understand manner. It will allow you to better understand commentary on cryptomarkets in the popular media.
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Greetings from Nairobi.
This was an excellent course on the introduction to Decentralized Finance. The instructor is very engaging and knowledgeable in the subject matter, na.
I also recommend his Blockchain Business Models course here on Coursera, that should be taken together with these DeFi series courses to help one understand blockchain, and appreciate the changing nature of the financial services industry.
Great content! Great professor!
Cheers.
I have fore-read about blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, yet, this course was an excellent way to structure and review my knowledge. I am sure to join the next course of this specialization!
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.
Great course! It does help that I am a finance student with a little bit of running knowledge of economics, and traditional finance. Also helps me see the centralized system from another angle!
A good part 1 of the overall course! It's hard to find consolidated knowledge of DeFi browsing on Twitter, so this is very useful to understand the full scope of the field.
Great Course
Good introduction course into the blockchain space. It clarified a lot of the terminology and basic bones of the technology for me. The professor seems really knowledgeable and cool, frankly. It paced perfectly, and I was able to retain a great deal of the information and pass the quizzes without taking notes.
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
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.
Very thorough foundational course! I also loved being able to download notes & slides to go back and reference.
Great first step into the DeFi space. Gets going with main concepts, how things work and the general picture.
An excellent entry level course into the rapidly growing world of decentralized finance.
Professor Harvey does a great job explaining the topic.
The contact although basilar, has a good quality. The form is very simple, maybe too simple. Professor is definitely well prepared on the topic, but he lacks in empaty to transfer knowledge to students. The result is no more than a slide reasding, that can be accomplished in 30-40mins for the whole course. The general idea of the course is good, but seems poorly presented.
I think the course gives a good introduction to DeFi. However I found it a little bit messy. I found some concepts are poorly or even not explained.
Excellent course! Highly recommended. I took this course as part of the four course specialization. Professor Harvey does an excellent job explaining many nuances to DeFi.
He uses a combination of powerpoint, visuals, analogies and case studies to make the content understandable. The professor teaches with clarity, and passion yet treats the subject fairly offering alternative points of view about the opportunities and risks of DeFi as compared to the current financial system.
I have been introduced to the cryptocurrency and DeFi space a little over 6 months ago. Since that time, I have "fallen down the rabbit hole" so to speak and cannot learn enough about it. These courses provide a strong foundation to explore further for personal investing, and or a career in the space.
Unlike the other courses I took on Coursera related to blockchain and cryptocurriencies (which were also pretty good), these courses felt much more up to date than the others. Being up to date in this space is essential because one year is like 10 years of another field in terms of innovation and how fast the landscape changes.
Specific to this course, it was a very helpful foundation to start with related to DeFi. Once finished with this course, I couldn't wait to jump into the others.
Me ha sorprendido gratamente el meticuloso y bien estructurado contenido de este curso. Abarca desde el conocimiento más básico hasta avanzar en la explicación de los aspectos más aridos, haciéndolo de forma bastante sencilla, comprensible. y didáctica. Contiene buenos ejemplos para ser contrastados con la realidad actual, aunado a que se nota el esfuerzo por mostrar el estado de arte más reciente dentro del conjunto complicado de innovaciones que se vienen dando en DeFi como respuesta mejorada a lo que ocurre en las finanzas tradicionales.
Very Informative course and very well explained. Great course if you want to learn what DeFi is and where its heading. No prior knowledge nessecary although it will help, all you need is the aptitude to learn. Keep watching the course videos until you grasp the concepts. i had to watch some videos more than once until the infromation was finally cemented in my brain. Thanks to Professor Campbell R. Harvey for explaining everything in an easy to understand way. Looking forward to course two.
Being a novice, this course is extremely helpful for me to understand the basic terms related to DeFi. This apart, this also introduces me to the overall framework of how various DeFi assets operate. Definitely, there are current challenges associated with the technology. But with the pace of technological progress, these obstacles will also be removed, so that it will remain a wonderful solution to so many financial problems, especially the lending and borrowing mechanism.
An excellent overall introduction to DeFi. Given the course was developed some years back, the lecturers predictions in such as fast moving space is commendable. Also, his ability to provide real world examples to illuminate core concepts was very powerful. I would recommend to anyone from a traditional financial services background who is curious about this new technology and wants to see if there's more to it that Bitcoin being 'highly volatile' and hype.