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

4.8
stars
1,600 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

NS

May 28, 2022

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.

GC

Mar 14, 2022

v​ery high level, very short course m​aybe could have more support material to go deeper into some topics but i guess we will do that on part 2 , 3 and 4

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276 - 300 of 369 Reviews for Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Infrastructure

By dwayne k

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Jan 25, 2022

great course

By GIFT M

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Feb 29, 2024

informative

By Insu P

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Jul 10, 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

By Jose G

•

Aug 16, 2022

Excelente.

By francisco j

•

Mar 19, 2026

Excelente

By Laura V

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Dec 30, 2024

Excelente

By SUPRAJA K

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Nov 5, 2024

excellent

By Norman A

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Jul 1, 2023

Excellent

By XYZ s

•

Jun 4, 2022

Great One

By Melvin C

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Apr 20, 2022

Fantastic

By Shanthanalakshmi M

•

Apr 6, 2022

Very good

By Ben K

•

Dec 9, 2021

Inspiring

By Bruno F

•

Nov 26, 2021

MUITO BOM

By Ruben T

•

Nov 19, 2024

amazing!

By Andres J S L

•

Jun 27, 2024

Clear!!!

By Xavier c

•

Oct 1, 2023

EXCELENT

By JOSE E L E

•

Jan 17, 2023

GREAT !!

By David G

•

Dec 12, 2025

amazing

By José A M M

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Mar 29, 2023

Amazing

By JONATHAN C

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Mar 24, 2023

great !

By hongliang y

•

May 6, 2023

Great.

By PANAGIOTIS M

•

Dec 21, 2025

nice