UPDATE: "The Rise of DeFi: Adapting to the New World of Digital Assets"
With huge shoes to fill, can DeFi lay the foundations for a decentralised economy?
๐จ๐ฃ๐๐๐ง๐: ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐บ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ป ๐ฝ๐ผ๐๐๐ฝ๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ญ๐ต๐๐ต.
A growing number of developers and entrepreneurs are seeking to rebuild and decentralise the financial system using blockchain - databases distributed over many computers around the world and kept secure by cryptography. With huge shoes to fill, can DeFi lay the foundations for a decentralised economy?
Short for decentralised finance, DeFi is an umbrella term for financial services offered on public blockchains like Ethereum. Like traditional financial institutions, DeFi applications allow anyone in the world to borrow, lend, earn interest, and trade derivatives. With the help of smart contracts, agreements can be automatically executed and individuals can transact peer-to-peer without trusting centralised intermediaries such as banks and brokers. The DeFi space has seen exponential growth and it is becoming too big to ignore for governments and financial institutions. According to blockchain research firm Blockdata, a trillion dollars could flood into DeFi if the world's 100 biggest banks invested as little as 1% of assets under management.
Around the world, regulators begin to turn their attention to cryptocurrencies. Some countries have shown a positive attitude toward crypto, while others wield the crackdown hammer. Earlier in September, El Salvador has become the first country to accept bitcoin as legal tender. In the US, the SEC is reportedly investigating Uniswap Labs, the development firm behind the biggest decentralised crypto exchange. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler also warned that DeFi projects aren't immune to oversight. On the other side of the world, the People's Bank of China issued a notice that deemed all crypto transactions to be illegal. However, this isn't the first time that China has 'banned' crypto. Despite the recent ban, traders are able to find alternative ways to invest.
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Where does DeFi go from here? Feel free to discuss and share your opinions in the upcoming meeting titled "The Rise of DeFi: Adapting to the New World of Digital Assets".
Date: Oct 19th, Tue; 19:00-21:00
Location: Salon 10 (Arbuthnot Rd., 10)
Tickets: HKD30
The meeting will be conducted in groups of 4 people to follow current government regulations for gatherings.
ARTICLES TO READ / VIDEO TO WATCH:
CoinDesk: DeFi Pushes North America to Become Worldโs Second-Biggest Crypto Market - https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/10/14/defi-pushes-n-america-to-worlds-second-biggest-crypto-market/
Forkast News: Institutional DeFi poised to become a $1 trillion industry, Blockdata says - https://forkast.news/institutional-defi-trillion-dollar-industry-blockdata/
The Block: How the SEC's reported Uniswap Labs investigation could signal a new era of enforcement - https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/116633/how-the-secs-reported-uniswap-labs-investigation-could-signal-a-new-era-of-enforcement
Cointelegraph: Derivatives DEX dYdX beats out Coinbaseโs spot markets by volume amid China FUD - https://cointelegraph.com/news/derivatives-dex-dydx-beats-out-coinbase-by-volume-amid-china-fud
Henri Arslanian Youtube Channel: What is DeFi?
FURTHER READING:
Forbes: Bitcoin Mining Uses A Higher Mix Of Sustainable Energy Than Any Major Country Or Industry - https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2021/07/06/bitcoin-mining-uses-a-higher-mix-of-sustainable-energy-than-any-major-country-or-industry/?sh=de0633d4cc93
The Economist: Why it is wise to add bitcoin to an investment portfolio - https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2021/09/25/why-it-is-wise-to-add-bitcoin-to-an-investment-portfolio
The Tokenizer: DeFi and tokenization together reshape the financial system - https://thetokenizer.io/2021/03/10/defi-and-tokenization-together-reshape-the-financial-system/
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If you decide to join the meeting, please come prepared - read more on the subject, take notes, write down some thoughts and points that you would like to bring for the discussion and share with the group.
We will not have a speaker on the topic, so your self-preparation is key for an intelligent and quality discussion within small groups of 4 people.
Fee: HKD30, it is also suggested that every attendee buys a drink as a courtesy to the venue.
The Economic Club is a community of intellectually curious people in Hong Kong. Learn more about the Economic Club on https://www.econclubhk.org/