Decentralized Finance (DeFi). A financial revolution?

Bachelor Thesis , 2022 , 45 Pages , Grade: 1,3

Economics - Finance

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is a rapidly growing topic which continuously gained in importance in recent times. With its blockchain based foundation and the use of smart contracts it aims to revolutionize the traditional financial system by making centralized intermediaries like banks redundant. The DeFi ecosystem includes stablecoins and Decentralized Applications (DApps) which intend to offer their users better financial services compared to traditional ones. Such financial services include but are not limited to decentralized exchange services, payment services as well as savings and loans services. Thus, DeFi must further eliminate certain risks like smart contract risks, scalability risks, oracle risks and governance risks. Moreover, DeFi needs to tackle the regulatory issues it entails to become mainstream and revolutionize the traditional financial system.

I Outline

II List of figures and tables

III List of abbreviations

1 Introduction
1.1 Research problem
1.2 Research methodology
1.3 Course of investigation

2 Theoretical foundations
2.1 Traditional finance
2.2 Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
2.2.1 Definition
2.2.2 Foundation
2.2.2.1 Blockchain technology
2.2.2.2 Smart contracts

3 Method
3.1 Systematic literature review
3.2 Research strategy
3.2.1 Sources of data
3.2.2 Inclusion and exclusion criteria
3.2.3 Search terms and filters
3.3 Literature search results
3.4 Review of results
3.4.1 Abstract review
3.4.2 Full text review

4. Analysis and discussion
4.1 Stablecoins
4.2 Decentralized Applications (DApps)
4.2.1 Overview
4.2.2 Decentralized Exchanges (DEX)
4.2.3 Savings and loans
4.2.4 Payment service providers
4.2.5 Benefits
4.3 Elimination of risks
4.3.1 Smart contract risks
4.3.2 Scalability risks
4.3.3 Oracle risks
4.3.4 Governance risks
4.4 Regulation

5 Conclusion
5.1 Summary
5.2 Critical acclaim
5.3 Outlook

V List of references

VI Appendix

• College: Hamburg University of Applied Sciences
• Course: International Management
• Grade: 1,3
• Author: Alexander Haack (Author)
• Publication Year: 2022
• Pages: 45
• Catalog Number: V1252708
• ISBN (PDF): 9783346686190
• ISBN (Book): 9783346686206
• Language: English
• Tags: Decentralized finance, DeFi, smart contracts, blockchain, crypto, stablecoins, decentralized applications, risk elimination, financial regulation