Racing Ahead To Dominate The DeFI Ecosystem!

To a rapidly growing population of believers, the open, public blockchain aims to build a new digital economy.

The fact that the applications built on top of such blockchains all work with each other, and that the information they store is visible to all, harks back to the idealism of the internet’s early architects before most users embraced the walled gardens offered by tech giants.

The idea that a new kind of “decentralized” digital economy might be possible has been bolstered over the past few years as the numerous applications being built on top of various blockchains have boomed in size and functionality.

Perhaps the most significant part of that economy has been decentralized-finance (DeFi) applications, which enable users to trade assets, get loans and store deposits. Now an intensifying battle for market share is breaking out in this area.

Early players like Ethereum, who provide the backbone infrastructure to make this possible and also who are the leading DeFi platform, seem to be losing its near-monopoly. The struggle shows how DeFi is subject to the standard wars that have broken out in other emerging technologies—think of Sony Betamax versus VHS video cassettes in the 70s—and illustrates how DeFi technology…