Decentralized finance offers financial instruments without relying on intermediaries such as brokerages, exchanges, or banks by using smart contracts on a blockchain.
SOURCE: Wikipedia.org
Centralized Finance (CeFi) is a process where users can acquire loans, earn interest, and buy and sell cryptocurrencies using a centralized institution. This is usually a centralized exchange (CEX), but can be institutions that offer users yield on crypto.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi), or “open finance,” is a term used to describe an ecosystem of open-source technologies and financial products. DeFi operates outside of the traditional financial system without the need for intermediaries. Accordingly, anyone with an internet connection can participate. The above excerpt is courtesy of academy.moralis.io
The Mind Behind Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
What is CBDC?
Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are a form of digital currency issued by a country’s central bank. They are similar to cryptocurrencies, except that their value is fixed by the central bank and equivalent to the country’s fiat currency.
Source: FederalReserve.gov
What is Crypto?
What is Cryptocurrency?
A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency secured by cryptography, which makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double-spend. Many cryptocurrencies are decentralized networks based on blockchain technology—a distributed ledger enforced by a disparate network of computers.
A defining feature of cryptocurrencies is that they are generally not issued by any central authority, rendering them theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation.
Source: investopedia.com
What is Blockchain?
What Is a Blockchain?
A blockchain is a distributed database or ledger shared among a computer network’s nodes. They are best known for their crucial role in cryptocurrency systems for maintaining a secure and decentralized record of transactions, but they are not limited to cryptocurrency uses. Blockchains can be used to make data in any industry immutable—the term used to describe the inability to be altered.
Source: investopia.com
What’s Social Impact Investing?
What is social impacting investing?
Social impact investment seeks to generate social impact alongside financial return.
This investment often brings together capital and expertise from the public, private and not-for-profit sectors to achieve a social objective. Investments can be made into companies, organisations or funds, whether they be not-for-profit or for-profit.
Social impact investments can also be used to finance social services and social infrastructure. In these types of arrangements, payments are normally made based on achieving agreed social outcomes rather than on inputs or activities.
Where investors are involved, they will usually expect their investment to be repaid and, potentially, to earn a return. This return is likely to depend on the level of social outcomes achieved.
Source: osii.nsw.gov.au
Are ‘Smart Cities’ Digital Reservations?
What’s a Reservation?
A reservation is an area of land that is kept separate for a particular group of people to live in. Source: CollinsDictionary.com
What’s a Smart City?
A Smart City, is a city in which a suite of sensors (typically hundreds or thousands) is deployed to collect electronic data from and about people and infrastructure so as to improve efficiency and quality of life. Residents and city workers, in turn, may be provided with apps that allow them to access city services, receive and issue reports of outages, accidents, and crimes, pay taxes, fees, and the like. In the smart city, energy efficiency and sustainability are emphasized.
Source: NationalGeographic.org
What’s a Digital Wallet?
What’s a Cold Storage Wallet?
A cold wallet is a type of cryptocurrency wallet that securely stores your private crypto keys offline, usually on a physical device. It’s also known as a hardware wallet, and it protects your digital crypto assets from online hackers by using a flash drive-like device that isn’t connected to the internet.
Source: Bankrate.com
Cyber Security for Beginners
What is Cybersecurity?
Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), digital security or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, theft of, or damage to hardware, software, or data, as well as from the disruption or misdirection of the services they provide.
Credit: Schatz, Daniel; Bashroush, Rabih; Wall, Julie (2017). “Towards a More Representative Definition of Cyber Security”. Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law. 12 (2). ISSN 1558-7215.