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

4.8
stars
1,575 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

XS

Feb 19, 2023

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.

FS

Jul 15, 2022

An excellent and much recommended course for beginners! Helped me understand the basics of blockchain technology and its operations. Definely enrolling for more courses from Mr. Campbell.

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251 - 275 of 361 Reviews for Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Infrastructure

By Jonathan T

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Jun 16, 2022

Clear. Easy. Valid.

By Natalie F

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Jul 2, 2022

Great fundamentals

By Petros E P

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Feb 2, 2026

Very interesting!

By SOFIA G D L P

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Apr 3, 2022

Excellent content

By Robert L

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Dec 29, 2021

excellent course

By Alex l

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Dec 3, 2024

excellence prof.

By Sheenam N

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Jul 3, 2023

very informative

By Annalice O A B F

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Dec 3, 2022

Excelente curso!

By Sergey H

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Aug 27, 2022

thank you, Cam!

By Rey M M

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Jun 29, 2022

Very Informative

By youssef K

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May 1, 2023

wonderful cours

By Kidany V

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Mar 18, 2022

Amazing Course!

By Sergio A

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Mar 6, 2022

excelente curso

By Rafael G

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Feb 19, 2022

Amazing course!

By Emmanuel A

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Jan 22, 2022

amazing course

By Kevin C

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Oct 27, 2023

Great course

By Adil A

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Nov 27, 2022

Great course

By Chinyere I

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Aug 26, 2022

Great Course

By Rajpal G

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Mar 19, 2022

Great Course

By dwayne k

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Jan 26, 2022

great course

By GIFT M

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Mar 1, 2024

informative

By Insu P

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Jul 11, 2023

Wonderful!!

By Dr. G M A

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Mar 17, 2022

Excellent!

By Neethupm

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Feb 11, 2026

Good class