Business, Science & Tech, Community & Government
Decentralization: Freedom and Possibility
Lesson time 11:40 min
The instructors outline why cryptocurrency and blockchain technology may be the answer to many of the problems facing the world today.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: Trustless Banking • Less Bureaucracy • Limited Coin Supply • Cautious Optimism
With Noted Experts
Get critical intel on the evolving landscape of crypto. Learn the basics—or dive deep into the issues—with noted experts and skeptics.
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[MUSIC PLAYING] WOMAN: Crypto enables economic freedom. It's a technology. It is a philosophy. And when you think about the power that it gives to an individual, if you have an internet connection, you can interact in crypto. [MUSIC PLAYING] - Crypto is the first mechanism I've ever seen that lets new systems be built in a way that are open and decentralized. - Decentralization is important in eliminating human intervention. [MUSIC PLAYING] - Crypto is decentralized digital money. It is built on the blockchain. It is designed to be native to the internet. A blockchain provides an ongoing constantly reverified record of the transactions that are happening within a network. And it's designed to tap into this network of our participants. So everyone is constantly checking their work. There is no central authority in control of that. One of the great things about crypto is that it enables the transfer of value globally, 24/7, without a middleman for low fees with very instant settlement. You're not relying on a central authority or government to take control of your assets. And that puts you in a much more powerful position. Crypto doesn't care who you are, where you're from, what race you are, or anything like that. It's agnostic. In the world of DeFi, or decentralized finance, the idea here is that users get to interact with different financial applications related to lending, or whatever type of activity they want. You would tap into a matchmaker of sorts, a marketplace whereby you would be matched with a lender who could peer-to-peer send that loan to you on their terms. There's something novel in the sense that you wouldn't have the central authority in the middle of that transaction. [MUSIC PLAYING] - One of the really exciting things about new computing platforms is it's really this broad canvas that anyone can build new things on. And so there's an area called DeFi, decentralized finance, where it's using these new mechanisms that can be built on blockchains so that you can create new financial services that think about services like you have at your bank. But instead of you relying on a traditional institution with a bunch of people, and systems, and rules that maybe are opaque and arcane, instead, everything is run by open source code, which can be audited, and anyone can see and trusted. And you're not relying on somebody else. All you're trusting is the code instead of having to trust the system, and regulators, and all these other kinds of things around it. So for example, there's a lending protocol. And so what you can do if you want to lend money, you can literally go to this piece of software and lend money to the software. There is no institution. There's no bank account. There's nothing. You're lending money to software. And in turn, you can also borrow money from that software. And the system changes the interest rates depending on supply and demand. And the system ...
About the Instructor
Since Bitcoin’s launch in 2009, crypto has offered the hope of a stronger, more democratic financial system. And it’s raised plenty of questions as it continues to evolve. Now experts and skeptics at the center of the conversation are sharing a straightforward look at how this ecosystem is changing. Learn the basics, dive deep into the world of blockchain and Web3, and get the breakdown on what you need to know now.
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Chris Dixon, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, Emilie Choi, and Paul Krugman
Get critical intel on the evolving landscape of crypto. Learn the basics—or dive deep into the issues—with noted experts and skeptics.
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