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

4.8
stars
1,555 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

UM

Dec 14, 2021

The course largely follows the instructor's book albeit with an easier to follow introduction. As such, this first course is an overview and it gets us ready for the information to follow.

NS

May 29, 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.

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176 - 200 of 354 Reviews for Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Infrastructure

By KJ J

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May 27, 2022

Great information, great instructor and very useful.

By Fred T C

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Mar 9, 2022

A very good introduction to the fundamentals of DeFi.

By Alison M

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Dec 1, 2021

Excellent instruction. I will continue to the next.

By Riccardo O

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Aug 20, 2025

It is a very clear course about fundamental of DeFi

By Lucas K

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Oct 14, 2022

Brilliant course. Big thanks to Professor Harvey.

By Anele T

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Sep 5, 2022

Very imnformative introduction to the DeFi course.

By Andy P

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Jun 22, 2022

Outstanding broad overview of blockchain and DeFi.

By Anauyla B

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Mar 28, 2022

Great learnings from basics, I'm in love with DeFi

By Monica O

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Dec 28, 2021

Great overview of the basics, I learn a huge deal.

By avishkar v

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Apr 23, 2022

A wonderful experiance for new learners like me.

By Rajiv K

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Apr 19, 2022

Enjoyed the professor and well explained concepts

By Helin

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Dec 31, 2021

One of the few courses I really enjoy following!

By ZAIN M

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Jun 10, 2022

Very thorough breakdown of this brave new world

By Olga

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Dec 8, 2021

High quality course! Brief, clear, informative.

By Subra R

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Apr 7, 2022

Excellent introduction to Blockchain and DeFi.

By George W

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Feb 8, 2022

very easy to follow and extremely informative

By Manshuk S

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Jan 4, 2026

Very well structured and comprehensive course

By Matthew J G

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Oct 4, 2022

Great initial overview of the DeFi Landscape

By clayton v

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Mar 8, 2022

Very informative, and I got the book as well!

By PABLO A M P

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Jan 22, 2022

Excellent first step into the Cripto World!

By Max Z

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Jun 26, 2022

Really like the professor! very engaging!

By Serghei S

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Aug 17, 2025

This is the best DeFi course at Coursera

By Nicholas

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Dec 27, 2022

Great presentation and relevant content!

By Juliana K

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Sep 17, 2022

Perfect. Easy to understand about DeFi.

By Miguel D

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Jan 25, 2022

Great initial course, great explanation!