Understanding Decentralized Finance demystifies DeFi, locating the integration points between decentralised and centralized finance to help finance professionals unlock valuable opportunities. DeFi - the next evolution of cryptocurrency - has brought a new wave of investors into the world of finance. As fintechs and financial institutions seek to integrate with DeFi, this book explores its history, its present context, and its future. It explains the world of DeFi by comparing it to the traditional finance sector, highlighting points of similarity, difference and integration. Understanding Decentralized Finance explores the technologies underlying the DeFi market and how they differ from those of traditional financial markets. It scrutinizes the difference between centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges, how NFTs fit into DeFi and how collectibles can be financialized. Readers will also find out how collateralized loans, derivatives, margin trading and liquidity provision work in a world where there is no centralized institution to coordinate these activities - and how regulators in different jurisdictions are ensuring that financial regulations keep up with these innovations. With examples from key actors in the field, including the movement of luxury organizations like Christie's and Sotheby's into the NFT space and the SushiSwap vampire attack, this is an essential read for anyone working in finance, fintech and technology who needs to understand the fast-moving world of DeFi.

Understanding Decentralized Finance demystifies DeFi, locating the integration points between decentralised and centralized finance to help finance professionals unlock valuable opportunities. DeFi - the next evolution of cryptocurrency - has brought a new wave of investors into the world of finance. As fintechs and financial institutions seek to integrate with DeFi, this book explores its history, its present context, and its future. It explains the world of DeFi by comparing it to the traditional finance sector, highlighting points of similarity, difference and integration. Understanding Decentralized Finance explores the technologies underlying the DeFi market and how they differ from those of traditional financial markets. It scrutinizes the difference between centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges, how NFTs fit into DeFi and how collectibles can be financialized. Readers will also find out how collateralized loans, derivatives, margin trading and liquidity provision work in a world where there is no centralized institution to coordinate these activities - and how regulators in different jurisdictions are ensuring that financial regulations keep up with these innovations. With examples from key actors in the field, including the movement of luxury organizations like Christie's and Sotheby's into the NFT space and the SushiSwap vampire attack, this is an essential read for anyone working in finance, fintech and technology who needs to understand the fast-moving world of DeFi.

The world of cryptocurrencies and blockchains was initially viewed as a niche space of little interest to mainstream business and finance sectors. With major banks now licensed to provide cryptocurrency custody solutions, and everyone from Facebook to governments using the underlying technology to create their own digital currencies, this has undoubtedly changed. The Cryptocurrency Revolution explains the most important takeaways from the continued growth of digital currencies and blockchain technology and explores the transformative possibilities of borderless payments, decentralized finance ('DeFi') and machine-to-machine transactions. Written in jargon-free and accessible language, this book examines the key value proposition of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and how decentralized technologies could enable banks and financial institutions to become more efficient. It looks at the potential impact of company-backed virtual currencies (such as Facebook's Libra) and how governments and regulators around the world are reacting to these innovations. With discussion of the principles of tokenomics and the difference between public and private blockchains, The Cryptocurrency Revolution is the essential guide for those wishing to understand the threats and opportunities of the changing world of payments and finance.

The world of cryptocurrencies and blockchains was initially viewed as a niche space of little interest to mainstream business and finance sectors. With major banks now licensed to provide cryptocurrency custody solutions, and everyone from Facebook to governments using the underlying technology to create their own digital currencies, this has undoubtedly changed. The Cryptocurrency Revolution explains the most important takeaways from the continued growth of digital currencies and blockchain technology and explores the transformative possibilities of borderless payments, decentralized finance ('DeFi') and machine-to-machine transactions. Written in jargon-free and accessible language, this book examines the key value proposition of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and how decentralized technologies could enable banks and financial institutions to become more efficient. It looks at the potential impact of company-backed virtual currencies (such as Facebook's Libra) and how governments and regulators around the world are reacting to these innovations. With discussion of the principles of tokenomics and the difference between public and private blockchains, The Cryptocurrency Revolution is the essential guide for those wishing to understand the threats and opportunities of the changing world of payments and finance.

To understand the creative fabric of digital networks, scholars of literary and cultural studies must turn their attention to crowdsourced forms of production, discussion, and distribution. Digital Encounters explores the influence of an increasingly networked world on contemporary Latin American cultural production. Drawing on a spectrum of case studies, the contributors to this volume examine literature, art, and political activism as they dialogue with programming languages, social media platforms, online publishing, and geospatial metadata. Implicit within these connections are questions of power, privilege, and stratification. The book critically examines issues of inequitable access and data privacy, technology's capacity to divide people from one another, and the digital space as a site of racialized and gendered violence. Through an expansive approach to the study of connectivity, Digital Encounters illustrates how new connections - between analog and digital, human and machine, print text and pixel - alter representations of self, Other, and world.