LN Markets newsletter - Issue #8:
👨‍🌾 Update on DeFi with @SBF_Alameda
🧐 Our two sats on DeFi
🤓 New Lightning proposal by @roasbeef
🖱️ 1-click Lightning Networks with @lightningpolar
🔮 LN Retail payment with @GaloyMoney
🤯 Satoshi GPT-3
⚡ Bonus
👇 https://lnmarkets.substack.com/p/8-july-24th-2020
🧐 Our two sats on #DeFi

How can we define the value proposition of decentralization for finance?

In our view, #Bitcoin is the first decentralized financial network, and the value proposition of its decentralization mainly boils down to censorship resistance.
🧐 Our two sats on #DeFi

By analogy with #Bitcoin , a truly decentralized exchange would enforce censorship resistance: it would guarantee that its trading rules are transparent and can not be altered by anybody, not even a government.
🧐 Our two sats on #DeFi

The term #DeFi is mostly used to refer to the so-called “Decentralized Exchanges” and “Automated Market Makers”.
They have mainly been developed on Ethereum so far, but coding public smart contracts is highly challenging.
🧐 Our two sats on #DeFi

And the possible attack surface increases exponentially with the complexity of the code.
Hence, most #DeFi contracts have back doors in case of major issue, meaning that they are not censorship-resistant.
🧐 Our two sats on #DeFi

As we do no expect Ethereum design to change anytime soon, #DeFi built on Ethereum will probably never be able to deliver the true value proposition of decentralization: censorship resistance.

Decentralization will not happen on Ethereum.
🧐 Our two sats on #DeFi

To label these financial contracts, the term open source finance would be more relevant (but certainly less catchy) than #DeFi in our view.

They are more transparent in the way they deal with the funds.
🧐 Our two sats on #DeFi

But they remain centralized, since there is trust involved in a smart contract, or in the person that can freeze assets locked in a smart contract…
🧐 Our two sats on #DeFi

Over the long run, after the rise of #DeFi governance tokens stops subsidising the whole field, end users will be faced with a trade-off.
🧐 Our two sats on #DeFi

Trading on open source finance services, they will benefit from a better transparency, NOT a better control over their funds.

We don't think it will be sufficient for hedge funds & big whales to take the risk of having assets stuck in a smart contract
🧐 Our two sats on #DeFi

With @LNMarkets, we took a different road.

We have decided to focus on the speed of fund transfers. We believe that it is a strong value proposition, much stronger than transparency.
🧐 Our two sats on #DeFi

Anyone who has regularly transferred large amounts of bitcoins knows the terrible feeling of having to wait for an hour to be sure that your transaction is finally done.
🧐 Our two sats on #DeFi

Time is a risk.

The faster you move your funds, the happier you are!
👨‍🌾 #DeFi

We have been following the DeFi craze from a distance, since well, as you know, we are more focused on building on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network.

@SBF_Alameda has recently published a great thread to demystify the dynamics of this very hot topic https://twitter.com/SBF_Alameda/status/1284965991445704705?s=19
You can follow @LNMarkets.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

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